Slide Deck Vertical Component

Carousel showcases pages from your site (vertical navigation).

Using This Component

This component initially has two tabs: Slide Deck Module and Slide Deck Items. A third tab appears after the Build list using option is chosen.

The default size for this component is 392x288 pixels.

Works Best with Highlight Template

For best performance, please use this component with Shared Content pages created using the Highlight Template.

Be Careful With the 'host page' Setting

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

Technical Restrictions

This component is best suited for a page without columns.
Unlike other carousels and slide decks, this component cannot be randomized.
For best performance, please use this component with Shared Content pages created using the Highlight Template.
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

Configure - Main Settings

The component opened for editing showing the Slide Deck Module tab.

Click the wrench icon to 'configure' these settings.

Slidedeck Module Tab

Title: Provide a descriptive label for the module.

CSS Class: Advanced users should write CSS rules in the content.css file for the class provided in this field.

The component opened for editing showing the Slide Deck Items tab.

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:

Advanced search: Do not choose Advanced Search unless you are familiar with writing queries. Build a list using Java API and REST API. Advanced search accepts a query description, and creates and runs an XPath query.
- An Advanced Search tab will automatically appear.
- If desired, the XPath query will filter the result set and extract facets.
- Query descriptions are made up from a set of predicates.
- For each predicate type, there is an evaluator component that handles that specific predicate for XPath, filtering and facet extraction.
- The REST API provides access to these features through HTTP with responses sent in JSON.
Child pages: Populate the content of the list with the pages found in a segment of a website.
- A Child Pages tab will automatically appear. Click the magnifying glass icon to the right of the Parent Page field to select a folder from which to display pages in your list. (If you build your list with child pages you do not have the option of displaying them in the order of your choice.)

Curated list: Build a list with selected choices. Requires you to manually add pages to the list (and maintain).
- A Curated List tab will automatically appear. Click the magnifying glass icons to select Web pages to be displayed.
- Use the Up and Down buttons to specify the order that the web pages will be displayed in the list. The minus (-) buttons allow you to delete web pages while the + button enables you to add Web pages.
Another list: Populate your list using another previously created list. This is useful if you want to mirror items displayed on another page, while perhaps limiting the amount of items displayed.
- An Another List tab will automatically appear. Click the arrow at the right of the List Reference field to select another page from which to pull a list to imitate:
  - Click on the field to pull up a browser window of all the pages in your UBCMS.
  - Select the page containing the list you want to use.
  - The browser will display all usable components on the right hand side of the browser. Choose the desired list and click OK.
Search: Use a particular word or phrase to build a list. Any page that contains the searched-for term will be included in the list. Meta-data including tags can also be found in this way -- read more about searching for tagged pages.
- Search query: Enter a predetermined unique keyword or phrase; e.g. "ubgreen-event" in our example.
  This is optional, but with no keyword you will display ALL events in the calendar. More complex queries are possible. (See Tips for building a list 'Build by Search' query.)
- Start in: Click the magnifying glass icon to choose where to focus the search. Child pages but not the selected parent will be included. Leave blank to use the current page.
Tags: Build a list using the tag words assigned to certain pages. (Read more about Tagging Your Shared Content.)
- A Tags tab will automatically appear. In the Tags field, type the tags you would like to use or select the tags from a drop-down menu by clicking on the downward arrow sign to the right of the field.
  - In the Limit to path field, choose the scope of the list by selecting the page, and subsequent child pages, to which you wish to limit the list. Leave this field blank to populate the list using the content of your entire UBCMS. Web pages with tags matching your selections will then be displayed in your list.
  - Be advised, items in lists built using tags are not sorted in the normal default order even if they all originate in one folder. If you want the items to appear in a specific order, specify that in the Order by field.
- Tagged pages can also be listed using the Search option (read more), which allows more advanced control.

New window: Select so each clicked page is displayed in a new browser window.

Link Label Icons

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.)

Order by: There are several ways in which you can order your list:

postDate: Arrange the list items by the date the pages were created for pages created using the News Article Template or for pages that include the Date Created component. Using postDate for other pages will result in a randomized order.
jcr:created: Order the list by the date of creation, with the earliest date of creation beginning the list.
cq:lastModified: The list will be ordered by the date of modification. The page most recently edited will appear on top.
cq:template: The order will be established according to its arrangement in the Page Tree, sorted by template type used on each page.
jcr:title: The list is ordered alphabetically by title.
You can also delete the default option and leave the field blank to sort the list by its arrangement in the Page Tree.

