About the Sulu Content ArchitectureΒΆ

We already heard something about Content Architecture in the introduction. Now we are starting to code will dig a little bit deeper.

Sulu uses PHPCR as a persistence layer, and therefore follows its structure. Additionally Sulu adds another layer called webspaces, which have already been explained in the section about the Which components are packed into Sulu?. These webspaces contain an arbitrary number of pages, which are ordered in a tree in a hierarchical way. Each of these pages can contain content in many different localizations.

This tree also represents the actual structure of the website, so that no additional navigation tree is required. Pages can be enabled in the navigation, and will then appear in the right spot on the navigation of the website.

The pages in Sulu have a specific template applied. The template defines which properties the page will have, whereby each of these properties are further specified by a content type. The content type will have a direct impact on the possible values and configuration possibilities of the property it is applied to. There is also a further reference of all the available Content Type Reference.

There are also some advanced features regarding the pages in Sulu. Besides the content management using the properties and content types already described there is also the possibility to define internal and external links. Internal links redirect to other pages managed by the content management section of Sulu, and external link to an arbitrary URL.

Another useful feature is the shadow page functionality. It allows to use the content of another localization. So if a webspace defines localizations for American and British English, it is possible to use the content of the American English for the British English, without managing the exactly same content again. This is especially useful if there are e.g. different contact addresses for each country, but the rest of the page should be exactly the same.

With the content architecture on our mind, we can Setup a Webspace.