System users and user preferences
System rules govern the logic used to pre-filter content displayed in panels, where either of the following two checkboxes are selected on a content panel (Content list, Masonry, Slider, etc.):
System rules for user preferences are only available on a dashboard; such as channels, module dashboards and the home dashboard etc., and the rules are only applied when the
Respect user dashboard preferences
checkbox is has been selected. If the checkbox is not selected, the rules will be ignored.
User preferences work just like system rules for channels, except instead of the administrator selecting the metadata labels (which is done via
Channel settings
>
Metadata
tab), a user can select their preferences in the
System preferences
screen.
There is a second field available called
Dashboard Preference message
. This field is designed to facilitate the administrators, providing guidance text to the user via the
System preferences
page.
Additionally, using variables in the dashboard preference message, (if any metadata node's number is placed in this field within braces, for example, {1} or {2}), the end-user will be shown the name of this node in place of the number. For example where the above metadata nodes and labels exist, and again we use the rule: 1 AND (2 OR 3) - but this time for
Dashboard preferences
; the user will then need to select at least one metadata label from 'Country' AND one metadata label from 'Area of law' OR 'Sector'.
In this case, a system admin might want to use an instruction text as follows:
Please select one label from {1} and then either an {2} or a {3}
This would then translate to the user as:
Please select one label from Country and then either an Area of law or a Sector
Providing them with adequate instructions to ensure they select the right options.
The following statements apply to the system rules of channels:
They are only available on channel dashboards
They are only applied when the
Respect channel settings
checkbox is selected on a panel.
System rules are composed of two parts. Firstly, a rule and secondly a selection of metadata (selected in the
Metadata
tab of the channel configuration).
The rule (a logic expression) sets which metadata nodes must have a selection made (i.e. any node referenced in the rule will need to have one or more labels selected within it). If a selection is not made from each referenced node, it will prevent any content from being shown. The logic in the rule between the selected nodes then defines how the selected metadata labels work to build a filter.
For example, if we had the following nodes, with the following labels in them:
A rule set up as: 1 AND 2
This would mean that the selection in the Metadata tab of the channel would need to have at least one country selected and at least one area of law selected; because both 1 and 2 are referenced in the rule.
If we then made the follow selection in the channel Metadata tab:
This rule and selection combination would mean that in any panel on this channel dashboard with the
Respect channel settings
checkbox selected; only content which met the requirement of being tagged with both UK (from Country) AND Finance (from Area of law) would be available for display.
Further filtering of this content could then be done using the panel metadata filtering. However, it should be noted that the Channel rules (channel settings) will always be applied before any other filtering (either in the panel configuration or the user using drop-down filters) as long as the checkbox is selected.
If we changed the rule to: 1 OR 2 but kept the same selection, only content which met the requirement of being tagged with either the UK (from Country) OR Finance (from Area of law) would be available to for display.
If we were to use the following rule and selection:
In this case, only content which met the requirement of being tagged with both UK (from Country) AND one of Civil OR Finance (from Area of law) would be available for display. This is because the same node always has an OR between labels.
Rule: 1 AND (2 OR 3) Selection:
In this case, only content which met the requirement of being tagged with both UK (from Country) AND one of Civil OR Finance (from Area of law) OR Oil & Gas (from Sector) would be available for display.