Thread

Hi,

I’m new to EE and these forums so I hope I’m posting in the right spot. I’ve recently taken on a job developing a site for local public schools. The site needs a launch page from which you choose which school you wish to view information on.

All the schools must use the same layout but the only thing that changes on the layout is the logo and colours, I think I have worked out how to do that but I am having trouble on how to structure the rest of it.

I have set up multiple template groups. One is called Launch, which contains the CSS and index for the launch page.

Another is called embeds, which contains the CSS for the layout of all the other school pages and the JQuery for the navigation bar and also the header which display differently depending on which school page you are viewing.

The other template groups are for each individual school and they contain an index page which has the embedded header template from the “embeds” group and also a nav template because each school’s navigation menu may need to vary slightly.

What would the best way be to set up pages for each of the schools? Like the ‘about us’ page and ‘contact’ page etc. Each school is going to have the same pages but the information displayed on the pages needs to be different. The information on these pages needs to be editable by school staff, do you need to set up a separate channel for each page or a separate channel for each school and have the content of each page contained in channel fields?

I think I have confused and frustrated myself even more trying to explain it.

Don’t feel frustrated.  The up-front time getting the architecture right will pay off well, particularly when you are dealing with permanent institutions such as schools.

Embeds are no longer preferred and the best thing you can do is use Low variables gotolow.com

How many schools are there?  Subdomains are one way of keeping things separate and integrated.

Good luck!

I’m just trying to get an understanding of your logical structure or hierarchy here… I’ll make a few assumptions on the content but you can chime in later and make any corrections.

LAUNCH PAGE
  -> SCHOOL #1
  —> SCHOOL HOME PAGE (editable by staff)
  —> ABOUT PAGE (editable by staff)

  -> SCHOOL #2
  —> SCHOOL HOME PAGE (editable by staff)
  —> ABOUT PAGE (editable by staff)

  etc…

That look about right? Missing any additional content (school blog, gallery, etc.)?

I still use embeds - use them sparingly and not called from within a loop that loops multiple times, and only a few per template and you’ll be fine.  The use you describe sounds within reason. But also be sure to investigate the use of Snippets for those items.

With EE it’s less about pages than it is types of content.  What we need form you - as Petar is starting to get at - is the types of content each school will have.  From there we can determine your channel structure and then map that to templates and member groups.