Reverse order: Check the box to select whether you would like to inverse the order selected in the Order by field.

Unlike other carousels and slide decks, this component cannot be randomized.

Advanced list options

The component opened for editing showing the Slide Deck Items tab advanced settings.

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 left blank, the default value is 100; for example, if you leave it blank, no more than 100 items will be available.
Use a negative number to exclude items from the end of the series
If you set the Limit value smaller than the Paginate after value, users will never see the next page navigation!

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.)

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.

Scheduling can be used to automatically change the content in a list over time.
When scheduling is enabled, only pages whose “Featured on/off time” (as set in each page’s Page Properties) will be shown in the list.
Scheduled lists can be previewed for a given date and time by right-clicking the list and choosing “Schedule Preview”.
Unlike Delayed Activation or Scheduled On/Off Time, Featured On/Off Time does not affect the page’s visibility elsewhere on the site; it is still visible in navigation or by direct link.
Pages with “Featured on/off time” set must also be activated.
Examples of uses for list scheduling:
- Hide an application link after a deadline has passed.
- Switch from one featured image to another in a slideshow each day (set the start time of one item to the end time of another).

Host page: Specify on what page of your site you would like any shared content shown. By default will be the current page.

Auto-Play

The slideshows and carousels do not support auto-play. This decision was made in compliance with best practices for usability and site design, not to confuse users by changing elements on the page without their consent.

Accessibility Concerns

Learn more about the UBCMS and accessibility

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.

Additional Reference:

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.

Additional Reference:

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".

Additional Reference:

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:

Use the 'open in new window' setting if loading a new page in the current window would disrupt their current activity (e.g. moving them to a new page while they are in the middle of completing a form).
Use the 'open in new window' setting if loading a new page in the current window will break them out of a secure environment.

Additional Reference:

WCAG 2.0: opening new windows and tabs from a link only when necessary

The user should control carousels, slideshows and video, so they are not confused by unexpected behavior and to provide enough time for them to process each segment.

Best practice:

Do not auto-start video.
Do not automatically scroll a carousel or slideshow.
Provide tools that allow users to start, stop and resume animations.

These recommendations are supported by default in UBCMS carousel, slideshow and video components. Please comply with this best practice if you embed external video or animations.

Additional Reference:

WCAG: Web Accessibility Tutorials: Animations

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.

Lists and carousels are designed to 'host' linked stories somewhere else in your site, such as a news page. But the default Host Page setting is blank, which means if you do not supply a preferred host page, it will try to host the linked content "on the same page as the component” (i.e. your home page), and the UBCMS will not allow you to host other content on a home page. (Home pages are critical. This prevents accidentally breaking them or confusing visitors by replacing the expected content. It also prevents third parties to 'overpower' your home page with their own content... all very undesirable.) There is a solution.
1. Choose a suitable page on your site to act as a host page, perhaps your news page (e.g. /content/www/your-site/news).
2. Enter the path to this page in the Advanced settings for the slide deck.
3. Once this is set, any headline clicked in the slide deck will then shunt people to that linked content, displayed on your specified host page.
Many carousels (and slide decks) are meant to drive shared content created using the Highlight Template. This is the ideal way to achieve full and consistent functionality for all of the displayed content. This is easily attained for content that your own unit creates, but there are times when desired content has been built using other templates (e.g. News Article) or is not shared content. There is a solution.
1. Build ‘teaser’ pages in your own site's shared content area (perhaps in a folder called “home page slide deck”).
2. In that folder, create a shared content page using the Highlight Template for every item you wish to feature in your homepage slide deck. For each, You will need to add a picture, title, and some text, which you can repurpose from the story for consistency.
3. If you create a call to action within the shared content page using the List Builder (e.g. "read more about Susan's story") and want that call to action link to go to the same place as the main headline, you MUST add the same host page path in the List Builder component as you are using on your home page's slide deck (e.g. /content/www/your-site/news). Otherwise your call to action will display the story in its natural location, while your headline will display it on your preferred host page.

Tips for building a list 'Build by Search' query - These 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).

