Tab Groups & Tabs

What are Tab Groups?

Tab Groups (formerly Front Page tabs) are the new way to set a path to assemble and display a series of blocks on your microsite. Tabs can be used to display RSS feeds, Twitter feeds, tagged content or HTML content, and you can have different tab groups displayed on different pages. It works best if you create Tabs before creating a Tab Group.

Create Tabs for Tab Groups

  1. Log in to your microsite. 
  2. Choose Add content.
  3. Select Tab.

Tab Title

Tab titles display and tabs order alphabetically by label.  Use clear, descriptive labels to make selections easier. If you want a particular tab to come first in the display, leave a space in the title before typing the rest. If you re-label tab titles after first publication, you have to re-save the Tab Group to update what displays.

Another trick is to number all the tab titles if you want all of them to display in a specific order.

Type of Tab

The tab must have one of the following field sections completed:

Twitter

Send an email to help@ala.org or (staff should login to help.ala.org and create a TrackIt), specifying that you need a Twitter tab in your tab group. 

Be sure to include:

  • URL/ micro site the Tab will be placed on, as well as
  • URL to the Twitter account (hash-tags are not supported).

Unfortunately, Content Editors are no longer able to add/edit Twitter tabs within Tab Groups. It must be handled by our Drupal Administrator.

RSS

Paste the link from the RSS feed into the RSS Feed field. 

Hint:  If you currently have the tab for the RSS feed, in the deprecated Front Page Tabs, you can use the Find Content button (open another browser window/tab) and filter by type [Click the Filter button], so it will be easier to select the current /previous Front Page Tab from the list. 

Once you find the previous/current Front Page Tab, click on the title to go into Edit mode and copy the URL from the RSS Feed field into the new Tab.

Tagged Content

This section will allow for taxonomy terms to determine what shows up in the tab.  Fields in this section include:

Has ALL of these tags
Terms included here will be inclusive, as with a Boolean AND statement.  All the terms must be true for results to show up.

Has ANY of these tags
Terms added here will imply an OR statement, meaning that the items just have to have one term true for results to show up.

Display type
Choose to sort results by Date (most current) or Title (alpha).

Body

Text included in this field will display on the tab.  You can include relevant links in the text to be displayed in the tab. 

When you save each Tab you will be taken to a page that displays the content of that individual tab. This is not the same as publication in the Tab Group.

screenshot of tab list, block Url and Block Placement fields complete with checkboxes, path and dropdown selections

Create Tab Group

Once each Tab has been created, you are ready to create its container.  This new content type in Drupal is called a Tab Group:

  1. Assuming that you are still logged into the website, Choose Add content,
  2. Select Tab Group.
  3. Add a Title, select Tabs, enter a Block Url, and save to publish your new Tab Group.
  4. Note that you must edit and save your Tab Group whenever you want to publish new tabs or remove tabs.

Title

This title is so you can stay organized and assign a name to the group of tabs. It doesn't display on the website, but is used to locate the Tab Group for editing.

Body

Appears to explain the Tab Group. It is not necessary to add content here.

Tab

Select from the list by checking the checkbox next to each of the tabs you wish to display in this Tab group.

Block Url

Insert the path for this Tab Group to appear on a page.  Do NOT include a leading slash or the domain or microsite name.  Use home for your homepage.

Block Placement

Block Placement can be above or below existing content (and also on a page with no other content). Note: If you set a Feature Slideshow and a Tab Group to both display in the same area, the slides will always display above the tabs.

If you neglect to set the Block Url and Block Placement, the Tab Group will not publish.

Saving the Tab Group will take you to a content page displaying the individual tab group.  If you want to see how the Tab Group is actually displayed, navigate to the path you entered into the Block Url.