Page Types

Page Types

Page Types in Pala provide a powerful way to define content types, consume page content across your site, and control block composition. This guide covers how to create and manage Page Types effectively.

Creating a Page Type

Basic Setup

  1. Select "Pages" from the toolbar

  2. Click the "Page Types" tab

  3. Click "Create Page Type"

  4. Fill in the required information:

    • Name (e.g., "Blog Post", "Product Page", "Team Member")

    • Color and Icon (used within Pala's UI)

Defining Page Content

Page Content defines content assigned to pages of this type. They help maintain consistent content structure across pages and can be used for:

  • Head content: like 'title' and 'meta' tags

  • Block content: using the 'Page Content' field type

  • External blocks: using the 'Page' and 'Page List' field types

Creating a Page Content item

  1. From the Page Type editor, click the 'Content' tab in the sidebar

  2. Click 'Edit Page Type' to open the Page Type editor

  3. Click 'Create Field'

### Block Management

Setting Available Blocks

All blocks belong to the entire site, but they can be enabled or disabled on particular page types to control page building composition for content editors. Content editors will only be able to drop blocks onto the page’s ‘drop zone’.

To toggle available blocks on a given Page Type:

  1. In the Page Type view, click "Blocks" in the sidebar

  2. Toggle blocks on/off to set their availability on pages of the given Page Type

Note: If a block is using a 'Page Property' field that corresponds to a different Page Type, it will appear greyed out. This is because it depends on content which is unavailable on the current page type. If you want to use it for the current page type, you should duplicate it and select the current page type as the selection for the relevant 'Page Property' field.

Configuring Static Blocks

Static blocks are permanently positioned and cannot be removed by content editors. They're useful for maintaining consistent page structures, either loosely to define e.g. the header and footer for a page type, or strictly to define the entire page structure.

To set static blocks:

  1. From the Page Type view, drag a block from the sidebar onto the page

  2. Fill out its content to define the default content for pages of the given type

Note: When no blocks are enabled for a Page Type, 'Blocks' will be hidden in the sidebar for content editors. This is useful for defining page types with a completely static layout (e.g. simple blog posts).

Integrating Page Content

Integrating with Page Head

You can template Page Content with pages in the same way you can integrate block fields with blocks. This is most useful for integrating 'Title', 'Description', and 'Image' fields with 'title' and 'meta' tags in the page head.

Accessing Page Content in Blocks

Page Content is available to all blocks within the page using the 'Page Content' field type. Page Content can be modified from the block, and will be indicated with a 'Page Content' label.

  1. From within the content view of the Block editor, create a new field

  2. Select the 'Page Content' field type

  3. Select the field to retrieve

Using Page and Page List Fields

Page and Page List fields allow you to create relationships between pages and display content from other pages within your blocks.

‘Page’ Field Type

Use the Page field type to reference a single page:

  1. Create a new field in your block

  2. Select 'Page' as the field type

  3. Select the Page Type to restrict the selection to

  4. In the content editor, select the target page

Example uses:

  • Featured article on homepage

  • Related product

  • Team member's supervisor

‘Page List’ Field Type

Use the Page List field type to reference multiple pages:

  1. Create a new field in your block

  2. Select 'Page List' as the field type

  3. Select the Page Type to restrict the selection to

  4. In the content editor, select or reorder pages

Example uses:

  • Blog post list

  • Team member directory

  • Product category listings

  • Related articles section

Note: at the moment, the ‘Page List’ field type doesn’t enable content editors to filter or select pages. As a workaround, you can manually set up filters by creating additional fields and integrating a filter function in the block’s code.

Example: Creating a 'Team Member' Page Type

Let's walk through creating a complete Page Type for team member profiles:

1. Creating the Page Type

First we'll create the Page Type and set its name, icon, and color. Then we'll select it to open up the Page Type view.

2. Setting static blocks

We'll define the page structure by dragging site blocks onto the page. Usually this means at least the site navigation and site footer, but for this page we'll also include a 'Profile' block which every team member should have.

3. Setting available blocks

We'll also give content editors the ability to add two blocks to Team Member pages: ‘Editorial’, to add any rich text below the team member (like a CV) and ‘Contact Card’ to add their email and social links.

4. Defining and integrating Page Content

Finally, we'll define Page Content for team members. To do so, we click 'Edit Page Type' from the sidebar to open up the Page Type editor, from where we will create relevant fields: Name, Job Title, Short Bio, and Headshot.

Integrating with head

Next we'll click 'Edit Page Type' from the sidebar to open up the Page Type editor, from where we'll integrate the name as the page title, and the short bio and headshot as the page description and image, respectively.

Integrating with internal blocks

Now we'll create a new block to use as the page header for Team Member pages. We'll create 'Name', 'Title', 'Image', and 'Biography' fields. For the first three, we'll select 'Page Content' as the type and select their respective property, but since the fourth one contains content that only lives within this block, we'll select a non-dynamic field type.

Integrating with external blocks

Once we’ve built out our initial list of Team Member pages, we’ll create a a 'Team Member List' block that we'll use on the 'Team' page. To pull in the list of team members, we'll use the 'Page List' field type.