Managing Panels in PHP-Fusion

When you need to work with the menus and links that help your users navigate within your PHP-Fusion website you are actually managing the panels and site links. You can control position, visibility per user type, and appearance of the links. The following article explains panels how they are used to setup the navigation menus within the PHP-Fusion website. For more information on Site Links, please see Managing Site Links in PHP-Fusion.

Setting Up and Editing Panels within PHP-Fusion

Understanding Panels

To understand the panels within PHP-Fusion review the screenshot below. Each panel section is highlighted and labeled:

As per the screenshot above, you can see the positions of the panels that PHP-Fusion uses in its default layout. Each position is listed in the Panel management area. If you login as an Admin and go into the menus for the PANELS (under SYSTEM ADMIN), you will see the options available for editing each panel:

You can add multiple panels per position. Each item within the panel is a Site Link (see Managing Site Links in PHP-Fusion for more details). Note the green arrows on each panel item. You can click and drag each item to reposition each of the listed site links.

Creating New Panels

Login to the PHP-Fusion Admin Panel.
In the section labeled with the ADMIN USER name, click on ADMIN PANEL.
Click on the SYSTEM ADMIN tab and then click on the PANELS icon to open the PANELS management area.
The screenshot to the right is identical to the one above and represents the Panel management area within the PHP-Fusion Admin Panel. Note that each section (Left, Upper Center, Lower Center, and Right) has an option button labeled NEW. Click on NEW button and you will see the screen for adding a new Panel.

When you open the ADD PANEL dialog (by clicking on NEW PANEL), you will see the options to add a new Panel Name, selecting a Panel filename, Panel Content, Panel restrictions, and panel access. Each of the options are described below:

Panel Name	Name of the panel as it will appear on the website
Panel Filename	Name of a file controlling the behavior of the panel; if you select an existing file, then the Panel Content will be ignored
Panel Content	You can use PHP code control panel behavior as it appears on the website
Panel Restriction	You can use the Panel Restriction to exclude or include pages on the website. The radial button for “Exclude on these pages” and “Include on these pages” must chosen on the right.
Panel Access	Determine who can see the panel: public, member, administrator, super administrator

Click on each field and select or program your options as per the needs of your new panel.
Click on PREVIEW PANEL to view the panel as you have selected or SAVE PANEL to save your entries.

Edit, Disable or Delete Panels

Login to the PHP-Fusion Admin Panel.
In the section labeled with the ADMIN USER name, click on ADMIN PANEL.
Click on the SYSTEM ADMIN tab and then click on the PANELS icon to open the PANELS management area.

Management actions available for the Panel:

EDIT	Click on EDIT in OPTIONS column to edit panel. Make sure to click on SAVE CHANGES after making any changes to panel
DISABLE	Click on DISABLE to immediately disable a panel. Click on ENABLE to re-enable the panel.
DELETE	Click on DELETE in the OPTIONS column to delete a panel. Care should be taken when deleting as you only have the one confirmation question to delete before it actually occurs.
DRAG-n-DROP	As per the earlier description of this option (in the section above), there is a DRAG-N-DROP option available within the menu. Simply left-click on the green arrows the left of the Panel name, then drag to the new position and release.

This completes the tutorial on managing the Panels section of the PHP-Fusion. Remember that in order to edit the actual links in the panel, you will need to edit the site links. See the tutorial on Managing Site Links in PHP-Fusion for further detail.

Need More Help?

Setting Up and Editing Panels within PHP-Fusion

Understanding Panels

Creating New Panels

Edit, Disable or Delete Panels

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