Adding Category Blocks (Category Index Page): Once you have logged in to the framework you should be returned to the home page of the site. The home page of the site is a category index page and you should see a form titled “Add A New Category” at the bottom of the page. Adding a category using this form will create a new directory on your web server and populate it with a destination index file and a page metadata file for the new index. The generated index page will already include the stylesheet, headers, and footers ou have selected for the site. This form has several input fields, none all of which are required. Category Display Name The category display name is shown as a section header (>h2>) on the site’s category index page. This field is not required and leaving it blank will cause the framework to omit certain conditional CSS objects. Category Link Text The category display name is the text that will be displayed on for the user to click. This is your anchor text. Typically a call to action or some encouragement for the user to follow on and get more detailed information for this category. You can enter any HTML data in this field that is acceptable as anchor text, including images or
tags to split your link across multiple lines. This field is not required and leaving it blank will cause the framework to omit certain conditional CSS objects. Category Description The category description is used on a category index page to describe this category to your users. You can use any HTML you want here, just keep in mind that all of the content will be contained in a single div which is generated by the Mini Site Framework. You are allowed to submit a new category with this field empty however no content will be displayed on the page for this category/block. Category Directory Name The category system name is used to create the directory on the server which will contain the destination index page for this category. Not providing a system name for your new category may cause other files on your server to be overwrittent. This value should be a safe file name for use in file paths and URLs, not containing any special characters, uppercase letters, or spaces. The user will not see this value unless they view the link properties, however search engines and other robots will be aware of it and it may affect the keyword specificity of the category page. Category Meta Keywords The text entered in this field will be used as the contents of the “keyword” meta tag in the msf_metadata.txt file created for the new directory.. Category Meta Description The description entered in this field will be used as the contents of the meta “description” tag written to the msf_metadat.txt file created for the new directory. Once you have entered the required information you can click on the “Add This Category” button below the form. The Mini Site Framework will create a subdirectory and index page for the new category, then add your description to the front page of the site. If you look at the site’s directory on the web server you will see a new file named category_list_file.php which contains the category data, as well as the new directory for the category you have added.