• Templating and Integration Guide
  • Part 1: Concepts
    • The "Everything is Content" Paradigm
      • Content items are objects with properties that correspond to a type
      • Nodes are stored in workspaces, organized in trees
    • The rendering flow
      • To render a node, you need a view
      • To render a page, you need a template
    • Modules are packages used to deploy “code” into Jahia
    • The Jahia actors
      • Content flow
  • Part 2: Modules
    • What is a module?
    • Module type
    • Module creation
    • Anatomy of a module
    • Adding classes and Jars in modules
    • Spring files
  • Part 3: Templates and Studio
    • Introduction to templates
    • Studio
      • Studio overview
    • Creating a template-set
      • Using the Maven archetype
      • Using Eclipse
      • Using Jahia Studio
      • Update the Maven project when templates are modified in the Studio
    • Building templates
      • There are 3 different kind of templates
      • Main Resource and template resolution
      • Areas in detail
      • Content templates in details
      • Bound Components
    • CSS style sheets and design
      • Preparing your stylesheet
      • Including stylesheets in templates
      • Managing different stylesheets depending on the context
      • Print friendly CSS
      • CSS frameworks and handmade XHTML
    • Themes
      • How it works
    • Skins
      • Creating skins
      • Skin rendering
  • Part 4: Content Definitions and Views
    • Definitons
      • NodeType
      • Namespaces
      • Supertypes
      • Options
      • Node Type properties
      • Input masks
      • Default values
      • Initializers
      • Validators
      • Abstract types
      • In practice: create the node type definition for dogs
    • Views
      • NodeType folders
      • Output formats
      • Default view
      • Other views
      • Modules versus Components
      • Module packaging and deployement
    • Managing URLs in scripts
    • Managing lists
      • Summary for a simple list
      • Using list views
    • Managing and customizing navigation menus
      • Menu Rendering
      • Customization
  • Part 5: Advanced Techniques
    • Search and queries
      • Full text queries using search tag libraries
      • Queries
      • In practice: creating a custom search component
    • Forms
      • Principles
      • Form data parameters
      • In practice: Transform a custom HTML form into a Jahia valid form step by step
    • Macros
      • Macro implementation languages
      • Typical usage
    • Caches
  • Part 6: Setting up an integration environment
    • Software Requirements
    • Maven configuration for Eclipse IDE
    • Maven External Configuration
    • Creating a template set
  • Part 7: Step by step integration
    • Cutting of the mockup
    • Integration of the Base
    • CSS / Javascript integration
    • Creating the content zones
  • Further reading and resources

Areas in detail

As we’ve learned, areas are nothing more than named placeholders with some properties you can set, knowing that those properties will be used to instantiate the content list created when the area is activated.

Areas may be defined in the JSP views, using template:area tags, or in the templates using the Studio, using the area component. The goal of an area is to display content coming from the next node in the templates sequence. An area is said to be enabled under one node if the list with the same name as the area is present under that node. For example, an area maincontent defined in the template view is enabled in the main resource if the list maincontent is created under the main resource.

Areas are represented as blue blocks in the studio.

For example, let's use the same the same templates sequence as before - template view, base template, home template and home page.

The template view defines 2 area tags: header and pagecontent.

Starting on the right, both of them are enabled in the base template as lists, the header list containing one content object named head content and the pagecontent list containing 2 area nodes, areaA and pagecontent.

The home template enables the areaA, containing one content content1.

The home page enables the pagecontent area, container one content content2

Absolute area

Absolute areas are similar to areas, but do not use the templates sequence to resolve the list to display - they use an ancestor of the main resource instead. A level of ancestry may be specified - 0 is for the home page level, 1 for the first sub pages level, etc.

If no level is specified, the content list will be taken from the home page of the site.

Absolute areas are represented as red blocks in the studio.

Areas properties

We will here detail some important area properties, remember that these will be used when instantiating the list upon area activation:

• System name: the name of the area. This is important to choose carefully as it will then be used to create the corresponding list once the area is activated, and will therefore influence SEO work, as the list name might appear when linking to content objects that are part of the list.
• View: the view to use when displaying the area list. This is common to many content objects and not specific to areas
• Sub content view: this is also specific to list content types, allowing specifying not the view for the area but for objects contained within the list that was created when the area is activated.
• List restrictions: as with list objects, you may restrict the type of objects that may be used in the list created by the area as well as the maximum number of objects allowed in the list
• CSS class name: you may specify a CSS class name that will be used when displaying the list created by the area.

If the contribute mode section is activated, regular list contribute mode options will be displayed. This allows to setup the area so that contribute mode may be properly configured when it is activated. You may define whether the list will be editable in contribute mode, what contributors may or may not do, and which objects are allowed in contribute mode.

In the other tabs, you will find the usual list options such as controls for the ordering of the list, any options that were defined for the area type (none by default), and finally permissions.