Content

You can take an advantage of the Information Blocks module to display and manage structured information.

You can use information blocks to create:

• news sections;
• articles;
• product catalogs;
• photo galleries;
• job lists;
• billboards;
• link catalogs;
• FAQ pools;
• commercial catalogs etc.

Information blocks offer a convenient way to store frequently updated information. Information blocks make adding and updating information easier owing to structured storage as well as data import and export functions.

The following notions form the information blocks infrastructure:

• information block types;
• information blocks;
• information block sections;
• information block elements.

Information block types (e.g. Catalog, Disctionary, Jobs, News, Photos) are used to group information blocks. Information blocks of the same type are usually devoted to a common subject and have similar structure. For example, information blocks Company News, New Arrivals and Partner News can be of a single type: News.

Information blocks represent structures of heterogeneous information. For example: blocks «Phones», «Partner News», «Product News» etc. Depending on parameters of the type to which the information block belongs, it can contain sections and subsections (i.e. it can have tree structure).

Sections are logical units used to group elements inside an information block. Sections can form the hierarchical information storage structure. Names of information block sections (Group, Section, Type etc.) are defined when creating the information block type to which they refer.

Information block elements contain stored information. For example: news, product, photo, vacancy, dictionary entry etc.

The example that you can find in the Content section (/content/) uses the following information block types:

• News;
• Publications;
• Photo Gallery;
• Services.

The News section (/content/news/) displays the contents of the e-Store News information block using the News Section composite component.

The Articles section (/content/articles/) elements of the Articles information block.

The Photo Gallery section contains two subsections: CeBit and Modern Education. The Photo Gallery elements are displayed using the Full Photo Gallery composite component.

The Link Directory page displays the contents of the Link Directory information block using the Full Catalog composite component. The same component is used to publish the Bulletin Board.