Shared Content Reference Component

This component displays a fragment of piece of content on your page, where that content is not on this page, but instead is stored in your site’s Shared Content area.

Every UBCMS website has three content areas: regular Web pages, digital Assets, and Shared Content. Shared Content pages are fragments of regular webpages, without navigation or a header or footer. They are created to provide one piece of content that is usually meant to display in multiple places all at the same time, such as a common address that is displayed on all your staff pages, or a news release that can be displayed on many pages or even different websites simultaneously, as if it was created by each of those departments instead of by its original host site.

2. Open the Sites Console and navigate to your site; e.g. Sites + Self-Paced Training + {your site}.

3. Choose any page on your site or create a new page.

4. Select that page and click Open in the Commands Menu that now appears.

5. To add a component...

• Click the Toggle Side Panel button in the upper left of the window.
• Switch to the Component Browser.
• Components are listed alphabetically. Or type part of its title and click Enter.
• Find your desired component and drag it onto the page.

6. Select the component, then click the wrench icon to Configure it.

7. Set the Reference by clicking the magnifying glass icon (Finder tool).

• For this exercise, navigate to Shared Content + Training and select 'Facts and Figures.'
  
• (On your real website, you will be looking for your own shared content.)
  
• Click Select.

8. Note the result is a URL fragment, actually a UBCMS reference not a complete URL like a regular link. References to shared content will always begin “/content/shared…”

9. Click the checkmark icon when you are done. (The 'X' cancels your changes.)

10. You should now have a section of new content on your page, with a heading, a picture and a table of factoids about UB.

If the referenced Shared Content is changed, your page will automatically be updated with that new content. No further action is required.

Best practice: if you are using shared content that another unit has created, please make sure to use content that is intended for general use, or even better, get their permission to use it. That way you will not suddenly discover its scope has changed, or even worse that it has unexpectedly been deleted.

Note: you are referencing Shared Content, which is in a central depository of the UBCMS. If that piece of Shared Content is modified, your page will automatically reflect those changes (in Author and on your live site). If that Shared Content is deleted, it will 'vanish' from your own page.

• Shared Content Reference Component
• UBCMS Basics: Shared Content