The Node Browser

The Node Browser presents the database behind a WT website in a tree form. To view the Node Browser, go to The Office -> Tools -> Node Browser

Each of the nodes in the tree is a record in the database

Each node has a unique identifier. This is its 'guid' (Globally Unique Identifier)
Each node has a particular type. The type of node determines the attributes it has. Eg a node of type 'Contact' will have attributes such as 'First Name', 'Last Name', 'Email Address', etc
Each node has permissions identifiying who can read, write or list the node
A special Node Type is 'wtNode'. It has no attributes besides its name. Its purpose is to provide structure to the tree. 'wtNode' nodes are represented in the Node Browser with folder icons.
Clicking on a node will show the data for that node. It will also let you edit the data and create a child node. When creating a child node you have to specify the node type first.

Things to look at in the Node Browser:

/Pages contains the pages of a website.
- '/Pages/Sitemap' contains the pages that can be accessed from the main menu of the site (eg News, About Us, Contact Us)
- '/Pages/Footer Pages' contains the pages that are linked to by the footer section of the website (eg Privacy statement, terms and conditions)
- '/Pages/Special Pages' contains pages which are not directly linked by any page on the site (eg Search Results)
- Each node representing a page is of node type 'Page'
- 'Page' nodes have an attribute 'URI'. When a request is made to a WT site by a web browser, WT will look for a Page node with a matching URI and then will display that node. eg http://bridgehead.com.au/contact will cause WT to look for a node which has its URI attribute set to 'contact'
/Templates
- Each page is made from at least 2 templates
  - A Page Layout Template
  - A Content Template
- The Page Layout Template shows where the banner, menu, footer, etc go
- The Content Layout Template determines what type of page it is (eg News, FAQ, gallery)
- Usually every page of a site has the same Page Layout Template
- When someone creates a page with the Site Builder, they get to choose which Content Layout Template to use, but not what Page Layout Template to use.
/Contacts
- All Contacts are stored under the /Contacts path in the tree
- Contact nodes are of node type 'Contact'
- Contacts may be:
  - Administrators (people who log into webtemplate to administer the site)
  - Members (people who log in through the site)
  - General Contacts (people who have suscribed to a newsletter and are not a member)