Primary and Secondary Pages

The primary page of a site section is its landing page; that is, the page that is displayed when a visitor first enters that section. It essentially represents the "index" file of the site section. Sections in the site hierarchy usually have a primary page assigned to them, but this is not required. For example, a search results page, which you do not want users to browse to directly, may only have a secondary page . You assign a page template as the primary page of a site section.

The information on a primary page is statically linked. Contributors can change the contributor data file on the primary page using the Contributor editor, and native documents using their associated third-party application.

Secondary pages are optional for site sections, and they are typically used to dynamically present content on a Web site. A secondary page can have static content, but what makes secondary pages useful is their ability to have dynamically placed and replaceable content. As such, they are used to create multiple versions of the pages within a site section; they provide a different content view for a site section. Secondary pages allow you to handle large sites without needing to physically create thousands of pages.

A secondary page basically serves as the backdrop for content added to the site by a contributor. Secondary pages are required if you allow contributors to add new contributor data files or native documents (both of which amount to new web pages) to the Web site. These files are made available to the site when they are picked up by a dynamic list, a search, or the target of a link. Page templates can be configured as secondary pages.

You can create a site comprised entirely of primary pages, but then you must create sections with new primary pages in order for the site to grow. By using secondary pages, your site can grow on its own from additional content submitted by contributors, and you, the designer, do not have to do anything. Your site becomes much more scalable with secondary pages.

One common use of secondary pages is with dynamic lists of hyperlinked items (say, press release titles, as shown in Figure), each of which, when clicked, opens in full on a secondary page. More specifically, the target of the link opens in the replaceable region on the secondary page of the same section (by default).

Dynamic List With Press Releases

Description of Dynamic List With Press Releases