Dynamic content items

After you define and activate your dynamic module and create one or more dynamic content types, you can use the module to create content in the backend and display the created content on your website. You can see your newly created module under the Content tab, together with all of its first level content types. You can see the widgets for each content type in page editing mode under a dedicated widgets group. You use your module to create dynamic content items. The fields you have defined for the content types appear when you create dynamic content items.

For more information, see Dynamic modules and Dynamic content types.

Each module appears under the Content tab, together with all of its first level content types. If you have only one content type at first level, only the module name appears. You can use the module to create dynamic content items. To open a module, in the main menu in the upper part of the screen, click Content » <Module name> or Content » Content type.

EXAMPLE: If you have one module named HR that at first level has two content types – Applicants and Companies. Type Applicants has two child types – Resumes and Cover letters. Type Companies has one child type – Job positions. Under the Content tab, Sitefinity CMS displays a group section – HR, below it links to Applicants and Companies.

If you have another module, named Vacations that has one content type at first level – Countries and the Countries content type has two child types Cities and Resorts, then under the Content tab, only a link to Vacations is visible. When you click it, the system takes you to Countries page.

If you have hierarchical content types, you can navigate down the hierarchy.
To do this, click the respective child type, listed in the Contains column below each content item of the parent type.

You manage the dynamic content items on a separate page dedicated to each content type of your module. The page displays a list of all created content items of the selected content type together with actions you can perform on them. You can manage what columns and information the page displays. For more information, see Dynamic modules » Modify the backend screens of a dynamic module.
Use this page to create, edit, and manage dynamic content items.

1. In Sitefinity CMS backend, navigate to Content » <your dynamic content>.
2. Click Create a <item name>.
   A new page appears where you can fill out the fields of the new content item.
3. Fill out all fields that you have created when defining the dynamic module.
   For more information, see Dynamic modules » Create a dynamic module.
4. To preview the dynamic item, click the Preview button in the toolbar.
   The item opens in its default page. If there is no default page, it means the item is not displayed anywhere on the site and you cannot preview it.
   To see which the default page for the dynamic item is, expand Pages in the right side. The page on the top of the list is the default page. For more information about viewing and setting default pages, see Canonical URLs.
5. To finish creating the item, click Publish.

Translate the dynamic content type.

If you are working in multilingual mode, you can create a translation for the content item. To do this, in the top-left corner of the screen, select the language from the Language dropdown box.
A new page appears where you can fill out the fields of the translated content item.
For your convenience, on the right, a popup appears, in which you can see all other existing translations for the same content item.
For more information, see Manually translate content and media.

1. On your dynamic content type page, open the dynamic item for editing in one of the following ways:
   • Click the item you want to edit.
   • Click the item’s Actions link of the respective item, then click Properties.
2. Edit the fields that you want.
3. If there is a workflow activated for your dynamic content type, different actions are available to you, depending on your permissions and the workflow used. For more information, see Actions available in a workflow.
   If you are editing a published item, the system saves a draft of that item, but the published version is still visible on the webpage. To see which version is the currently published one, see Revision history of content and media items.

You can delete an item in the following ways:

• On your dynamic content type page, select one or more items and click the Actions or Bulk actions button in the toolbar.
  In the dropdown list, click Delete.
• On your dynamic content type page, click the Actions link of the respective item.
  From the dropdown list, click Delete.
• When you edit an item, click (More options) » Delete.

A dialog box appears where you must confirm the deletion.

If you activated the Recycle bin module, the dynamic content item is not permanently deleted, but moved to the recycle bin. You can later restore or permanently delete the item from the recycle bin. For more information, see Recycle bin.

To set the permissions for the dynamic content item, perform the following:

1. On your dynamic content type page, open the dynamic item for editing.
2. Click (Settings for <item name>).
3. Click Set permissions.
   For more information, see Dynamic module settings » Permissions and settings » Permissions for dynamic content items.

Filter dynamic content items

You can search, sort, and filter dynamic content items on the page of the dynamic module, where all created dynamic content types are located. For example, if you have a module Brands, open the page where all created brands are. You can see Filter Brands section in the right pane.

To access the filtering options, click (Filter <content type>). The Filter <content type> pane opens on the right. You can use the following filter options:

• Filter by ownership.
  To display dynamic content items, uploaded only by your user, in the right side of the page, click My <content type> link under Filter <content type>.
• Filter by workflow status.
  You can filter dynamic content items by their status. For example, Published or Draft.
  For more information, see Workflow statuses.
• Filter by classifications.
  You can filter dynamic content items by categories, tags, and custom classifications.
  To display this filter, click Custom filter » By Categories.
  

  PREREQUISITES: To see this filter, you must first add a classification field to the dynamic content type.
  For more information, see Create custom fields.

• Filter by modification date.
  You can filter dynamic content items by their last modified date.
  To do this, click Custom filter » By Date modified.

Sort dynamic content items

To sort dynamic content items, click (Filter <content type>). The Filter <content type> pane opens on the right. Use the Sort <content type> dropdown box.
There are the following sorting options:

• Last modified on top
  Sorts dynamic content items in descending order according to time of modification.
• Last created on top
  Sorts dynamic content items in descending order according to the time of creation.
• By <content type> (A-Z).
  Sorts the dynamic content items in ascending alphabetic order of their names.
  To sort by name, you can also click the <content type> column header in the table showing your content items.
• By <content type> (Z-A).
  Sorts the dynamic content items in descending alphabetic order of their names.
  To sort by name, you can also click the <content type> column header in the table showing your content items.

Search for dynamic content items

To search for a particular dynamic content item, use the search option.

1. Click the Search… field in the toolbar.
2. Enter the name or part of the name of the dynamic content items you are searching for and press ENTER.
   The search field is case insensitive.
3. The table containing your content items is populated with the results matching your search.
4. To return to the list of all dynamic content items, click the Clear link.

Dynamic modules have version history. Use this function to view and compare different versions of a content item. Every time you edit a content item, a version of that content item is saved by the system.

For more information, see Revision history for content items.

To display dynamic content items on your website, the system generates a separate widget for each content type. It is added to the it’s the module’s widgets group.

For more information, see Dynamic content widgets.
For more information about adding widgets on your page, see Add widgets on pages and templates.

You can then choose the way items are displayed by changing the template which the widget uses.
For more information, see Create and edit widget templates.

1. To view the code samples, click Administration » Module Builder.
2. In the list of all created modules, click the module, whose code reference you want to see.
3. Click Code reference for <module name> link.