Web Express Terminology

We have compiled a list of common terms used in Web Express tutorials that will likely be new terminology for users. While this list is not exhaustive, it is a place to start. Web Express is a platform based on Drupal, so we have maintained a lot of Drupal terminology.

• Node or Content Type
  A node in Drupal is the generic term for a piece of content on your web site. Each node on your site has a Content Type. It also has a node ID, a title, a creation date, an author (a user on the site) and some other properties. Some examples of nodes are  Basic Pages, Articles, People, Files, etc. Understanding the term node will help you link content, find content and create contexts for content using the node ID or node type.
• Taxonomy
  Drupal has a system for classifying content, which is known as taxonomy. Web Express has some built in taxonomies vocabulary such as departments and job types for the person content type. You can create and edit your own terms/tags for the article content type. Vocabularies can also be "free tagging", meaning that when creating or editing an article, you can add new terms/tags on the fly.
• Region
  Pages on your Drupal site are laid out in regions, which include the main content section, footer, sidebars and various other regions. Clicking on the Edit Layout tab will give you a visual diagram of all the regions we use in Web Express.
• Blocks
  Blocks are chunks of information that are displayed in the regions of your site's pages. Blocks can take the form of images, text, article and event feeds. They cannot be placed in the sites navigation and must be placed on a node or content type to be displayed to visitors.
• Shortcodes
  Shortcodes are bits of code to be used in the  WYSIWYG editor. A shortcode can change the format of text, embed content such as videos or add clickable button functionality. Some shortcodes are enabled by clicking on their button from the WYSIWYG editor. Other shortcodes need to be typed in to the content such as the columns or column list shortcodes.
• Context
  Context allows you to manage contextual conditions and reactions for portions of your site. You can think of each context as representing a "section" of your site. For each context, you can choose the condition that triggers this context to be active and choose different aspects of your site that should react to this active context. Think of conditions as a set of rules that are checked during page load to see what context is active. Any reactions that are associated with active contexts are then implemented.