The home page of sldinfo.com is comprised of multiple dynamic parts. Moving from left to right, they are as follows:
COLUMN 1
- Home page photo, top left. This image is inserted into post#2110, category HomePagePhoto. The image must be exactly 418 pixels in width (height flexible). On the image upload screen, enter a meaningful title (this is used as the alternative text). The actual text that is displayed below the photo, is contained inside <p> tags. The credits are displayed in a second <p> tag in italics (<em>). Note: It is important to insert the HTML code in the <img> tag border=”0″, example: <img title=”Mi-17 helicopter” src=”https://www.sldinfo.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/2009_dec25FP.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”Mi-17 helicopter” width=”418″ height=”341″ />.
- Lead editorial, left column, just under photo. The article must be entered as a “post”. In order to appear here, the category must be assigned “OpEdFrontPage”. Make sure also to give it the category “Op-Ed”, so it appears on the internal op-ed page once it has moved from the front page, and any other content category that is relevant.
- Quotation: If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn’t thinking. This is static text embedded in the HTML template of the page. It can be changed only by editing the HTML.
- Why Second Line of Defense box (under quote). The content for this page is contained in post 2106, and the category is ” HomePageAboutSLDBlurb”.
- Ads, bottom left. Currently these ads are called from the HTML static page; they will be moved into a banner ad plugin manager soon.
COLUMN 2
- The What’s New section. All posts here are called out dyamically according to what posts have been given the category “What’s New”. These articles should also be categorized according to subject, so that they continue to appear within the site: manufacturability, logistics and sustainment, Con-ops and operations, Connectivity and Security, Policy Dynamics. The query is set to bring only the four most recent “What’s New” Posts to the front page. Important: In editing the post, make sure to craft a brief and descriptive sentence or two and place this in the “Excerpt” section – otherwise the first few hundred characters of the post will appear and may not adequately represent the topic.
- Magazine Covers. These thumbnail images and links are hard coded in the homepage.php HTML file. They will be moved to a dynamic post soon.
- Tabbed content box at bottom of page. Each of these tabbed areas covers a content area of the site. Each tab calls up the most recent 3 articles that have been given the category of the corresponding tab. These are all dynamically generated.
Column 3
- Search box. This is hard coded in the template of the page.
- In Brief. These articles are brought in dynamically if they are given the category “In Brief”. Note that they can also be categorized with their specific month, e.g. in Brief November 2009, which will allow them to appear on internal pages. The four most recent posts will appear in this section. As with the “What’s New” section, it is important to enter an “excerpt” of text that you wish to serve as an abstract for the full article.
- SLDInfo subscription box (blue background). Post 2108, category: HomePageSubscribe.