Click Close. Creating an Item Type

Preparing to Add Content 5-9

5.2.2.2.2 Adding Attributes to an Item Type

To add attributes to an item type: 1. Use the Navigator to browse to the item type that you want to edit. To get to the Navigator click the Navigator link on any page. By default you can find a Navigator link on the Portal Builder page.

2. In the row for the item type, click the Edit link.

3. Click the Attributes tab.

4. In the Available Attributes list, select the attributes that you want to add to the

item type.

5. Click the Move icon to move the selected attributes to the Selected Attributes list.

The order of attributes in the Selected Attributes list determines the order in which the attributes are displayed when users add or edit an item of this type. Use the icons to the right of the list to change the order.

6. Click Apply to add the attributes to the item type.

7. When you have added the attributes, you can change their display properties if necessary:

a. In the Default Value field, enter the value to use by default for the attribute. If

content contributors do not specify a value for the attribute, the default value is used. If you provide a default value, contributors will not be able to set the attribute to a null value, they can only replace the default value with another non-null value. You can leave this field blank if you prefer. Multi-valued attributes are not supported for lists of values. That is, users are able to choose only one value from an attribute list of values. This means that attribute values can be displayed in combo boxes and pop-ups, but not as check boxes, drop-down lists, or radio buttons. If you are suppling a default value for the base item link item type, you must enter the target items globally unique identifier GUID, which you can determine through the items property sheet. The GUID is the alpha-numeric value at the end of the items Item Link, for example F43069B7A66E553AE030B98B6C883291. Using the GUID is also a way to provide a default value for an item that belongs to another page group--a normally prohibited action. Using any other type of item identifier for the default value, such as the items internal name, results in an error when users try to add the custom item to a page. You can use PLSQL expressions and function calls to determine the default value for an attribute. You must precede the expression or function call with a character. The function being called must already exist in the database and must be prefixed with its owning schema. For example: - To set the default value of the Author attribute to the current user, you would set the default value of the attribute to USER. Tip: If the item type is shared or is one of the built-in item types, it will be in the Shared Objects page group. See Section 4.6, Sharing Objects Across Page Groups