Suppose you have a site where a typical structure for a search and navigation page looks like the following template:
Based on this template, you want to configure a page for a specific trigger using contextual, shared, and variable content, for example, Category > Cameras > Digital Cameras.
The header and footer are populated from a folder to avoid defining them multiple times for a large number of pages.
The Guided Navigation and Results List cartridges are configured specifically for this page and do not need to vary based on criteria other than the page triggers.
The Banner area is configured to display a different image depending on the brand that the visitor selects.
The Spotlight area displays a mix of promotions based on triggers that are independent of the triggering criteria for the page itself. For example, a "Holiday Specials" spotlight might display for the date range between November 1 and January 2.
The configuration for the page looks like this picture:
The configuration for Guided Navigation, including which dimensions to display and which dimension values to boost or bury within those dimensions, and for the Results List, including default sort options and record boost and bury, are specified as part of the page configuration. The other sections of the page only contain placeholders. The actual Header, Footer, Banner, and Spotlight rules that display when someone visits the site are defined in their respective folders.
The mechanism for populating these page sections is the same regardless of whether the content that should display in each section is shared or variable content. The only difference between the two kinds of content is in the trigger criteria in the rules within the folders. Variable content, such as the Spotlight, has triggers that are more specific than the page trigger. Reusable content, such as the generic header and footer, has triggers that are more general than the page trigger.
When you create all the content needed to populate this page and other pages, the application might include the following rules in the following folders:
The folders are configured in the following ways:
The Browse Page folder contains all the rules representing search and navigation pages in the site.
The Brand Banner folder contains cartridges of type
MediumBannerthat are appropriate to display in the Banner section.The Spotlight folder contains cartridges of type
SidebarItembecause items created in this folder are intended to display in the Spotlight slot in the right column.The Header and Footer folders each contain cartridges of type
FullWidthContent.
Each page or rule within these folders has an associated trigger and priority that you specify.
When a visitor refines on Category > Cameras > Digital Cameras and Brand > Sony, the following content displays. Green indicates that the rule has fired.
The Digital Cameras page is returned from the Browse Page folder, which includes your configuration for Guided Navigation and for Results List. The Default page, containing a trigger of
Applies at all locations, can also fire, but the Browse Page folder is limited to one rule and the Digital Cameras page has a higher priority, therefore it takes precedence and the Default page does not fire.The Banner slot is populated by the highest priority rule that matches the user's navigation state in the Brand Banner folder. In this case, it is the Sony cameras banner. Again, there is a Default banner but it does not fire because it has a lower priority.
The Spotlight slot is populated by the highest priority rules that match the visitor's navigation state in the Spotlight folder. In this case, the Default spotlight does fire because there is room for three spotlights in this slot and that item has a high enough priority to be included. These three rules display in the Spotlight area in order of priority.
The Header and Footer folders have only one rule each, which is set to display at all locations, therefore the same content is returned for this page as for all pages.
In this example, content is returned from five folders including the Browse Page folder. Priority between items is specified within each folder. It does not make sense to prioritize the Sony cameras banner against the April spotlight cartridge, for example, because they are not competing against each other to be displayed on the page. In general, rules with more specific trigger criteria should have a higher priority than those with more general criteria.
The final result for the site visitor who is looking at Sony cameras looks like the following picture:
