Design the layout in the content area designer

The content area designer opens the content area in a view that is similar to the content area view in the user interface. You can use the functionalities to resize, re-order, hide, or add content to the content area that are also available to normal users on the Alfabet user interface. When you save your changes, the design is taken over to your standard configuration in Alfabet Expand. For example, if you have added a content page or added a content item from the content repository, the content page or content item will also be added to the standard configuration in Alfabet Expand.

You can first define a system content repository for the content area and add all content that you would like to add as standard to your content area to the content repository. You can then add all relevant content to the content area directly in the content area designer without prior adding content via the Alfabet Expand functionalities to add content pages to content areas and to add content items to content pages.

  1. In Alfabet Expand, go to the Presentation tab.
  2. Under the Content Areas node, right-click the node of the content area you want to design and select Open Content Area Designer.
  3. If the content area is a class-based content area, select an object for which the content area shall open.
  4. The designer shows you how the content area will look in the user interface. Change the design according to demand
  5. Click Save Changes and confirm the warning.
  6. In the top menu of Alfabet Expand, click Meta Model > Reread Meta-Model to import the changes to the Presentation explorer.

The content area designer is only available if the following settings are done:

A system administrator must configure access in the server alias of the Alfabet Web Application.

  1. Open the Alfabet Administrator.
  2. Click the Alfabet Aliases node.
  3. Select the server alias of the Alfabet Web Application in the table and click Edit.
  4. Go to the Expand tab of the server alias editor and enter the URL of the Alfabet Web Application in the Test Web Application field.
  5. Click OK.

A user administrator must define access to the content area designer for your Alfabet Expand login user.

  1. Log in to the Alfabet user interface with the Portfolio Admin user profile and go to User Accounts Management > User Administration.

    On premise customers not using the IT Transformation Server solution might have a different access to user configuration.

    Depending on the configuration of Alfabet, you might not be able to change the data of the user you are currently logged in with.

  2. Navigate to the user that shall access the content area designer.
  3. In the Assigned User Profiles content item, click + > Assign User Profiles.
  4. Set the checkmark of the Alfabet Expand user profile and click OK.