Options: Variants and Item Text

Caveat: Don't Recreate the Wheel

Content blocks are powerful tools. You might be tempted to recreate things in content blocks that could be better handled through other parts of the system.

If you find yourself entering the same text for an item in multiple context blocks, or if you are tempted to replace articles, people, or other content on your site with content blocks, consider talking to the CHSSWeb team about your goals.

Available Variants

Person:

Default. The person's name, linked to their bio on their originating site.
Bio List. Photo and name, linked to bio on their originating site. Their titles on their originating site.

Site Title:

Default. The person's name, linked to their bio on the site on which they have the associated title, followed by a comma and the associated title.
Bio List. Like the Person default, but with the associated title and with all links going to the site on which they have the title.
Title and Contact. The person's title as a header, followed by their name (linked to the site on which they have the title), then by their phone number and email, both linked appropriately.

Program:

Default. The program's full title, linked to its main site.
Title and Description. The same as the default, but adding the program's short description.

The options button allows you to manage the appearance of individual items in a content block. Some item types have optional variant appearances. All items can have item text which appears with them wherever the block appears.

Variants

Each content type has a default appearance when associated with a content block. Some content types may also have optional variants.

When you associate a person's site title with a block, the default appearance shows the person's name, linked to their canonical site (usually the site on which their bio originates), followed by the person's title:

You may also choose a variant called "Title and Contact" which displays the person's title first, in bold face, followed by their name (linked to the site on which they have the title) then by their phone, then their email:

Title and Contact Variant

Or you may choose the variant "bio list" which displays the person's image, name, faculty rank, and title.

Switching variants is easy. When editing a content block, if a particular content type has variants, a message about the currently applied variant will appear next to the item. To change variants, click on the options button, choose the optionyou wish to apply, then click "Update options". The change will be applied immediately.

If there are no variants for a given content type, there will not be a message about variants but you will still see the "Update options" button.

If you have something you wish to do which might benefit from the addition of a new variant type, contact the CHSSWeb Team and tell us what you have in mind.

Item Text

Each item may have its own text in a content block. If you add text for an item, that text will appear with the item wherever the content block appears. All variants include the text and it appears whether the content block is in the main portion of the page or in the sidebar.

This is a simple but powerful tool with many applications. In this example, the Center for Humanities Research wants to list faculty who have been residential fellows. For each fellow, they want to show a photo, the person's name, the name of their project, and a short description of that project. The most flexible approach to this, the one that gives them the most control, has them entering all of this into the page's main text area, uploading images, and using HTML to format the contents.

Text Area Example

The advantage to this approach is flexibility: they can do whatever they want. The disadvantages are that this approach requires them to work with HTML, is hard to update, and does not reflect updated names, photos, or faculty ranks.

They can also use content blocks with variant appearances (see below) to list the faculty. This gives them updated content and a nice format, but it leaves out the project names and descriptions, so it is not actually meeting their needs.

Content Block Example With Variants and No Item Text

By adding item text to the individual faculty bios in the content block, they are able to present a nicely formatted list without working with HTML. That list includes the information they want it to include and always reflects the up-to-date name, image, and faculty rank of each individual.

Content Block Example With Variants and Item Text

This example focused on a very specific problem and involved only one content type: People (faculty bios). Item text is an option for all content types and the combination of content blocks, item text, and variants offers gives you a powerful tool with many possible uses.