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Content navigation pane in CMS Lite

Last updated on January 9, 2024

The content navigation pane in CMS Lite allows you to view and manage the pages in your security group.

On this page

Understanding the content navigation pane

When a page is created in the CMS Lite, a unique ID (GUID) is assigned to the page settings. This allows pages to be moved from one topic to another within your security group without breaking existing links. 

  • To move pages, drag and drop the page (or node) from one location to another in the Navigation Tree

Interpreting navigation tree icons and text colours

In the Navigation Tree, you will see different icons and different coloured Nav Title text.

The colours represent different states the page may be in:

Black text

There is a published version of the page and there were no validation errors when it was last saved.

Light blue text

There is no published version of the page, but it can be published, as there were no validation errors when it was last saved.

Red text

There were validation errors when the page was last saved. The page cannot be published (or republished) in its current state. There may or may not be a published version of the page already.

After publishing content, click the Content menu to refresh the Navigation Pane text and icons.

Selecting pages for actions

It's important to ensure the check box selected checkbox is active next to the desired page(s) before selecting an action. This is especially important when deleting pages using the Action drop-down menu.

Hold the Shift or Ctrl key to select multiple pages, where applicable.

Caution on deleting pages

Anyone in the same security group can perform the actions in the drop-down menu. Use caution when selecting the Delete function.

  •  If a page is deleted in error, you will need to submit a request to the GDX Service Desk at gdx.servicedesk@gov.bc.ca to have the page restored

Error messages 

Publishing errors

When publishing page(s) from the Action Menu that do not meet validation:

  • A red error message will be displayed in the upper-right corner
  • You will be immediately notified via an email titled “ Publish Job Failed - Validation Errors” with a list of page(s) that need to be fixed. 

When publishing a single page via the [Publish] action button, the same message will be displayed but no email will be invoked.

unsuccessful publish validation message

level error message

Maximum level errors

The government site structure allows for up to eight levels of content to be created. If you attempt to create content below level 8 an error message will be displayed.

Action drop-down menu options

To apply any of the actions in the menu, at least one page (or node) must be selected.  

Action drop-down menu

Menu elements
Action button Details
New page

Select one parent node to add a topic new page beneath it. The page will be titled 'New Page' and will be assigned a unique Page Path and ID (GUID) upon creation.

  • Up to 20 pages may be created each time the New Page action is used
  • If more than one node is selected, the menu item will be greyed out

See Setting Tab for more details.
Clone page

Select one page to clone. This feature will replicate all data in the page and appended the page title with '- clone'. 

  • Up to 20 pages may be cloned each time the Clone Page action is used
  • If more than one node is selected, the menu item will be greyed out
Clone page with children Select one parent page to clone. This feature will replicate all data in the parent page and its children. Each page will be appended with the page title with '- clone'.
New external link

Select one location to add a new link to an external web page. 

  • If more than one node is selected, the menu item will be greyed out
  • Only one external link may be created at one time
Delete

Select one or more nodes to be deleted. Deleting removes the node from both the Quality assurance (QA) web server and the Production (Prod) web server (if the page has been published.)

  • If a page is deleted in error, you will need to submit a request to the GDX Service Desk to have the page restored
Lock selected

Select one or more nodes to be locked. 

  • Once a page is locked by you it cannot be edited by another user until it is unlocked
Unlock selected

Select one or more nodes to be unlocked. 

  • You cannot edit a page that is locked by another user until it is unlocked
  • If you unlock a page locked by another user, an email notification will be sent to the user
  • It is not necessary to unlock a page before publishing it
Bulk tag selected

Select one or more nodes to apply terms to selected pages. 
Bulk tag metadata and terms to selected and their children

Select one or more nodes to apply terms to selected pages and all child nodes. 
Publish left navigation

Publishes only the left navigation structure, not the content. The feature is beneficial when the Information Architecture (IA) has been restructured, but content changes are not ready for publishing.

  • This feature is only available for users who have the role of CONTENT_AUTHOR, CONTENT_APPROVER and SYSADMIN
Publish selected

Select one or more nodes to be published. 

  • A final save to the database of all selected pages will be performed before publishing to the Production web server
Publish selected with children

Select a Parent node and all child pages will be published.

  • All pages will be validated prior to successfully publishing to the Production web server
Unpublish selected

Select one or more nodes to be unpublished immediately.

  • Unpublished page(s) remain on the QA server, but are removed from the Production web server, including the link from the left-hand navigation