Adding content in Page Composer

Written by The Jahia Team

The topic shows you how to use Page Composer to add content to the pages, and reuse existing content with references.

About areas and content lists

Areas define the layout of a page and where you can create content. Depending on the page template, areas are distributed differently on the page and can only contain certain types of content. You cannot move an area in a page. The following image shows examples of areas.

A content list is similar to an area as it allows you to create content within it and specify the way contents displays. You can modify the order of the contents using the Content List and Ordering field in Content Editor and set the style of the list using Advanced options>Layout. You can move a list of contents from one area to another, from one page to another, and so on. You have several types of content lists which restrict the types of contents that can be created inside them.

Adding content to a page

When you add content to a page, you select a content type. The content type defines what the content can contain, such as text, images, and structured content. For example, a news entry content type can contain a title, date, image and text. Content types are organized by category, for example Bootstrap 3 and Form Components.

To add content to a page, click on the button corresponding to the type of content you want to create in the desired area or list of your page, for example News Entry. This opens the Content Editor where you can create content. If you can create more than 3 different types of content in the same section of your page, then you will need to click on the Any Content button.

To add content to a page:

Click the Any content button
on a page to open the content type selector. You can use the search field at the top of the dialog to filter the contents types.

Note: The content types that are available depends on the area of the page in which you create content.
Select a category to display its contents types. Then, select and content type and click Create to add it to the page.
In Content Editor, specify properties for the content type and click Save.

The content is created in a content area of the page or in a content list.

Important: You cannot choose the position of new content within an area relative to other content in the same area at creation time. If the content ordering of a zone/list is not automatic, you can move your content inside the zone by drag-and-dropping it or by using the Content List and Ordering field in the corresponding area or content list.

Adding references to content and files

References display content or files from other sections of your site, such as areas, pages, or folders. References enable you to display the same content in several pages. This makes it easier to manage your content, because you only have to modify the original content and changes are reflected in the referenced content.

Note: Depending on your site, you may have other types of references to choose from.

The main types of references provided by default with Jahia are:

Image references
Enables you to display an image on your site. You can use a different image by language and also add internal and external links to images.
File references
Enables you to display a link to a file or image on your site and specify the name of the link that displays. By choosing the multi language type, you can specify a different file by language.
Content references
Enables you to select content created elsewhere in your site to display in your page. From the Layout entry in the Advanced tools tab, you can choose the display style, known as “view”, of this referenced content.

You use the content reference type when you copy content and then you select Paste reference.

Starting publication of a content reference also starts publication of the referenced content. Referenced contents appears in the list of contents to be published, if they are not already published.