There are basically three ways of creating a new page group:

• Copying an existing page group and then changing it.
• Importing the contents of an existing page group from an import/export file (.ipd), and then changing it.
• Building a page group from scratch.

Open the web page groups screen (control panel > web pages > web page groups) and call up the web page group you want to use as the basis of a new one.

Click the button 'create new record, copied from this one' (  ) to create the new page group; it will be called up automatically.

First change the local page group location (on page 'general 1') and/or any filenames, filename prefixes and suffixes to be used for output files (on pages 'main page' and 'detail page') to avoid overwriting existing files. Do the same for any extra pages, deleting those which will not be required in the new site (page 'extra pages'). If necessary, change the default locations for (image) files and previews to reflect the new situation (page 'general 1').

You can now start work on your new page group. Use the buttons 'preview generated code in browser' (  ) and 'preview generated code as text' (  ) to see the result of any changes you make. You can also use the 'view replacement codes' button (  ) to see all the available replacement codes for any given situation.

See section 'building elements' for tips on how to build new elements.

Note that copying a page group does not cause the creation of any new text blocks: the text blocks used by the original page group will also be used in the new one.

see also:

screen: web page groups screens (general): button: create new record, copied from this one web generation: previewing generated code building elements

An import/export file can contain the entire form and structure of a web page group (or several of them, making up an entire web site), plus any text blocks used in the page group(s). They do not contain any images or other external files. Import/export file are available for all the example web sites, for the entire iphlex site, for this documentation and for several other sites made using webphlex.

They can be downloaded here. Some import/export files may also have been installed on disk along with webphlex. The default location for these is: C:\webphlex\temp.

Import the contents of the import/export file into the database: control panel > actions > import data.

Open the web page groups screen (control panel > web pages > web page groups) and call up the page group you've just imported.

If the local page group location (on page 'general 1') exists on your machine, you may wish to change it so as to avoid overwriting its current contents. Otherwise you should create the directory where you want generated files to be placed, and set the local page group location to this directory.

If you wish you can now generate the web page group files in their new location by clicking the 'generate web page group' button (  ); you should end up with output files very similar to those of the imported page group. Note that they may not be identical: if a web page group contains references to data which is not (yet) present in your database, the system will not be able to determine the addresses for this data, and will give an error message. For instance, all the example sites have a link to the examples index page using the replacement code #Parent:PAGE_GROUP_URL#, but if the page group is not (yet) called from any other page group it does not have a 'parent' and the code will not be replaced. You can view the generated page group in a browser window by clicking the 'view web page group in browser' button (  ).

You can now begin changing the contents of the page group, its elements and related text blocks. Use the buttons 'preview generated code in browser' (  ) and 'preview generated code as text' (  ) to see the result. You can also use the 'view replacement codes' button (  ) to see all the available replacement codes for any given situation.

See section 'building elements' for tips on how to build new elements.

If you now generate the altered page group using the 'generate web page group' button (  ), the system will show you where a new file would be different to the existing version, and ask if you want to overwrite it. If you aren't shown the text differences (but only asked about overwriting the file), click on 'user preferences' (  ) and check that the option 'show text differences?' is set on.

see also:

list of actions: import from import/export file (.ipd) screen: web page groups web generation: button: generating the whole page group web generation: button: viewing the page group in a browser window web generation: previewing generated code other screens: screen: preferences building elements

Many people find it simpler to build a new page group from scratch; in our experience it takes longer, but can produce a 'cleaner' end result. You'll definitely have to have studied the documentation, and preferably played around with an existing page group, before attempting this!

Open the web page groups screen (control panel > web pages > web page groups) and call up the empty web page group, code *NEW.

Click the button 'create new record, copied from this one' (  ) to create the new page group; it will be called up automatically.

Create the directory on disk where you want generated files to be placed, and set the local page group location (on page 'general 1') to this directory. Set the default locations for (image) files and/or preview images if these are being used. It's generally a good idea to place images in a subdirectory of the local page group location. The system also works best if you make the local directory structure identical to that which will eventually be used on the server hosting the site.

Set the the filename to be used for the first main page (e.g. 'index') on page 'main page'. If the page group is to contain detail pages, put the prefix and/or suffix to be used in their filenames on page 'detail page'.

On the elements subscreen (on page 'elements'), click button 'new record' (  ) and start entering data for the first element. Use the buttons 'preview generated code in browser' (  ) and 'preview generated code as text' (  ) to see the result. You can also use the 'view replacement codes' button (  ) to see all the available replacement codes for the element.

If no template has (yet) been specified for an element, one will be created automatically according to the element's contents. You can see it using the button 'preview generated text for element' (  ), and then use the button 'copy text to clipboard' (  ) to copy this generated code to the element's own template.

See section 'building elements' for tips on how to build new elements.

The main page template (on page 'main page') already contains rudimentary HTML statements. You can see what the main page will look like using the buttons 'preview generated code in browser' (  ) and 'preview generated code as text' (  ) on this page.

see also:

screen: web page groups screens (general): button: create new record, copied from this one web generation: names of generated files templates and text replacement: automatically generated element templates web generation: previewing generated code building elements

If the page group contains a number of similar elements (e.g. for a number of images or texts), it's easiest to work on a single element, continually previewing it using the 'preview generated code in browser' button (  ).

Once you've got it working the way you want you can either copy the element record as many times as you need to using the button 'copy selected items' button (  ), make its template the default element template (on page 'main page'), or copy its template to any other elements you wish using the button 'copy details from this record to other record(s)' (  ) on page 'elements'.

You can also use the element as a basis for the creation of new elements for the (image) files in a given directory (button 'add element records for file(s)' on page 'tools'); first make sure the element is selected by clicking on its line in the element selection window on page 'elements'.

see also:

web generation: previewing generated code screens (general): button: copy or move selected subrecords screens (general): button: copy details from this record to other record(s) screens (general): record selection window