The first time you enter Silva, you find yourself in the Contents screen. This is the standard entry point, always reachable by adding ‘/edit’ to a Silva page.
Fig. 1: The Contents screen at the top of a Silva site.
Previously we mentioned that Silva sites have a tree structure, and this metaphor is carried through in the interface. A publication has a forest icon, a folder has a few trees in it, and a document icon is one tree. Text in a document has a hierarchical structure as well.
Structuring a publication involves dividing the content into units, probably in a hierarchy. Depending on the size of the publication, these units might be folders or sub-publications. A folder is comparable to a chapter in a book, while a sub-publication would function as a section. This task – including the creation of items as well as determining their order – occurs in the Contents screen of a Folder or Publication.
The sidebar is visible in all Publication and Folder screens, except in the Preview screen. At the top of the sidebar you see the name of the screen that is currently active. Next to the name are symbols which work the same as the arrows (or trees) in the navigation at the top.
The small arrow takes you up one level (alt-[) within the same ‘vein’, thus if you're in the Properties screen it takes you up to the enclosing folder's Properties screen. The big arrow takes you up the vein to the top of the current publication (alt-]. If you are already at the top of a publication which is nested inside of another, the big tree turns into a double tree which will take you up to the top of the parent publication.
The sidebar shows the containers that exist in the publication you are working in. Folders are shown unfolded and thus show any other containers inside them, but nested publications are not unfolded. In order to see the contents of a publication you need to enter it, and the sidebar is a quick way to do so.
At the top of the listing the title of the Publication or Folder is shown together with its icon. The listing has the following columns (see Fig.1:
The icon and the id are both a link to the first screen of the item (Editor screen or Contents screen, depending on whether it is content or a container).
The order of publication items is manipulated in the Contents screen. This determines the structure of the TOC (Table of Contents) which can be inserted in pages. The ‘index’ document is always listed first and cannot be moved (the index doesn't show up in the Table of Contents as it is assumed to contain the TOC). The order of items can be changed using the shift up/down arrows or the move function. One or more items can be selected and moved by choosing a position in the select list and clicking the move button (alt-m). They will then be moved to the chosen position.
At the bottom of the listing (separated by a horizontal line) come Assets. An Asset is content that does not appear in the TOC, such as images and file objects. If there are no Assets in the current container, this section does not appear.
At the upper left of the contents listing is a new button and a select list. If you click the new button (alt-n) it will take you to the New screen, which contains descriptions of all items that can be added in that location. The select list (alt-s) is a shortcut, initiating the create action immediately after selection of the item. In a standard installation, the following Silva items can be added:
The content of this list can vary however; site administrators can disable certain items as well as install Silva extensions that add new content types.
The item creation screen typically asks for an id and a title, but may also ask for extra information depending on what kind of content item is being added.
The ‘id’ of an item (comparable to a file name) should be as short as possible while still retaining some meaning. While the id won't typically be displayed openly on a public web page generated by Silva, it will appear as part of the URL of this item (visible in the browser location bar). It can also be used to create a relative link. A clear name for an id is therefore important when people are reading URLs or looking for content in Silva. The tips in the creation screen indicate some restrictions that ids have to conform to.
The title should be descriptive as it will be displayed in web pages. For some content items it will appear at the top of the public page, but it can also appear in a Table of Contents as well as in site navigation.
The cancel button on the left is used to back out from creation and return to the Contents screen. The save button creates the item and returns you to the Contents screen of the container. save + edit goes directly to the Editor screen or Contents screen of the item that has been created.
At the bottom of the contents listing are a series of buttons which provide familiar functionality, plus some Silva specific functions. Items must be selected first before any of these operations can be performed (except pasting and pasting as ghost).
move (alt-m)
Move selected item(s) to a new position in the contents listing.**
rename** (alt-r)
Change the id and/or title of the selected item(s).
cut (alt-x)
Selected items are placed on the clipboard for moving. The same restrictions apply to cutting that apply to deleting items.**
copy** (alt-c)
Selected items are placed on the clipboard for copying.
paste (alt-v)
Items on the clipboard are pasted, either copying or moving them. This button is only present when there is something on the clipboard.
paste ghost (alt-g)
Items on the clipboard are pasted as ghost objects. As with paste, this button is only present when there is something on the clipboard. paste ghost allows content in other locations to be (re)used in the current publication. Ghosts are useful for creating matrix structures, where a ‘horizontal’ publication can intersect across multiple ‘vertical’ publications, creating a thematic overlay in the information matrix. An example might be a publication for university students which includes (pre-existing) content from multiple faculty publications.**
delete** (alt-d)
Selected items are deleted (if allowed). An alert will appear, asking “Really delete?”. Sometimes items cannot be deleted, for instance approved items must first have their approval revoked and published items must first be closed (these actions occur in the Publish screen). Folders which contain such items cannot be deleted either. This restriction exists to prevent a user from accidentally removing items that are intended to be public.
Via the import button (alt-i) you can import Silva XML from other locations or Silva sites. The import will create a new branch in your Silva complete with Publications (if any), Folders, and Silva Documents. I's also possible to do a bulk import of a zip filecontaining multiple assists. See the Import screen document for explanation.
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