Help updating pages....v. 1.6.8. Live site pages don't reflect what's in CMS.
How Do I?
Hello, I’m a designer…helping to update a few pages on a site that uses an older version of expression.
I can log into the CMS and locate the various pages to edit, BUT….the content on the page does not reflect what is on the live site. I’ve searched the CMS high and low. Each page also bring in a sidebar… I’m a novice coder….enough to be dangerous. Let me know if anything sounds familiar here or if more info is needed. thanks.
ExpressionEngine’s approach to content avoids being tied to a specific page. Content is chunked into reusable bits that your templates can pull from and display at any URL endpoint needed. Can you clarify specifically where you are in the control panel when you are referring to looking at “pages” when logged in?
Derek, thank you for the quick reply. I’ll try to clarify below.
Within Expression, by breadcrumb looks like this:
Home › Edit › Edit entry › Inside
i’m accessing a specific page called “Documents”….it appears it’s based on a template called “inside”.
in this “edit view” the body content area is blank.
Now, if you go to the live site, the same page has content on it (see it here http://www.wdcwa.com/documents)
i’m sure there is a way to post pics….that would probably help.
You can add links to files on Dropbox, Cloud.ly, etc. I’m still a little unclear on what you’re looking at—it sounds like it may be the Pages module’s tab on the publish page, but it would not have a capitalized name, and the template would include both a group name and a template name. If you need some direct private support, which may be beneficial since you’re jumping into an outdated installation without the benefit of experience, please email [email protected] and we can help you directly.
see if you can access this screen grab.
?dl=0
this is the live page: http://www.wdcwa.com/documents
I can’t figure out how the list of pdf links is populating.
does any of this look familiar? In the CMS area…i can see the structure of the site….I’m able to create new pages, add content and even connect them with parent pages.
Thinking i will have to contact ellis lab. seems like basic support.
Ok thanks for that screenshot. So that is just a regular entry with a title of “Document”. It’s not tied to any specific page by nature. When and how it is displayed is determined by simple tags in your your templates, found in the Templates area of the control panel. Likely you have a template group named “documents” and the “index” template in that group has all of the tags that determine what is to be displayed on that page. Working with a CMS like ExpressionEngine that separates content from design (and hence the idea of content living on pages) can have a little bit of a learning curve to grok its flexibility and power.
I would recommend reading the following resources, and maybe even trying to spin up a test environment from your installation so that you can play around and learn the system without worrying about messing up a live site.
Both of these are multi-page walkthroughs for v1 to take you through the overview and basics of how the system works and where things live:
Side-note that may sadly override some of what you will learn above, is that I see you have three tabs that are not native to ExpressionEngine: Structure, ReOrder, and Website Forms. Those are third-party add-ons, one of which (Structure) dramatically changes how and where you control how content is displayed. In fact it sort of reverses ExpressionEngine’s core design principal of separating content from the page, and makes much of ExpressionEngine behave more like a “page-based” CMS. You will need to consult the documentation for those add-ons to learn how they affect your installation, as they are not something that the folks at ExpressionEngine can help you with.