What is Context and How Does it Help in Site Design
In a nutshell, context allows you to create certain conditions ("contexts") that will trigger "reactions" to that context. Contexts allow a site owner to create tasks on the site that are automated that might otherwise be time consuming to do manually. For many new users and simple site builders, using Edit Layout to place blocks is enough to get the job done.
For more advanced projects that have complex layouts, using context is a powerful way to add and display reusable blocks of content. The context feature is available in the Advanced Design and Advanced Layout Bundles. Enable one of these bundles to add the context feature to your site.
Use Cases of the Context Feature:
Below are a few examples of basic context use cases. We also have online tutorials for common context use cases.
- You wish to have a certain block be displayed in a specific region on every page of your site. Setting up a context that will do this saves you from manually adding the block to every page via Edit Layout.
- Imagine you want this block to show in the first sidebar region on the home page but in the footer area on all other pages. This can be accomplished in context.
Use Case Context Tutorials:
- Placing a block on every page of your site
- Placing a block on all people with an article byline
- Creating breadcrumb navigation on all articles.
- Placing a page title image or site background image
Context allows you to even set multiple conditions and reactions. What if you want to make sure that blocks always appear in a particular order? You can order blocks within a particular context by dragging them to your preferred order.
Note: If you are also adding blocks to the same region via Edit Layout, ordering gets unpredictable so you may need to alter block weights to produce your desired display.
As you can imagine, using the Context feature will require some exploration on your part. Don't be afraid to play with the conditions and reactions to see what you can do and if the options are what you need.