By Alyssa Stadtlander
•
October 26, 2022
A Dynamic Page is connected to a content collection and used to generate multiple pages with unique content but the same design. You can either create a new Dynamic Page, convert an existing page to a Dynamic Page, or use a predefined Dynamic Page that is already included in the platform. Users can add a dynamic page that is automatically connected to an Internal Collection with default content through Pages and Popups. If you select the default Internal Collection (the same name as the page), everything is connected and you just have to edit the content. If you change the field names, it will disconnect them from the widgets, and must be reconnected. If you select another collection, you must connect your widgets to the collection fields. Notes You must have a content collection before you can create or convert a Dynamic Page. Multilingual sites, and Site Comments are not supported with Dynamic Pages. You cannot select a Dynamic Page or Page Item from the link picker or the Navigation widget. Create New Dynamic Pages In the left panel, click Pages, and then click + New Page. Select Dynamic Page. If you do not have a collection, you will be prompted to create one. Type a Page Name. Select the collection you want to connect to from the drop down. Click Add Page. Convert an Existing Page to a Dynamic Page In the left panel, click Pages, click the Page Settings () icon next to the page you want to convert, and click Convert to Dynamic Page. Select the collection from the drop down. Click Done. The next step is to connect your widgets (see below.) Note: Dynamic Pages appear on in the Pages Panel with a collection icon to indicate it is a Dynamic Page. To see the name of the collection the page is connected to, hover over the icon.Dynamic Pages do NOT appear in the site navigation, and thus are hidden by default. Dynamic Page Permissions Dynamic Pages do not have special permissions. The data is handled externally (except in the case of internal collections), so if a client has access to the data in the collection they will be able to change it. Also, the data is not backed up in anyway. Clients with limited editing permissions will not be able to change anything that is connected in the Dynamic Page—they are only able to view it. Dynamic Page Navigation Once a Dynamic Page is created or an existing page is converted, by default it will not appear in the navigation and the URL will not be indexed. This is because it does not have any content; it only functions as a layout. This also means the Dynamic Page and the page items will not be available in the link picker. To add the dynamic page to the navigation: In the side panel, click Pages, and click the settings icon next to the dynamic page you want to add to the navigation. For more information, see Pages and Popups . Click Hide/Show in Navigation, and then selectShow on all. In the Add to Navigation popup: Select a parent navigation page from the Add page items as subpages ofdropdown. Select a Field to display in navigation from the dropdown. Click Save Details. Note: Each parent navigation page may only contain information from one dynamic page. That is, multiple dynamic pages may not be linked to a single parent navigation page. Additionally, you may have up to 150 page items. However, it is not recommended you reach this limit. If a navigation item contains a dynamic page and a regular page, the dynamic page items will always be displayed last, regardless of the order of the actions. Note: Dynamic pages are only supported in the site pages navigation and not in custom navigation. Dynamic Page Settings In the Dynamic Page Settings you can change the collection and URL of the page, turn on or off page indexing, add SEO data by connecting the title and description fields to the collection, and add custom Header HTML. Note : The Video widget is only available in Dynamic Pages. Multi-location and Social widgets are only available in Connected Data. Connect Your Widgets To connect a widget: Right-click on the widget you want to connect, and select Connect to Data. Select the field from your collection using the drop down (only relevant fields are shown). Select Done. The Connected Data rings icon appears on the widget indicating that it is connected. Warning : If you convert a Dynamic Page to a regular page, all connected widgets will disconnect, requiring you to reconnect them if you convert it back into a Dynamic Page. Change Collections In Dynamic Page Settings you can change the collection. When you do this, page widgets will stay connected to field names/labels that exist in both collections. For example, if you have a collection with fields named name, address and phoneand you change to a collection with fields named address and phone, the widgets connected to address and phone will remain connected and display the data from the new collection, while the widget connected to name will be disconnected because it does not exist in the new collection. Connect Custom Widgets Custom widgets that support Connected Data can also be connected. Make sure Enable binding to Connected Data is toggled on for any custom widget you want to connect for Dynamic Pages. The final step is to add a List, Gallery or Image Slider widget to your site so users can navigate to the Dynamic Pages. Create a list of links to navigate to the different pages. This is done by adding a List widgetand connecting it to your Dynamic Page. Note : You can also connect a table widget to the same collection that the Dynamic Page is connected to in order to create a table where each row links to different pages. Connect List Widget to Dynamic Page To connect a List widget to your Dynamic Page: Add the List widget to the pag e of your site on which you want it to exist. For more information, see Add Widgets . Right-click on the List widget to open the settings menu, and click Connect to Data. Select the collection from the Connect List to menu. Map the fields in the collection to the elem ents in the List widget you want to display. Under Connect Link to select the dynamic page. This is what creates the link between the List widget and your Dynamic Pages. Click Done. Filter & Sort When connecting widgets to a collection, you can filter and sort the collection to display only what you want. This feature allows you to control the number of rows the widget displays, filter according to specific text fields, and sort the list in ascending or descending order. Note : You can filter and sort the collection in every widget that can be connected to a collection. To add filters and sort: Add the widget to the page of your site on which you want it to exist. Right-click on the widget to open the settings menu, and click Connect to Data. Select the collection from the Connect List to menu. Under Filter & Sort, you have the following options: Items to Display. Select the number of items you want to display (for example, All, or 2). Filters. Click Add Filter, and select the fields and values you want to filter by. Note : Filtering works according to exact values, and you may filter according to multiple values per field. Sort. Click Add Sort, and select how you would like to sort the collection. Note: For numbers to be sorted correctly, the field must be numeric. Tip : If you are having difficulty filtering and sorting correctly, check if the field is rich text. It is possible there is formatting on the text, even if you cannot see it. It is recommended you convert the field to plain text. Dynamic Filters You can use Dynamic filters to filter widgets that are connected to collections in dynamic pages. This allows you to display only the content that is relevant to a page item. Dynamic filters are available for every widget that connects to a collection when added to dynamic pages, including: Gallery, List, Accordion, Slider, and Custom widgets and are accessible from the Connect Data popup. To use Dynamic filters: In the side panel, click Content, then click Collections. Click +Create Collection and create 2 collections: Data collection. Contains your data with a category name field. In step 9 this collection is referenced as Collection A. Categories collection. Contains all the categories and their details (category name, image, etc). In step 9 this collection is referenced as Collection B. In the side panel, click Pages, then click +New Page. Create a Dynamic Page from each collection you created in step 2. Navigate to a regular page of your choice and in the side panel, click Widgets, then drag and drop the Gallery widget onto the page. Right-click the Gallery widget to open the settings menu, and click Connect to Data. Connect it to the categories collection you created in step 2. Map the link field to its Dynamic Page. Navigate to the categories Dynamic Page and in the side panel, click Widgets, then drag and drop the Gallery widget onto the page. Right-click the Gallery widget to open the settings menu, and click Connect to Data. Connect it to the data collection you created in step 2. Before closing the Connected Data popup, open the Filter & Sort tab and in the Dynamic Filter section click +Add Filter. Map between the category name field in the data collection (Collection A) and the category name field in the categories collection (Collection B).