An Introduction to eZ Publish Concepts

Site interfaces

The content of a site can be displayed (and modified) in various ways. This is possible through multiple site interfaces. At a minimum, each site has two site interfaces: the Administration Interface and a public front-end interface for visitors. The latter can include the Website Interface for content management.

A typical example is that the site administrator uses the Administration Interface to build and modify the site, while a content editor uses the more lightweight Website Interface to manage content.

Siteaccesses

To decide which site interface to display, eZ Publish uses a generic solution called a siteaccess. Siteaccesses define two things:

• How eZ Publish recognizes the site interface that is being accessed
• Miscellaneous configuration settings that override the defaults

The most significant configuration overrides are the design settings and the database used.

One way to recognize a site interface is through the address (URL) in the browser. In other words, a site interface refers to the visual presentation whereas a siteaccess occurs at the system management level. The Administration Interface corresponds to the admin siteaccess, and the public front-end interface (possibly containing the Website Interface) corresponds to the public siteaccess. Multilingual eZ Publish sites usually also have different site interfaces for each of the available languages. Thus, they have multiple public siteaccesses, one for each language.

The Website Interface

Most basic content management tasks can be performed via the Website Interface. It has a simpler graphical user interface (GUI) than the Administration Interface. One reason for this is that the Website Interface is embedded in the front-end of the site. As a result, you can navigate the site through familiar menus and links to locate content. A second reason that the Website Interface is much simpler than the Administration Interface is the Website Toolbar. This provides easy access to content editing operations related to the content that is being viewed.

The Administration Interface

The Administration Interface is the advanced back-end interface, providing powerful tools for content management and editing as well as site management, configuration, customization and development. What makes the Administration Interface more advanced is not only what it enables you to do, but the interface itself. The visual presentation of content is stripped down, with all design elements, layout and styling pertaining to the public siteaccess removed. That said, the Administration Interface has its own layout, but it is restricted to structural organization of content, with navigation menus, access to management operations and special-purpose embedded interfaces (to manage content versions or create new user accounts, for example).