Locations
A Content item could not function in the system without having a place – a Location – assigned to it. When a new Content item is published, a new Location is automatically created and the item is placed in it.
Together, all Locations form a tree which is the basic way of organizing Content in the system and specific to eZ products. Every published Content item has a Location and, as a consequence, also a place in this tree.
A Content item receives a Location only once it has been published. This means that a freshly created draft does not have a Location yet.
A Content item can have more than one Location. This can be used to have the same content in two or more places in the tree, for example an article at the same time on the front page and in the archive. Even in such a case, one of these places is always the Main Location.
The tree is hierarchical, with an empty root Location (which is not assigned any Content item) and a structure of dependent Locations below it. Every Location (aside from the root) has one parent Location and can have any number of children. There are no Locations outside this tree.
Top level Locations
Top level Locations are direct children of the root of the tree. There are three preset top level Locations in each installation which cannot be deleted:
Content
"Content" is the top level Location for the actual contents of a site. This part of the tree is typically used for organizing folders, articles, information pages, etc. This means that it contains the actual content structure of the site, which can be viewed by selecting the "Content structure" tab in the Content mode interface. The default ID number of the "Content" Location is 2; it references a "Folder" Content item.
Media
"Media" is the top level Location which stores and organizes information that is frequently used by Content items located below the "Content" node. It usually contains images, animations, documents and other files. They can be viewed by selecting the "Media library" tab in the Content mode interface. The default ID number of the "Media" Location is 43; it references a "Folder" Content item.
Users
"Users" is the top level Location that contains the built-in system for managing user accounts. A user is simply a Content item of the "User account" Content Type. The users are organized within "User group" Content items below this Location. In other words, the "Users" Location contains the actual users and user groups, which can be viewed by selecting the "Users" tab in the Admin Panel. The default identification number of the "Users" Location is 5; it references a "User group" Content item.
Location visibility
Location visibility is a mechanism which allows you to control which parts of the content tree are available to the visitor.
Given that once a Content item is published, it cannot be un-published, limiting visibility is the only method used to withdraw content from the website without moving it to Trash. When the Location of a Content item is hidden, any access to it will be denied, preventing the system from displaying it.
Visibility needs not be set individually for every Location. Instead, when a Location is hidden, all of its descendants in the tree will be hidden as well. This means that a Location can have one of three different visibility statuses:
- Visible
- Hidden
- Hidden by superior
By default all Locations are Visible. If a Location is made invisible manually, its status is set to Hidden. At the same time all Locations under it will change status to Hidden by superior.
From the visitor's perspective a Location behaves the same whether its status is Hidden or Hidden by superior – it will be unavailable in the website. The difference is that a Location Hidden by superior cannot be revealed manually. It will only become visible once all of its ancestor Locations are made Visible again.
A Hidden by superior status does not override a Hidden status. This means that if a Location is Hidden manually and later one of its ancestors is Hidden as well, the first Location's status does not change – it remains Hidden (not Hidden by superior). If the ancestor Location is made visible again, the first Location still remains Hidden.
The way visibility works can be illustrated using the following scenarios:
Hiding a visible Location
When you hide a Location that was visible before, it will get the status Hidden. Underlying Locations will be marked Hidden by superior. The visibility status of underlying Locations that were already Hidden or Hidden by superior will not be changed.
Hiding a Location which is Hidden by superior
When you explicitly hide a Location which was Hidden by superior, it will get the status Hidden. Since the underlying Locations are already either Hidden or Hidden by superior, their visibility status will not be changed.
Revealing a Location with a visible ancestor
When you reveal a Location which has a visible ancestor, this Location and its children will become visible. However, underlying Locations that were explicitly hidden by a user will retain the Hidden status (and their children will be remain Hidden by superior).
Revealing a Location with a Hidden ancestor
When you reveal a Location that has a Hidden ancestor, it will not become Visible itself. Because it still has invisible ancestors, its status will change to Hidden by superior.
In short: a Location can only be Visible when all of its ancestors are Visible as well.
Visibility mechanics
The visibility mechanics are controlled by two flags: Hidden flag and Invisible flag. The Hidden flag informs whether the node has been hidden by a user or not. A raised Invisible flag means that the node is invisible either because it was hidden by a user or by the system. Together, the flags represent the three visibility statuses:
| Hidden flag | Invisible flag | Status |
|---|---|---|
| - | - | The Location is visible. |
| 1 | 1 | The Location is invisible and it was hidden by a user. |
| - | 1 | The Location is invisible and it was hidden by the system because its ancestor is hidden/invisible. |
Sections
Sections are used to divide Content items in the tree into groups that are more easily manageable by content editors. Division into Sections allows you, among others, to set permissions for only a part of the tree.
Technically, a Section is simply a triplet: a number, a name and an identifier. Content items are placed in Sections by being assigned the Section ID, with one item able to be in only one Section.
When a new Content item is created, its Section ID is set to the default Section (which is usually Standard). When the item is published it is assigned to the same Section as its parent. Because Content must always be in a Section, unassigning happens by choosing a different Section to move it into . If a Content item has multiple Location assignments then it is always the Section ID of the item referenced by the parent of the main Location that will be used. In addition, if the main Location of a Content item with multiple Location assignments is changed then the Section ID of that item will be updated.
Sections can only be removed if no Content items are assigned to them. Even then, it should be done carefully. When a Section is deleted, it is only its definition itself that will be removed. Other references to the Section will remain and thus the system will most likely be in an inconsistent state.That is why removing Sections may corrupt permission settings, template output and other things in the system.
Section ID numbers are not recycled. If a Section is removed, its ID number will not be reused when a new Section is created.
