Data sources

FirstSpirit supports the management of highly structured contents in a database. For example, this may be

• Product catalogs,
• Press releases or
• Address lists

The management of such contents in databases (as so-called “datasets”) supports, among other things,

• efficient and complex queries for this data in the client
• flexible, (automatically) filtered output on the site
• clear illustration in table format
• intelligent reuse of the contents in a wide variety of places

The management of contents in form of datasets reduces your workload not only for maintenance but also for output on the site. Content maintenance at only one “Single Point of Truth” also ensures higher content quality, improves corporate wording due to higher consistency as well as reduces the susceptibility to errors.

Datasets can be created and edited conveniently in the view that opens when clicking on the icon.
It is categorically designed only for the editorial maintainance of datasets, which is why data sources and data source folders cannot be created or edited in the ContentCreator.

The project developer defines how (in which layout) and where (on which pages) the datasets are output. It is thereby also possible that none of the datasets maintained here will be output on a page.

The functionality is only available when this is configured for the project accordingly. If not, the icon will not be shown in the menu bar.

What are data sources?

Datasets that base on one data structure and use the same input components for entering and saving data are managed in FirstSpirit in so-called “Data sources”.

Datasets of a data source “Address list” thereby include, for example, data such as

• First name
• Last name
• Telephone number
• E-mail address
• Image

Datasets of a data source “Product catalog” thereby include, for example, data such as

• Product name
• Description
• Properties, such as size, weight, etc.

Also refer to section on Reusable contents and Page Working with Datasets.

Display

• On the left is the tree structure with the existing data sources in the project. Depending on the project configuration, they can be structured in folders.
• In the main area, the data sources and datasets are shown.
  Some columns can, depending on the respective data type, be sorted (in ascending and descending order, such as alphabetically or numerically).
  In the table view, the width of the columns can be changed.

The contents can be displayed in a different language (if available) using the settings of the “Preferred display language” menu item in the Further functions menu.

Searching

The data source search above the tree structure enables a full-text search across all data sources.
The search starts directly with the input of characters in the search field.
The number of search hits is shown behind the data sources/folders.

A dataset can exist in multiple data sources, such as when it is a “filtered” data source (configured in the FirstSpirit SiteArchitect).
In this case, a numerical area is shown next to the data source, such as Product (0-11). This means that the respective data source contains up to 11 search hits.
If a data source is selected directly, the datasets are shown with search hits.

Actions

Show History

Opens the Project history report. You can check there what changes have been made to the element and restore older states.

Show References

Opens the References report. You can check there which elements are referenced with the selected dataset.

Execute script
/
Click this icon to execute a script (project-specific function extension). This icon is only available if the project has been configured accordingly.

Set bookmarks
/ Bookmarks can be set with this icon (for datasets, data sources and data source folders).

/ Click this icon to remove the bookmark.

Delete dataset
Click this icon to remove the relevant dataset. This icon is only available if the project has been configured accordingly.

Show preview
To check how the dataset is actually displayed (also: “rendered”) on a page, click on this icon to go to a relevant page.
(The project must be configured accordingly.)

Copy dataset
Existing datasets can be copied.

Edit dataset
Opens an edit window with all of the input elements for the selected dataset.

New datasets can be created via the Menu bar.
If a data source is currently selected, it will be shown at the top of the menu.
All other data sources will only be available when the project is configured accordingly.

State and workflows

The state of a dataset, a data source or a folder and whether or not they have to be released, if necessary, can be read from the corresponding icons on the respective element, e.g.

• Modified
• In workflow

The datasets can be filtered (with “All elements”) by state.
Depending on the configured workflows in the project, this may be:

• Released
• Modified
• In workflow

To start or advance a workflow on datasets, data sources or folders, they can be selected with a click (multi-selection within a data source or a folder with Ctrl or Shift).

In the Dashboard, the desired workflow then can be started or advanced.

It must thereby be observed that the workflow that can be switched via the Status display (also “Element status”, in the menu bar) always refers to the higher ranking folder.

Leaving the data source view

With a click on this icon you can leave the data source view and switch to the preview.