Customizing post types (Site Admin / System Admins only)

Post types are used to manage the way content is displayed on your site, and to restrict the types of content that various user roles can create. You can add as many post types as you need, and even customize them to show different fields.

Customizing post types allows you to set defaults for any post of that type that gets created. Some examples of this include showing or hiding certain fields, access controlling the creation of that post type, and more. (We'll go over each option below.)

As we discussed in depth in the article about zones we have the ability to configure a site to display certain post types in different areas of a landing page. A good example of this is the "pod" post type, which typically appears in the right sidebar. And since post types inherit their zone settings from their parent, it's important to create new types as children of the post type they should behave like. An example of this would be creating a "Staff Profile" post type under the more basic "Profile" post type; adding an "Ad" post type below the "Pod" post type; and adding a "Document" post type under the basic "Post" parent. The only post type that doesn't follow this rule is the Overview post type: it is designed to have only one Overview per landing page, and it's not a good idea to create subtypes of the Overview post type.

To add Post types:

Commands > Manage post types

To move terms around, grab the handle (+) to the left of the term and drag it to its new location. Make sure to save the order (button at the bottom of the page) when you're done or your changes will be lost. NOTE: remember to keep all "post" types under the Post parent! If you move them up one level, they may cease to display in the main channel.

To rename terms, click the Edit link to the right of the term, in the Operations column. Make desired changes and save.

To add new post types:

• Go to Manage > Post types
• Click the Add term tab at the top
  
• Give the term a name (keep in mind that this may display in some areas of the site, so name appropriately).
  
• Choose the proper parent (Post, Overview, Pod...) based upon the instructions above for visibility (Posts and children in main channel, pods in right, etc)
  
• Save
  

Customizing Post types

Customizing post types is a powerful way to make adding content easier for your contributors. Through the management of the post fields you can simplify the fields they have available when creating new content, and even force that content to be tagged to a specific navigation term, if you like. (Note that Administrators always have access to all fields by turning on Advanced Mode; the link appears in the lower right corner when editing content).

To customize a post type:

• Go to Commands > Manage post types
  
• Click the edit link for the post type you want to customize
  
• You will be able to customize the way the posts display, the way the field titles display for editors, email settings, access control, and navigation term settings.
  
• Tip: Read all the Tips and help notes as you work on this form, as most options are explained right on the form near the fields indicated.
  

In general, by including + in a field, that field will appear in its standard form. For example, a + in the Title field means that the Title field will be visible in the form, and will be called Title.) To change the name of the field on this form, remove the + and type in the new title. A good example of a use for this would be on the Profile content types, where you might want the Title field to instead say "Full name" and the Subtitle field to say "Position/Title."

Continue through the rest of the fields, adding + (or a custom title) to include fields in the simplified form and removing the + to hide them on the simplified form (for Contributors, or when not in Advanced mode).

In Post display settings, check the box for "hide the body field" if you don't want to include body text in this post type (e.g. for Pods)

In Email settings, check the box for "is usually blasted by email" if this content type is an email blast. (Note that you can bundle any content types into an email blast, so only check this box for the actual email blast type itself)

In Post display settings > Post behavior, check the box for "Enable comments by default" if you want this content type to have commenting enabled.

Click the link to expand the “Navigation term settings”

Assign default navigation terms: select the term(s) you would like assigned to this post type by default 

• For example, automatically assign the term Events for an Event post type
• Hold the CTRL (PC) or Command (Mac) key to select more than one term. 
• This is optional, but is a great way to force content into a specific area of the site. Note that this does not make the other terms invisible, but only checks the box for the term you choose.
  

Only show the following navigation terms as choices for the user: 

• You can enable specific terms and disable others. 
• A good use case for this might be a Blog content type that is only allowed to be posted to the blog area. 
• This is also a great way to restrict members to only allow them to post to specific areas - for example, if Members are only allowed to create Event and Blog post types, you could restrict each of those post types to only show certain navigation terms (company blog, events). That way they can only post a few types of content into a select amount of areas.
  

Click the link to expand “Access control”

Optionally restrict access to Members only by checking the box to "Set any new posts of this type to be available to Members only." (Note that this only applies to posts created after this setting has been set, not to existing posts of that type.)

In the next area, "Who can create and edit this type of content?" you can allow Editors, Members, or both to also create this post type, in addition to Admin users who can always do just about everything.