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Building a Cruise Homepage

This article looks at the elements that make up the homepage and how they can be customised.

Almost all of the features are optional. If you don't enable them, the rest of the content will move up to fill the space.

Top Task Service Directory

This section of the page is optional. If you don't pick a service directory article, the search will be centred at the top of the page.

Top Task Menu Expanded

Pick an article to use as the service directory in the Home template article extras:

Service Directory in Home Extras

The first four child articles make up the main blocks of the menu. The example above has this structure:

Service Directory Article Tree

We generally use the List template for each of these child articles. Each article has a "page icon" media type related to it.

The "allow links" setting should be left as "Yes". The "No" option is only for backwards compatibility.

When a user clicks on a menu item, the menu expands, displaying the child articles. If a menu item doesn't have any child articles, it acts as a link.

"View all our services" links to the service directory article. For that reason it's best to use the List template.

Site Search

There's no need to configure the site search. The search article picked in the subsite configuration appears here automatically. You can set the placeholder text in the Home template article extras.

Featured Task

The featured task is a single article picked in the Home template article extras.

Featured Task Settings

It can appear in the header (directly below the service directory), or below the main content (between the tabs/body and the news panels).

In the header position the image related to the feature article appears to the left:

Header Top Feature

Below the main content the image is placed in the background:

Main Content Feature

If you don't pick an article one won't appear and the rest of the content will move up to fill the space.

Home Tabs or Header Navigation?

The Cruise theme displays the child articles of the homepage as a menu in the site header:

Header Menu

In the Home template article extras you can decide if, on the homepage, this menu appears in the normal position, or as a series of tabs:

Home Tabs Settings

The tabs setting places the menu beneath the service directory:

Home Tabs

If you choose the tabs option you can also pick article from anywhere in your site rather than use the child articles of the homepage.

Whichever options you choose for the homepage, the header navigation on the rest of the site won't be affected.

Body Content

If you enter body text into the article editor it will appear below the home tabs.

News Panels

These blocks are created by relating articles to the Home template. Up to three can be displayed, which usually looks best (if you only pick one or two you'll have a gap to the right hand side of the page).

Standard Panels

Default articles related to the homepage display their title, first related image, and intro/summary text.

Default News Panel

List Panel

Articles using the list template display their heading, then details from the first article in the list.

List News Panel

How to add a Twitter Feed

Rather than add pages from your site, you can embed other content, like a Twitter feed.

Twitter Feed

Create an article using the Redirect template.

In the body text, add a script inline with your Twitter feed embed script in it:

Script Inline

There's no need to add any other text. Relate this article to your homepage.

Last modified on September 18, 2024

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