Before a content administrator can configure dynamic content items within an application, you must create content folders to contain those items. Content items within the same folder are evaluated against each other at runtime to determine which item (or items) should be returned to populate a defined section of the current page.
In Experience Manager, content folders define the top-level organizational structure of an application, in which the content administrator can browse for content. If a query satisfies the trigger criteria for multiple content items within a folder, items with higher priority take precedence over those with lower priority. A single application request may trigger content items from multiple folders
Content folders have the following properties:
Template type — Specifies the type of content items that can be created in this collection, as defined by the
typeattribute of the content template.Template ID — Specifies the type of content items that can be created in this collection, as defined by the
IDattribute of the content template. This is more restrictive than specifying by template type, as an ID is unique to a single template.
Oracle recommends that you create at least one content folder for pages and one for each slot on the page that can contain either shared or variable content. This provides a logical organization of content within Experience Manager. It enables content to be triggered independently of the pages that contain them and also enables content in one slot to be triggered independently of content in another slot.
For example, the Discover Electronics reference application includes the following content folders :
Mobile \ Mobile Browse Pages — Top-level page configuration for pages viewed from a mobile device. Mobile pages must be more streamlined than Web pages, so they require a different page template.
Shared \ Auto-Suggest Panels — Configuration for the auto-suggest panel that is displayed when a user starts to enter a search query. The Shared collections return the same response model for both the Mobile and Web versions of the application, but the renderers vary based on the client.
Shared \ Detail Pages — Configuration for record details pages within the application.
Shared \ Guided Navigation — Configuration for the Guided Navigation menu.
Shared \ Results List — Configuration for a list of search results.
Web \ Spotlights — Category-specific product spotlights that are displayed above the search results when a user navigates to those products.
Web \ General \ Pages — Top-level page configuration for Web pages. These templates are structural and primarily consist of dynamic slots that pull in content items from other collections to populate the page.
Content folders determine which content items are evaluated and returned when populating a dynamic section of an application page.
Suppose you have a site where a typical structure for a search and navigation page looks like the following:
Based on this template, the content administrator wants to configure a page for a specific trigger (for example, Category > Cameras > Digital Cameras) using contextual, shared, and variable content as in this picture:
The header and footer are populated as dynamic slots with default triggering criteria, in order 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 site visitor has selected.
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 may display for the date range between November 1 and January 2.
The configuration for the page (as specified in Experience Manager) looks like this:
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 slots on the page contain only placeholders. The actual Header, Footer, Banner, and Spotlight content items that display when someone visits the site are defined in their respective content folders.
The mechanism for populating these slots is the same regardless of whether the content that should display in each slot is shared or variable content. The only difference between the two kinds of content is in the trigger criteria on the content items within those collections: 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 or orthogonal to the page trigger.
When the content administrator has created all the content needed to populate this page (and a few other pages), the application may include the following content items in the following folders:
The content folders are configured as follows:
The Browse Page folder contains all the content items representing search and navigation pages in the site.
The Brand Banner folder contains cartridges of type
MediumBannerthat are appropriate to display in the Banner slot. This dynamic slot on the Browse page has an evaluation limit of1, since the page is designed to display only one banner at a time.The Spotlight folder contains cartridges of type
SidebarItembecause items created in this collection are intended to display in the Spotlight slot in the right column. Because this space is intended to display several independently triggered spotlight items, the evaluation limit for the dynamic slot on the Browse page is3.The Header and Footer folders each contain cartridges of type
FullWidthContent.
Each page or content item within these folders has an associated trigger and priority (relative to the other items in the same folder) specified by the content administrator in Experience Manager.
When a site visitor refines on Category > Cameras > Digital Cameras and Brand > Sony, the following content triggers:
The Digital Cameras page is returned as a Page, which includes the content administrator's configuration for Guided Navigation and for Results List. Note that the Default page (with a trigger of "Applies at all locations") is also eligible to fire, but 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 content item in the Brand Banner folder that matches the user's navigation state. 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 content items in the Spotlight folder that match the user's navigation state. 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 (among those that satisfy the user's context) to be included. These three content items display in the Spotlight area in order of priority.
The Header and Footer folders have only one content item 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 content folders. 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, content items with more specific trigger criteria should
have a higher priority than those with more general criteria, especially if
they are used in a dynamic slot with an evaluation limit of
1.
Oracle recommends that you create separate content folders for each area on the page, even if they have the same content type. For example, if you want to have two banners on the page, each populated via dynamic slots, they should reference two different folders, or else the same banner (the one with the highest priority for the current navigation state) is returned for both sections of the page.
Oracle also recommends that you do not mix reusable and variable content within the same folder. For example, if a slot (such as the Spotlight slot) can be populated with either reusable or variable content, create two different folders, Reusable Spotlights and Variable Spotlights. The content administrator can configure a particular page to populate the Spotlight slot from either folder as applicable. In order to populate the same slot with a mixture of reusable and variable content, the content administrator can insert two (or more) placeholders in the Spotlight slot, each referencing the corresponding folder for each type of content.
The final result for the site visitor who is looking at Sony cameras looks something like the following:
The Content Tree in the left pane of Experience Manager is divided into two sections: Site Pages and Content. You create content folders within the Content section.
You must deploy and provision your application with the EAC in order to modify it in Workbench.
To create a content folder:
Mouse over the Content heading in the Content Tree.
The drop-down menu arrow appears on the right.
Click the drop-down menu arrow and select Add Folder.
The Add Content Folder panel appears.
Optionally, select a content type restriction.
The drop-down list is populated based on the available
typevalues for the set of templates uploaded to the application.This selection restricts the content items within the folder to the specified type.
The new content folder is added to the Content Tree in Experience Manager.
You can move and re-organize content folders in the Content Tree within Experience Manager.
If you move a content folder that includes dynamic content referenced elsewhere in the application, a warning dialog appears with a list of content items that rely on the content you are moving. You must manually update these content items if you proceed with the move.
