Create an Article Page

Issue

In general, two types of web pages exist. One type is the navigation page. A navigation page contains summary information and links to direct you to a content page. Thus the content page is the second general type of web page.

Many content pages are similar to a chapter in a book, an article in a magazine or a published paper. The content is organized in sections and subsections. Graphics or tables are displayed within the text. And an outline or table-of-contents is supplied.

Figure 1: Look of an Article page

The issue is how to create an article type page within the knowledgeBase.

Solution

SQI refers to this type of general content structure as an Article. Tools, in the form of special marcos, are provided and documented in this recipe. These macros make the creation of good looking, consistent article web pages easy. (Note: This page is in Article format.)

Figure 1 shows the structure of an Article page. The top contains distinctively formated title, sub-title, published date and author. The main body has paragraph width of about 11 to 15 words which makes eye movement from line to line easy. And, a right hand column is created for the automatically generated Table of Contents. This column also hosts an “Also See” reference area.

Markup Framework

Steps to create a new article page are:

1. Open a new window, or tab, to work in while keeping this recipe open for reference.

2. Create a new empty page.

3. Copy the framework below and past into a new page.

   [[ArticleTop]]
   = Title =
   [[ArticleSubtitle(subtitle)]]
   [[ArticleDate(date)]]
   [[ArticleAuthor(author)]]
   
   
   == FirstSectionTitle ==
   
   
   [[ArticleBottom(seePage1, seePage2, seePage3)]]
   
   

4. Replace title, sub-title, date published and author placeholders with actual text and start development of the page.

Discussion

Article Macros

The Article page look is provide by a set of simple marcos each of which is discusses below.

[[ArticleTop]] and [[ArticleBottom()]]
These two marcos are used to mark the beginning and the end of the page area controlled by the Article formatting. They trigger at Table of Contents to be generated and call a style sheet that controls the text layout.

[[ArticleSubtitle(subtitle)]]
This macro creates an Article subtitle. The text inside the parentheses is displayed with the Article subtitle format controlled by the Article style sheet. If a subtitle is not needed, delete the macro.

[[ArticleDate(date)]]
This macro creates an Article publication date. The text inside the parentheses is displayed with an Article publication date format controlled by the Article style sheet. If an publication date is not needed, delete the marco.

[[ArticleAuthor(author)]]
This macro creates an Article author. The text inside the parentheses is displayed with an Article author format controlled by the Article style sheet. If a author is not needed, delete the macro.

[[ArticleBottom(seePage1, seePage2, seePage3)]]
In addition to marking the end of the Article style, this macro also manages the Also See section. Replace each of the place holders with a link to the page being referenced. For example, the link for this page would be Univ/ColaborativeToolsHowTo/ArticlePage followed by a link. Any number of pages can be referenced.

Article Style Sheet

The look of an Article page is controlled by a CSS style sheet. Display formatting for the above Article tags is defined. The style sheet also provides for redefining standard CKB "markup" notation. For example the ---+ section markup is redefined to have a different font size within an Article and a left hand offset. Thus, using the Article style sheet the look of long text stream pages can be tightly created.

Indexing and Searching

This article focuses on the formation of a page. However, the real goal is to publish and mature the page content so that the right information is available to staff and clients at the moment of need (see Instant Publish / Instant Access). Access to information on the page is enabled by KnowledgeDex – the Enterprise Search technology.

Text on the page created is captured by KnowledgeDex on every indexing cycle. Thus, all new or changed information contained within the page can be accessed by a world class search capability immediately.