Gossamer Links Walkthrough Step 2

Category Browser:

The category browser lets you easily view and manage large category structures through simple point and click interfacing. It's also the foundation for our editor system. Lost? Simply click here to open the category browser.

You should see two frames. On your left is a folder icon with the word Home. This represents the root of your directory. Clicking on the icon will expand it to see all the top level categories. What's great about the category browser is that it loads on demand. Only the first level categories are loaded, so if you have a very large database, the program is still very quick. Once you have loaded a category, it stays in memory so you can open and close it at will.

Try expanding and contracting some categories.

Beside each category is a folder icon. Whenever you want to do something with a particular category, you should click on the folder. Try clicking on a folder now. You will be presented in the right frame with a list of links in that category, and in your menu bar the ability to add subcategories, edit, delete or move the category as well as setup category relations and add category editors.

The Editors feature allows you to offload the management of a category to an editor. That person can then manage an individual category without accessing the admin panel or affecting data outside of their category. Editors can selectively add, modify, delete and validate links as well as change the category structure and even assign new editors! You can configure what actions your editors are capable of performing.

To try this out, simply pick a category and click Editors. When asked what user should be the editor, enter 'admin'. Choose what privileges you want the editor to have and hit ok. That's all there is to it!

Also be sure to try our point and click system for large directories. When you have thousands of categories, drop down select lists become impractical. To move a link, pick which one you want to move, click on Move, and then simply click on the category folder you want to move the link into.

You should now have a basic understanding of what you can do with the category browser. If you are a Links SQL 1.x user, or a Links user and are accustomed to the original method of entering and managing your directory, don't despair, it's all still in place.

Click on Database, the next menu item in the top navigation bar and then hit continue below.

Continue with the Demo - Step 3 »