The following sections contain information about features related to triggering content items based on the user's context.
The dynamic slot feature is typically used to trigger a cartridge independently from the page that contains it, although the Discover Electronics application uses the same mechanism to trigger entire pages by programmatically creating a content slot configuration and passing it to the Assembler.
A dynamic slot is a generic mechanism that enables content administrators to manage the content for specific sections of an Experience Manager-driven page independently from the overall page.
There two main scenarios for using dynamic slots:
To share content across different pages. In this case, the triggers on the content items that populate the slot are more general or orthogonal to the trigger criteria for the page. For example, a header cartridge may be shared across an entire site if it is referenced from every page and has an "Applies at all locations" trigger. A promotion may be configured with a user segment trigger and display when a site visitor who belongs to the specified user segment browses to any of the pages that references the collection that contains the promotion.
To create variants of a page. In this case, the triggers on the content items that populate the slot are more specific than the trigger criteria for the page. (Typically, they would "inherit" the parent content item's triggers and add additional criteria for the variable content.)
Following are some specific use cases for dynamic slots:
A brand manager needs to control the banner images that display throughout the site. This is a different person from the merchandiser who typically manages pages in Experience Manager.
A brand manager needs to be able to specify the images that display at a particular navigation state (for example, Digital Cameras > Samsung) even if there is no specific landing page for that navigation state.
A merchandiser wishes to display promotions in the menu area based on more specific trigger criteria than those that apply to the page as a whole. For example, one could create a page to use as a base for all "Digital Cameras" pages, and populate the menu sections with more specific content based on the brand, price range, or other dimensions. This model enables content reuse for most of the content within a page with page-specific overrides for subsections as needed. It removes the need to create many individual pages for each specific combination of triggers.
A merchandiser wishes to display promotions in the menu area based on trigger criteria that are simply different from those on the page as a whole. For example, there might be a "Back to School" special for a particular time frame that applies to all pages within a category or even the entire site. This model enables content reuse for individual sections across a variety of pages. The reusable sections are managed in a central location so that updates immediately take effect across all the pages that include the reused content, rather than having to edit each one manually.
The dynamic slot feature enables content administrators to populate a section of a content item with content from a different collection in Experience Manager. As a prerequisite, your application must include a collection with the appropriate content type for populating an administrator's dynamic slot cartridge.
Note
If a content administrator attempts to populate a dynamic slot in
a given collection with a content item from the same collection and creates a
circular reference, the Assembler detects the conflict during preprocessing and
returns the content item with an
@error property.
