Layout of the eZ Publish Administration Interface

There are various ways to navigate the Administration Interface. The two most common methods are clicking around and searching. You can also navigate to a specific node by clicking on your pre-configured bookmarks. The primary navigation zones when using the point-and-click approach are the main menu, secondary (left) menu, path and Sub items window.

Content navigation through the secondary menu and Sub items window

The most convenient method for navigating the content hierarchy is to use the secondary menu. This menu is used to explore the node tree by opening different branches just as you would do when navigating a local file system. Using the secondary menu for the first three tabs in the Administration Interface, you can navigate the Content, Media and Users branches. The + and - buttons to the left of each node icon are used to unfold and fold the branches of the tree at any level. Note that if JavaScript is not enabled in your browser, the tree in the secondary menu is completely unfolded at all times.

The tree can also be navigated using the path and the Sub items window. In both cases, you click the text links that correspond to the node to which you wish to navigate. Note that this takes much more time than using the tree menu, because every click forces the page to reload, while folding and unfolding the tree menu does not. However, your secondary menu might only show the main container nodes in the node tree. This is done in order to prevent a noticeable drop in performance when having to list all nodes on large sites. Thus, you will sometimes have to use the Sub items window together with the secondary menu in order to navigate to your desired location.

Searching for content

The built-in search engine indexes almost everything that is added to the site. Searching is used in many settings, including assisting navigation, listing an overview of content with some common elements, identifying particular content, locating content (such as a page) that you want to edit, move or remove, and finding a place to publish some new content.

The Search interface is located in the upper right corner. It is always present and can be used to search regardless of the part of the Administration Interface that is being accessed. (The one exception is edit mode, where the Search interface is visible but disabled.) The default behavior is that the system will search for the specified word(s) within the entire node tree.

A typical search procedure involves:

1. In the search field, enter the name or content phrase to search for.
2. Click the Search button.
3. Matches are displayed in the main area. Click on the name of the node that you want to examine. The system will then display that node, and you can click the Edit button to edit it.

eZ Publish bookmarks

The built-in bookmark mechanism enables each user to store personal links to different nodes. For example, this mechanism can be used to bookmark (and subsequently quickly access) pages that you frequently edit. The Bookmarks window in the right area of the Administration Interface contains a list of the current user's bookmarks.

These bookmarks are specific to eZ Publish and should not be confused with the bookmark mechanism of your web browser. The Bookmarks window will not display any bookmarks from the browser, and the eZ Publish bookmarks will not be displayed in the bookmarks list in your browser menu. The list of bookmarks can be enabled and disabled using the + and - buttons. The Bookmarks window provides a button that can be used to bookmark the currently displayed node.

Managing and organizing your personal bookmarks - to delete existing bookmarks and add new ones, for example - is done through the Bookmarks interface located in the My account tab. This interface is accessed by either clicking the My bookmarks link in the My account tab or by clicking the Bookmarks link at the top of the Bookmarks window in the right area.