The Admin Cube Explained
Explanation to the Admin Ribbon above:
Logout | Edit user Info | Edit Pages | Edit Menu | Tools [templates, images, ++] | Calendar | | File Manager | Style Manager | User Manager | Setup & Maintenance
Front side of the Cube
(most commonly used features)
Toggling the Ribbon - Cube interfaces
n-gen.net CMS comes with two different administration interfaces: You can use the Admin's Cube or Admin's Ribbon. By default the administration interface is the Admin's Cube. After creating your first page you can change the administration interface to the Ribbon. The second time you load the Admin's Cube an icon in the top left corner will become a cube/ribbon icon. When switching to the Ribbon interface a cookie is set to use the Ribbon interface the next time you logon from the same computer/tablet/phone.
Templates
Templates are like making a stamp: You can create many "copies" very fast. If you have a layout of a page that you would like to re-use over and over again you should consider to make a template. From the Page Handler you can save a page as a template. Just remember that by changing the template you do not change the pages that are created from the previous template. You can have (almost) as many active templates as you want.
Images
When working on a website it is important that your images are tailor made for the website. Tailor made in this context means that they must have the right size and format. n-gen.net CMS has some very simple tools to re-size and crop your images. But for the best results you should a proper image*/photo editing tool.
Pages
The pages are created, edited and deleted from the page form. From here you get access to the WYSIWYG editor and some metadata controlling user access restrictions and the header associated with the page. You can also read the database id of the page, when the page was created and modified and who made the last updates to the page from the metadata. You can create as many pages as you like.
After installation the page table is empty so you need to add at least one page to change the domain landing page default content.
The navigation menu is handled from the menu form. The menu items are surrounded by icons for adding submenu items, deleting items or modifying items and changing the order in which the items are displayed. Furthermore the form has a button for adding a top level menu item. You can create as many menu items, submenu items and submenu levels as you want or screen resolution allows.
After installation the menu is empty except for two items that links to the index page and the login page.
The headers are handled from the Header form. From here you get access to the WYSIWYG editor and some metadata that display the database id of the header, when the header was created and modified and who made the last updates to the header. You can create as many headers as you like and you can associate as many pages to one header as you like but each page can only be associated with one header.
After installation the header table is empty except for one header (description: default, database id #1). You should modify the default header but do not delete it! It is the header used by the system as the default header: If no other header is specified in the page metadata the default header is used. So your site needs at least one (the default) header to function properly.
If you do not want you site to display any header at all you can do this:
a. Leave the default header empty (delete all text, images and HTML tags),
b. Save the default header,
c. Move the position of the search box anywhere you like on our page using the Style Manager.
(Setting negative values will hide the search box completely while the page is displayed in desktop mode)
d. Save the values in the Style Manager.
Styles
The Style Assistant is a form from where you can control the Look & Feel of your website. It generates a dynamic Cascading Style Sheet that contains menu layout, your fonts and text, link, etc. colors. You can create custom styles that you can reference from any page on your n-gen.net CMS website. Altering the layout can be done from one centralized form: The Style Assistant.
(of course you can also use inline styles on individual pages but we recommend that you use the Style Assistant to its full extend to minimize the work of maintenance)
Users
All user accounts are handled from this form: Unlocking a locked account, altered privileges, change of profile information, etc. The only exception from this is the physical address of a user. This is handled through the Web Shop Module.
Files & Folders
In order to handle files and folders the n-gen.net CMS has it own (server side) file manager. It is pretty self-explanatory and if your are used to work with Apple Finder or Windows Explorer you will quickly familiarize yourself with n-gen.net CMS file manager.
Maintenance side of the Cube
System Maintenance
All about Maintaining your n-gen.net CMS
Source Code manipulation
All about Source Code