About Pages, Folders, and Files
NOTE: RECENT REVISIONS TO SITEFRAME HAVE RENDERED THIS DISCUSSION OBSOLETE. STAY TUNED FOR FURTHER UPDATES.
The three most common types of objects used on a Siteframe website are Pages, Folders, and Files. This page describes what each of these objects are, how they are used, and what some of the restrictions are.
A Page is just what you expect: a single page on the website. Each page has a title and some text, like the text used on this page to describe what a Page is. Every Page is owned by a single site member, who is referred to as the owner of the page. (The owner has certain privileges associated with pages, and these are described below.)
A Folder is a named collection of Pages. You can use a folder as a weblog, a table of contents, or a photo gallery, depending upon what layout the owner selects when the folder is created. Every Page exists in a folder. Folders, like Pages, have an owner.
A File is an uploaded file such as a spreadsheet, a text document, or a photograph. Files also have an owner, just like folders and Pages (in fact, every object in Siteframe has an owner). Files are not associated with a folder; they exist on their own, though they can be linked to one or more Pages. That is, a Page can have zero or more Files attached, and a File can be attached to zero or more Pages.
The owner of an object has certain special privileges. The owner of an object, for example, can always edit or delete it. When the object is edited, certain attributes (title, text, etc.) are changed, and the modified object is saved back to the database. When an object is deleted, however, most associated objects are deleted as well. For example, when an owner deletes a Folder, all of the Pages in that folder are deleted as well. When a Page is deleted, the link between the Page and any attached Files is removed, but the Files themselves are not deleted (to delete a File, it must be deleted directly).
Folder Access Control. A Folder can be shared among several members of the website. Specifically, each folder can have three levels of access:
- A private folder can only be used by its owner.
- A folder marked as public can be used by any site member (the Public setting is available under the "Optional Settings" of the folder's edit page.
- Finally, a folder can have an associated access control list (also available under "Optional Settings"). This is a list of other site members who can add objects to the folder. Members who are on the access control list can add Pages to the folder (and remove them), but they cannot edit or delete the folder itself (only the folder's owner can do that).
Since Siteframe is designed for the sharing of information, and not its restriction, the contents of the folder are always visible to site visitors (note: access to the site can be restricted by the administrator).
Note that, even when a folder is public or has an access control list, the rules about deleting the folder still apply: if the owner decides to delete the folder, then all the pages in the folder are deleted as well, no matter who owns them.
