Creating Element Definitions

The most efficient assets to define first are the elements. Elements are the assets that define the editing interface that the contributor uses. The specific use of each one is handled through element definitions. By creating an element definition, you are defining how the contributors work with the data files by defining the editing regions and the toolbars accessible to the contributors.

In the element definition you can control exactly which editing features are available to the contributor in the toolbar. For instance, you might not want the contributor to be able to change the font size or color, but still be able to use bold and italics. Generally you define at least one of each kind of element (WYSIWYG, text only, image only, static list, dynamic list, and custom) and usually, you define two or more of each type of element to allow for the different toolbars in Contributor.

The element definition is used to control the toolbar that the contributors can access to edit the pages. However, it might be that you want to have several different definitions for each element so that you can have multiple options of toolbars for the contributors, rather than one or two. It is important to consider the role of the contributor and how much they contribute on different pages.

It is highly recommended that you name the element definitions carefully, as naming the elements with respect to place on the page or with the name of the site in them can make reusing them less intuitive. It is not recommended that you name the element in terms of its place on the page, within the Web site, or even by using the name in the Web site within the element definition. The optimal method for naming an element definition is to list a relative amount of access in the toolbar, such as "element_WYSIWYG_fulledit" or "element_text_undo_only."

Notice that the element definitions were named starting with the word "element." That is to make all elements appear together when searching for them in the content server. Using other naming conventions such as including the name of the Web site would also group the assets in the web server, but this would make the definitions less intuitive to manage if you use the same definitions for multiple Web sites.