Getting Started
1. I am an administrator, but I suspect that I do not have access to all functions in the user interface. Why?
Check that you are using the complete interface. This is set from a link displayed on the private area dashboard. In the simplified interface, many of the advanced functions are hidden in order to make it easier for newbies.
Deleting elements
1. How do I delete an article?
You cannot delete an article completely, but you can put it "in the dustbin" by using the article status drop-down menu. Articles in the dustbin are removed from the public pages, but remain accessible to administrators for 24 hours; this leaves you a safety margin in case you need to restore it.
2. How do I delete a news item?
In the same manner as for articles (as above), you cannot remove a news item completely; deleted news items automatically become inaccessible at the end of the same deadline (24 hours).
3. How to delete a section?
A section must be empty before it can be removed (i.e. it must not contain any sub-sections or articles - except those in the dustbin). If this condition is met, the section can be removed by navigating to it and clicking “Delete this section” at the bottom of the page.
Various types of navigation
1. What are the benefits of keywords?
In the majority of sites, the most obvious navigation will be that imposed by the sections; you navigate the site by moving up and down through the sections.
Keywords make it possible to have another transverse and independent level of navigation. Each article can be associated with several keywords. In the public site, you can display a list of the keywords associated with an article; and a list of the other articles associated with each one of these words. Such navigation does not follow a tree structure, instead it is much more flexible and flat.
To summarize the functional differences:
- An article can be in only one section;
- Sections can contain as many sub-sections as necessary;
- an arbitrary number (zero, one, several) of keywords can be associated with each article, and each keyword can be associated with an arbitrary number (zero, one, several) of articles;
- the keywords cannot be nested.
For an operational example of the use of keywords, see the Monde diplomatique website. The sections define the rigid classification of the site (files, reviews, maps, archives classified by date, etc.). Keywords make it possible to bind together articles relating to the same topic; these are classified in two groups, "subjects" and "countries".
2. I do not understand the difference between keywords and the search engine. Aren’t these the same thing?
Keywords and the search engine are two fundamentally different things in SPIP (indeed, you can deactivate the search engine while preserving keywords, and vice versa).
With keywords, it is the site administrators who define the relationships between articles by binding keywords to these articles. These keywords can then be explicitly displayed on the public site, as well as the list of articles associated with each one of them; without this display, they are used for very few things. This gives a customised navigation system, independent of sections, but defined by the administrators.
The search engine carries out searches at the request of the visitor on any term or group of terms. The keywords are certainly included in the fields used by search, as well as the various article fields (deck, text, etc). The search engine is used to find information without having to use the navigation structure (sections and keywords) defined by the administrators, who would not be able to think of terms likely to be required on the site.
For more technical information on the search engine, see the article (yet to be translated) in Guide for the Webmaster and the SPIP hacker.
3. Can keywords slow down my site?
No.
4. Can the search engine slow down my site?
It is possible.