Online Community offers the ability to Syndicate Content. Syndicating content simply means sharing the content of one page with other pages and sites.
Syndicated content is an exact "replica" — on a target page — of content that is on a source page. If content on the source page gets changed, the changes are automatically propagated to any pages on any sites on which that content has been syndicated.
Content can be syndicated:
- across pages on the same site,
- between any two sites, and
- from a Main Site to a Microsite (the most common use case).
Benefits
Syndicating content across your pages and sites has a few benefits.
- Automate content sharing - You can syndicate the same content to multiple pages and sites. This prevents having to manually share content that you want displayed in multiple places. Contact Us and About pages are good use cases for syndicated content.
- Simple content management - The content is managed on the source page. Changes that are made on the source page automatically propagate to all of its target pages, so you don't have to manually repeat those changes in multiple places.
Notes
Below are a few things that you should note about syndicated content.
- Only full pages can be syndicated. You cannot syndicate portions of a page.
- Syndicated content is managed exclusively on the source page; the content cannot be modified on a target page.
- Syndicated content must be individually added to each target page, as detailed in Step 2 - Add syndicated content to target page, below.
Target page
The page that hosts the syndicated content from the source page is the target page. There are a few things to understand about target pages.
- New and existing pages can be target pages.
- A target page can host multiple instances of syndicated content.
- When setting up a target page, make sure that its page layout matches that of the source page.
- If your target page has a mix of syndicated content and "local" content (HTML, widgets, etc.), the syndicated content will always appear above the local content on the published page, even if the syndicated content is situated below the local content on the Page Designer canvas.
- Syndicated content cannot be edited, modified, or in any way, changed on the target page.
Syndicate your content
Syndicating content requires working in the source page (verifying the content that is to be syndicated) and the target page (adding the Syndicated Content content block to the page).
Your target pages will "inherit" syndicated content from your source page, so it's beneficial to spend a few minutes reviewing that content and tidying it as necessary before sharing it.
NOTE: This process assumes familiarity with the Online Community CSM and Page Designer pages and Super Admin permissions.
Step 1 - Prep the source page content
To prepare content for syndication:
- Open your site and navigate to the page that has content that you want to syndicate.
- Review the content and note any changes you want to make.
- Click (or right-click for a new tab) the edit this page icon in the Webmaster Links menu.
- If the Build tab on the right is active (orange bar), click Properties.
TIP: Note the Navigation Title and Page Code Name under Properties. Doing so might help you more quickly locate the correct page when mapping syndicated content in a microsite.
- Scroll down to the Syndication section and make sure that the Prevent this item from being syndicated to other pages/sites box is not checked.
If it is checked, uncheck it.
- Save and publish your changes.
Step 2 - Add syndicated content to target page
Now that you've prepped the source-page content, you can complete the syndication by "importing" it to your target page.
NOTE: Syndicated content can be added to new and existing pages; this exercise adds content to a new page.
To import syndicated content:
- Click (or right-click for a new tab) the edit navigation icon in the Webmaster Links menu.
- Click and drag the Add Page button (it is above the page hierarchy) to where you want to add the target page and drop it into position. OR...
Click an existing page's ellipsis icon and choose Add to add New Page (Draft) at the bottom of that page's hierarchy; click and drag the new page to reposition it.
- Double-click New Page (Draft) to manage the page properties and content.
- In Page Designer > Properties:
- Check the Visible in Navigation box to make the page visible (optional).
- Give the new page a unique name (Navigation Title) and a simple Page Code Name; these steps are required.
- Check the Super Admins Only box (in the Syndication section) to limit who can change the content (optional).
NOTE: The Super Admins Only checkbox pertains only to the "local," non-syndicated content; syndicated content is managed exclusively on the source page.
- In Page Designer > Build:
- Drag and drop a Syndicated Content content item from the Content palette to the page-design canvas.
NOTE: Syndicated content will always display above the page's local content in your community site.
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- Double-click the Syndicated Content holder and in the dialog, use the dropdowns to select:
- your source page's site (Syndicated from Site) and
- the source page (Syndicated Page) of the syndicated content.
NOTE: After making your selections, the Page Code Name displays as a link under the Syndicated Page dropdown. You can click it to open the page in a new tab to quickly confirm your selection and/or make changes.
- Click Save.
- Repeat these steps to add any other pages with syndicated content.
- Click Publish.
TIP: Access the target page and verify that the syndicated content displays as expected.