Accessing Content

Obviously, users access your content through the Content module, which will usually be listed in the Modules block on every page. The Content module starts with a list of content categories, if you've defined any. Uncategorized content is also listed on the first page. From there, users can drill down into the content categories, which list the content in those categories; ultimately, users can get to the actual content itself.

But there's another way to access content, including deactivated content. Suppose, for example, that you want to send out an e-newsletter that contains a hyperlink directly to a particular content page. You could just link to the content module, using a URL such as http://www.yoursite.com/modules.php?name=Content. But that would take users only to the list of content categories; it wouldn't put them right into a particular page.

You can also link directly to a specific page. The easiest way to do so is to browse to that page yourself, using the Content module, and then copy the URL from your browser's address bar. For example, Daisy's Contacting Us page can be accessed directly via the URL http://www.scriptinganswers.com/cms2/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=1. Each page of content will use the same URL, with only the pid=1 changing: The second page you create will be pid=2, then pid=3, and so forth. You can always get the correct URL by simply browsing to the page in question and copying the URL from your browser's address bar.

Which brings me to the point of deactivated content. On my site at www.scriptinganswers.com, I have several products for sale. I sell these through a third-party credit card processing company. So, I have various content pages set up that describe my products, with links that point to the processing company's checkout system. This allows my users to read about my products and then click a link to buy them. When the processing company is done handling the customer's order, it redirects the customer back to my site. I want my customers redirected to a nice "Thank you!" page, not just the site's home page, so that they feel their transaction is complete and that I appreciate their business (which I do).

So I created a new content page with my "thank you" message. Because I don't want this page generally accessible through the Content module, I deactivated it, which prevents it from being listed in the Content module. I provided the processing company with the direct URL to this page, allowing them to send customers to it after completing a transaction. In short, by deactivating the "thank you" page, I made it "hidden" so that it wouldn't be listed on my main Content menu (which would have looked weird), but I've still kept it available for the processing company to use.