Archiving Website Content

Archiving your website content with the I-Metrics CMS is extremely flexible and simple for a single reason. There is no dedicated archiving mechanism. Everything goes through the various collection types this web package supports.

If you wanted to create a new archive group you simply create a group give it a name, select a collection type and then assign the entries you want to be archived. The collection type can be a mixed one so it can support every different type installed. Then again if you want to use an archive that consists of regular text pages only you can create a text collection and assign the entries in it.

Perhaps the most complex to understand is how to display the archives on your website. There are placeholders already for the menu, header, right side and footer. These place holders are used to process the content of the various collections. An archive zone can be assigned to one of the existing collection types or alternatively you can re-assign the collection to one of the main layout elements of your website.

The stock I-Metrics CMS includes a collection called Archived. By default it appears with the website sitemap and on the right column. The default archived collection can contain text pages. There is no specific date but you can assign one by simply editing the collection group, altering its name. For example from Archived into 2009 Archives. Then add all the 2009 related text pages in it.

Its easy enough to create additional collections which have similar properties. 2008 Archives, 2007 Archives and so forth. All they can be text collections. The right column is a mixed type group that can accommodate image galleries, text collections and every other type you previously installed to customize your site.

So lets see the steps required to setup another archived collection displaying it on the right side of your website having the stock template.

1. Goto Admin->Site Content->Content Management
2. Click New to create a new collection
3. Enter a name say 2009 Archives
4. Select the text collection type from the drop-down
5. Write a short description make it visible on the front.
6. Click insert to create the collection
7. Click the details button or the down arrow on the left of the list
8. Click the entries button
9. Tick the boxes for the text pages to assign to the archived collection
10. Click insert to complete the assignment.
11. Press the back button go back to the top of the collections list
12. Select  the right side entries then click details to list all the collections assigned to it.
13. Click entries to list the available collections
14. Tick the entry for the 2009 Archives and click insert.

That should be it without writing a single line of code we now have an archives section on our website.