Search Operators

Boolean AND - All words in the search query must be present. A space basically functions as an AND operator.
e.g. international students, equals "international AND students" and will find pages with both those words present.
Boolean OR - Any of the words separated by OR must be present. Use OR ("OR" must be capitalized).
e.g. abc OR def will find pages with abc or with def, or with both words.
Boolean NOT - Exclude a word from the search query by preceding it with a dash/minus.
e.g. abc -def will find pages with abc but exclude those with def.
For an OR search, be sure to exclude the term from all parts of the search equation.
e.g. abc -def OR xyz -def will find pages with abc OR xyz but exclude those with def.
GROUPING - Use parentheses ( ) to set precedence among your search operators - parenthetical actions occur first.
e.g. (abc def) OR xyz will find pages with both abc AND def (as described in the AND section), as well as pages with xyz.
PHRASE - Threat the words as one alphanumeric string by using double quotes " ".
e.g. “abc def” xyz - will make abc def be in sequence, and xyz anywhere.
DISTANCE - "abc def”^10 will find pages with abc within ten words of def.
WILDCARD - Use ? to match any one character. Use * to match any number of characters respectively. Do not use either wildcard at the beginning of a word.
e.g. buil? would find pages with build or built but exclude pages with buildings
e.g. buil* would find pages with build or built or buildings

Please note, special characters (e.g. "&", "|", "-") are not permitted in a search query and are automatically removed.

Searching for Tagged Pages

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.

Each tag has an ID that looks like this: sandbox:admin-services/policy/admin
- Authors can see it in Page Properties, in the Tags option, by hovering over the tag.
- Tag Admins can view the ID in the “TagID” column in the Tag Admin interface.
- This ID is also visible in the page's source (e.g. Right-click + View Page Source).
Use the complete ID in your search in quotes and with the logic operators described above.
- e.g. "content-type:policy" -"sandbox:admin-services/policy/admin" would find pages with the policy tag but exclude those with the admin-services/policy/admin tag.
You must fill in the Start in path for this to work. Unless you have something more specific in mind, use “/content”.
Search returns will include child tags of the searched tags; e.g. "sandbox:admin-services/policy” also matches the tag sandbox:admin-services/policy/admin.
If the actual text like "content-type:policy” is on a page, that page will be found, too. Since most punctuation and capitalization are ignored, this could also appear in prose as something like “… the correct content type. Policy says you should …”
The search will also find its itself (the search page), since the query is stored in the page. You can prevent this by adjusting the Start in path to exclude the current page (such as searching for shared content only), or by using the Exclude current page checkbox under Advanced options.

On the Slidedeck Items tab, choose Build slidedeck using: Fixed list.

A new Fixed List tab will appear. Add links to the desired shared content pages and leave the associated link labels blank so you don't overwrite the default page Titles.

By default, the Slide Deck will use your page title, first paragraph and leading image in the left preview pane AND the navigation list on the right. There are several ways to control what appears in the left teaser pane so it is not simply repeating the teaser list on the right.

Solution 1 -- display shared content created using the Highlight Template

This approach gives you the most control.
These shared content pages contain a Flex Module by default. Edit this module:
- The Flex Module's Heading becomes the Title in the Slide Deck's 'Teaser pane.'
- The Text tab supplies the description in the 'Teaser pane.'
- The Image is used for the picture in the 'Teaser pane.'
Any links added to the Flex Module's associated List Builder will appear below the 'Teaser pane' description.
(Note: Page Properties changes are ignored as long as the flex module is correctly filled out.)

Solution 2 -- display shared content created using the News Article Template

On each linked shared content page, edit the Teaser fields at the bottom of the page: relevant fields are Headline, Text, and Image.
- The Heading becomes the Title in the Slide Deck's 'Teaser pane.'
- The Text tab supplies the description in the 'Teaser pane.'
- The Image is used for the picture in the 'Teaser pane.'
(Note: Page Properties description and image fields can also be used to generate the teaser description and image, but are overridden by the Teaser settings at the bottom of the page.)

For other Page Templates (e.g. Flexible Shared Content, Faces and Voices), you can only adjust the description and image.

In Page Properties
- Input your desired text in More Titles and Description.
- None of the Title changes have an impact.
- Add your preferred picture in Image.

See an Example

9/25/19 Slide Deck Vertical (demo site)

Slide Deck Vertical Component

On this page:

Using This Component

Technical Restrictions