Layouts Explained

Why Layouts?

Layouts offer amazing flexibility.

• Families of sites and Microsites can be created easily and share common navigation features while looking completely different.
• New templates can be created in minutes and shared across multiple sites which use different layouts
• Layouts can be switched between in real time: this is how we provide our text-only version, crawler-optimised version and soon our mobile edition.

How do Layouts Work?

To create the Layout, we define the Default Structure, which outlines the ground rules for the site. For instance, the Default Structure for this site declares:

• Our logo is located at the top-left
• The top-level channels are rendered as Tabs
• Subsequent levels are rendered as a Tree-style control
• The Search box appears at the top-right
• The Breadcrumb appears under the tabs
• etc...

Where pages vary from the default (e.g. the Site Map has no left-hand panel), structure variations are created.

For each type of page you want (site map, search page, web form, etc.) create a user control. Your functionality is instantly available in all layouts!

All display elements (colours, fonts, positioning, padding and background images) are defined in a CSS theme which overlays the Layout. The theme is used to apply corporate branding, or accessibility features such as high-contrast.