What is the difference between Page Parts and Pages?

What are Page Parts?

Page Parts are organized content pieces we have developed within SiteWrench to help you manage your formalized content. Page Parts do all the heavy lifting of content arranging on the front end. All you have to do is populate content into the Page Part, and the Page Part shows the content in a pre-arranged manner on the public facing side of the site. There are three categories of Page Parts: Apps, Widgets, and Content. While we won’t get into the specifics of each type today, we do have resources available for you to explore the Page Parts available to you.

How are Page Parts and Pages related?

For the sake of a relevant analogy, let’s pretend Pages are bracelets, and Page Parts are the charms of a charm bracelet. You can have multiple bracelets and multiple charms, but one charm can exist on only one bracelet at a time. You have the ability to move the charm from bracelet to bracelet. You can also add multiple charms to a single bracelet and rearrange their order. Charms and bracelets are technically separate pieces that function independently from one another, but they work best when they are joined together.

Let’s take a Contact Us page as an example. The page itself can exist without any “charms”, or any Page parts. But without Page Parts, the Page (or “bracelet”) is completely bare and only exists as an architectural piece.

Admin view of a page with no Page Parts installed

Public facing view of a page with no Page Parts installed

We would need to install a Page Part onto the Contact Us page to show any content on that page. The above view on the admin side is rare. When you create a brand new page, SiteWrench automatically installs a Custom Content page part on the page so you start off with content to populate. This allows you to put in your text, images, etc.

Admin view of a page with automatic Custom Content Page Part installed

Once you populate that custom content piece and save it, content will begin to appear on the front end. But let’s say you want more than a Custom Content piece on your page. You want a Form for people to fill out to actually get in touch with you. In this case, you’d want to add another “charm” to your bracelet and select the button that says “Install Page Part” at the top of the page. You can add as many Page Parts as you’d like to a Page in this manner.

Scroll within this view to select the “Form” page part, name it, and then install on the page. Whenever you install a new Page Part on a page, the Page Part gets put at the bottom of the page. Wait for the page to reload, and then scroll all the way down.

Tip: At any point you can reorder the Page Parts so that the Form is on top of the Custom Content Page Parts. Select the “Reorder Page Parts” button and drag and drop your Page Part in the order you desire and Save.

Moving existing Page Parts from one Page to another

Let’s say you have installed a Form Page Part on the Contact Us page, but your colleagues don’t like it there. They want a totally separate page for the Contact Form. Rather than installing a brand new Form on the new page, go ahead and Uninstall (not delete) the Form Page Part that’s on the Contact Us page and move it over to your new page.

Uninstalling a Page Part means that the Page Part disappears from the page where it was installed, but the content loaded into the Page Part is not deleted; it is just housed in the limbo state until you decide to install it or permanently delete it. Then you can Install that same Page Part on a totally different page without losing any of the content you have loaded in or that your public users have loaded in.

The Installing and Uninstalling process is why Page Parts are considered separate entities from Pages. You have the ultimate control over the content within a Page Part and where it is loaded. It is never permanently attached to a Page.

The easiest way to change where a Page Part is installed is to pull up the settings specific to the Page Part. It’s the little gear symbol on the Page Part within the Page view.

Then select “Installed On” dropdown box and select the other page where you’d like to install this existing page part. Within that view, select “Save Changes”.

Learning more about Page Parts

Since Page Parts are a completely different entity than Pages, there is a whole section dedicated to the management of your Page Parts. I would encourage you to peruse our Support site and get to know the Page Parts available within SiteWrench. If you do not appear to have access to a Page Parts you would like to use, contact your Account Manager today.

Learn how to manage Page Parts.

Popular Page Parts:

• Custom Content
• Blog - example
• Calendar - example
• Forms - example
• Online Donations - example
• Media / Sermon Archive - example

We hope you found this tutorial helpful. Learning the difference between Page Parts and Pages will help you manage your content in the easiest, most efficient way. If you have any questions about SiteWrench that you’d like us to address, don’t be shy! Leave us a comment or fill out a support ticket and we’ll be glad to answer your questions or provide a tutorial to address your question. You can always sign up for free weekly SiteWrench training at your convenience.