Build lists of links (bullets, teasers or entire pages).
Last reviewed: November 27, 2023
This component initially has only the List tab. A second tab with corresponding settings appears after the Build list using option is chosen.
Lists with more than 500 teasers will generate a server error and not show any results. More details in this Known Issue: Page editing slow / lists break when too many components are included.
This component is intended to link to shared content hosted on another page. The linked content CANNOT be hosted on your home page. If you use the default hosting setting, the home page will simply refresh, and the linked content will not be displayed.
> Read more about use on a home page
In lists, teaser thumbnails are square to better support all image shapes. When present, the teaser will preferentially use an image in set in the Page Properties (see Page Properties: Image tab). Consider adding a customized image there in addition to what is on your page, or recrop what you have previously loaded there to work better as a square thumbnail.
Tip: Learn how to make a quick link to the top of your page.
Click the wrench icon to 'configure' these settings.
Here you will choose the type of list, as well as additional advanced settings.
Build list using: This drop-down menu asks how you want to build your list. You have the option to build it using:
Do not link to DAM assets using a relative path (/content/dam/...). For these you must use a File Download component. > read more about this Known Issue: Having Trouble Linking Downloadable Files in the DAM
New window: Select so each clicked page is displayed in a new browser tab. When selected, an additional icon will follow the linked text on your published page, to alert visitors they are about to be taken to a new browser tab, and possibly leave the current website.
Note: For accessibility reasons, be careful about sending your visitor to a new tab. This behavior may be unexpected and disortienting. (> Learn more about link accessibility.)
'Open links in new window' and 'Display as: Full content' are incompatible and will disable each other when selected.
When New Window is selected, an additional icon will follow the linked text, to alert visitors that they will be taken to a new browser window, or even leave the current website.
And if the hyperlink goes to a downloadable file, an document icon will instead be shown as well as the file size if the file is on the same server. (Read more about link labels.)
Display as: This drop-down menu asks how you would like your list to be displayed. Lists fall into the general categories of Links, Teasers and Content:
'Display as: Full content' and 'Open links in new window' are incompatible and will disable each other when selected.
Order by: Here are some of the ways in which you can order your list. Not all appear in the dropdown. Others may be available on request -- contact the DCT Help Team for details.
Note: Generally it is best to provide a value for this setting. When left blank, the results will obey the natural arrangement of the pages in their parent folder(s), but if the list is set up as a search or advanced search query, results will display by search relevance, and if the list is built by tags, the display order will be unpredictable.
Note to developers: some additional attributes are available on Author but not your live pages, so cannot be used, e.g. lastReplicated.
Reverse order - Check the box to select whether you would like to inverse the order selected in the Order by field.
Using server caching, 'random' content is shuffled to appear fresh for each visitor, but the entire original content collection is not redrawn each time it is presented. Instead, the server randomly pulls a sample of the original content after each cache refresh, and then shuffles that sample for your visitors. If you need to show the entire collection, take advantage of the 'show all' feature when it is available, and if your business needs require a truly random reassortment, please contact the DCT Help Team.
Start at: Select how many items you would like to skip at the beginning of the list (example: '5' will skip the first four items and begin the list at the fifth item). Left blank, the default value of '1' will result in the list displaying every item in your list. This setting can be useful if you wish to feature several items in one group, perhaps at the top of your news page, or on your homepage, and NOT have them repeated with the rest of your list displayed elsewhere on your site.
Limit: Choose a maximum number of entries (optional).
If you want all items to appear in the list, do not leave the Limit field blank. Instead, enter a value that you anticipate will meet your needs; for example, 200, 500, etc. (The News Center has used 9999 as a 'very large number' because their archives date to 1990.)
Limit by Date - Limit list to content posted within this many years; leave blank to see all results.
Mobile limit - Maximum number of items to be displayed on a small screen device.
Paginate after - This setting turns on paginated returns, with the maximum number chosen displayed for each page (optional).
Previous page link label - Specify the link label -- 'Previous' by default.
Next page link label - Specify the link label -- 'Next' by default.
Display in Columns - Allows the list to be split into more than one column.
Exclude current page - Do not display any entries that link to the page on which the list is shown (optional).
Enable Scheduling: Select to enable shared content Scheduling.
Host page - Specify on what page of your site you would like any shared content shown. By default will be the current page.
If you use another site's page as a host page, your list will be indexed with that other site's pages, and appear in tehri search reults.
Empty message - Choose a suitable message that will display if the list is currently empty. (In the example shown above, it will say "Sorry, there is no news today.")
If you plan to list 'everything', and that may exceed 100 items, be sure to set the Limit to a large number; e.g. "999".
To avoid confusion, every unique link on a page must have unique link text. It is not hard to compose comprehensive text for manually coded links, but links that are generated automatically by lists and carousels must also be different, which takes more planning.
Also consider Call to Action, Button, and Tabs components, as well as the pagination and "see all" links in the Event and News List components which may have the same labels and appear more than once on a page. (Some of these have additional label settings that can help prevent this redundancy.)
Best practice: when creating shared content pages that will be used in lists, use distinct titles, or set the Navigation Title in the page Properties so none of your pages have the same title if they are displayed together. Also take advantage of additional label settings in other components when you will have several on a page.
Alternative text ('Alt text') is a best practice for all your UBCMS images and is often required for accessibility so screen readers can tell visually disabled users what they are not seeing.
Images displayed as teasers in lists require Alt text. Normally this is supplied in the original listed pages, often in shared content, and in some cases, in the metadata of the referenced images in Assets.
Best practice, Alt text should be added whenever an image is uploaded into Assets.
Link text should describe where the link will take the user in a manner that is appropriate to the context on your page and also the target page. This is also true for images that act as links.
Best practice: Avoid meaningless standalone phrases like "click here", "see all" and "learn more".
Links in many components can be set to open in a new browser window (or tab). The user can thus explore the new page, while preserving the source page (and your website) in the original tab. However, this can be confusing if the user does not realize a new tab has opened. They may become lost, confused how they arrived on that new page and unable to return to your site.
Best practice: let the user control their experience and stay in the same tab, with two notable exceptions:
If you wish to deliver news stories and other mixed shared content content consistently and effectively through a home page slide deck, we recommend the following best practice steps.
These tips should apply to all UBCMS components that provide a 'build by search' option (e.g. List Builder, News List, Event List, Full Width Carousel and the Horizontal and Vertical Slide Decks).
Please note, special characters (e.g. "&", "|", "-") are not permitted in a search query and are automatically removed.
You can also use the search option to list tagged pages. And the above logical operators allow fairly advanced logic for tagged pages that is not possible using other tools.
By default, the following is shown when you choose to display your list as these types of teasers:
To override the default and use custom text in your teaser:
To override the default and use a custom image in your teaser:
Click OK. The first image on the page will no longer be displayed in your teaser. Instead, the image you selected will appear.
Any list can be used to build an RSS feed so people can pull your content into their own website.
These tips should apply to all UBCMS components that provide a 'build by search' option (e.g. List Builder, News List, Event List, Full Width Carousel and the Horizontal and Vertical Slide Decks).
Please note, special characters (e.g. "&", "|", "-") are not permitted in a search query and are automatically removed.
You can also use the search option to list tagged pages. And the above logical operators allow fairly advanced logic for tagged pages that is not possible using other tools.