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agdarby edited this page Aug 30, 2023 · 11 revisions

Boxes (also known as Pluslets) are content chunks that you can drag or drop onto your page. Some of them are editable; some of them are fixed. Your friendly neighbourhood developer can create custom boxes for you, we have instructions here: Creating Custom Pluslets. If you don't have a friendly neighbourhood developer, you can make suggestions for new content types to the [http://groups.google.com/group/subjectsplus Google Group] or add them as enhancements to [https://github.com/subjectsplus/SubjectsPlus/issues Github] on the issues page.

Your SP admin can turn on or off any boxes via Admin > Config Site, so you can decide which you'd like to use.

The examples below are all shown in the default, rather grey theme that ships with SP4. Someday we'll ship with a beautiful theme--once someone feeds us one!

Editable Boxes

Editable box

This is the box you will probably use the most. It allows you to enter a mix of text and links and images, much like in Microsoft Word. This is what we used in Steps 2.2 and 2.3 of Using the Guides Tab

Editable Box -- Back End

Alice-ck

Editable Box -- Front End

Alice-public

Heading

This is a minimal box--just a title field. Your webmaster can style this heading however they like. You can also achieve the same sort of thing with an Editable Box by selecting "hide body text" in the box flyout.

Heading Box--Back End

Heading-ck

Heading Box--Front End

Heading-public

Image Card

This allows you to create a fancy card where an image is front and center. Of course, you can use an image in any box, but this is one formatted differently, with a focus on an image and brief associated text.

Image Card--Back End

Imagecard-ck

Image Card--Front End

Imagecard-public

RSS

You can use this box to pull in an RSS feed, for instance, the latest news from Scientific American.

RSS Box--Back End

Rss-ck

RSS Box--Front End

Rss-public

Social Media

This allows you to create a box with links to social media accounts. This information may also be added to your Subject Specialist box, but you might want to have accounts that are separate from the person.

Social Media Box--Back End

Social-ck

Social Media Box--Front End

Social-public

Video

You can create tidy, responsive (i.e., grow/shrink to fill available space) video boxes with this.

Video Box--Back End

Video-ck

Video Box--Front End

Video-public

Lightly Editable Boxes

Subject Specialist

This box will create contact information for people listed as owners of the guide (staff from the Metadata screen). You may tick on/off various pieces of information, and there is a free text area underneath.

Subject Specialist Box--Back End

Ss-ck

Subject Specialist Box--Front End

Ss-public

Table of Contents (TOC)

You can use this to create a table of contents box. Note that you should probably wait to do this until your guide is complete, since it will only be aware of content on the page at the time you create it. You can customize what you see. Note that when you click on a link, it will go to the selected box (even if it's on a different tab) and make it pulse to draw the eye...

TOC Box--Back End

Toc-ck

TOC Box--Front End

Toc-public

Chat boxes

There are chat-with-a-librarian boxes available if your library uses either libraryh3lp or Questionpoint software.

libraryh3lp

This requires some initial behind-the-scenes setup:

  1. Identify your [http://docs.libraryh3lp.com/index.html jid and src]
  2. Add the jid and src to /control/includes/config.php
  3. Make sure the Chat pluslet is turned on.

QuestionPoint

This requires some initial behind-the-scenes setup:

  • Identify your institution ID. You can do this by looking in the top right corner of [http://www.questionpoint.org/crs/servlet/org.oclc.home.BuildPage?showauthorize&language1 your dashboard] after logging in.
  • Add the institution ID to /control/includes/config.php
  • Make sure the QP pluslet is turned on.

Once it is set up, you can add chat boxes to your guides. You can choose which language and color displays to your user.

Note: if your guide has multiple tabs, the Questionpoint chat box can only be shown on one of those tabs.

Finding your Institution ID

Qp_id

QuestionPoint Chat--Back End

Qp_edit

QuestionPoint Chat--Front End

Qp_public_view

Uneditable Boxes

These boxes are just dragged/dropped into your guide. Your SubjectsPlus admin will need to customize some of them to work for your library. These are just guides that we set up at UM for our own local desires. You might very well not want them.

All Items by Source

Once upon a time, the core functionality of SubjectsPlus (and its predecessor, Pirate Source) was to create a List of all the Records for a given subject, sorted by the material type (or source). I'm not sure how much this is used anymore, but IF your guide has associated records, then this pluslet/box should appear in the Boxes sidebar, and you can drop this list into your guide. Your SP admin manages the list of source types at Admin > Sources. You can organize the order etc. of these resources by clicking "Organize Resources."

All Items by Source Box--Back End

Allitems-ck

All Items by Source Box--Front End

Allitems-public

WorldCat Search

WorldCat Search Box--Front End

Worldcat-public

Catalog Search

Your catalog search box.

Catalog Search Box--Front End

Catalog-public

Articles+ Search

This is what we call our discovery layer, which is currently Summon (but soon to be Primo). We will probably be adding a Primo box in the upcoming months. You will probably need to get your SP admin to tweak this box for local purposes.

Articles+ Search Box--Front End

Articlesplus-public

Google Search

Google Search Box--Front End

Google-public

Google Scholar

Google Scholar Box--Front End

Googscholar-public

Google Books

For inserting google books search box. Note that this one didn't have a title field filled in for the box.

Google Books Box--Front End

Googbooks-public

Layout Boxes

There are some box types that can be used to create a custom splash page. See also Customization_4.0#How_to_Use_a_Guide_as_your_Guides_Index_Page

Guide Search

A simple search box that will lead to your search results

Guide Search Box--Front End

Guide-search-public

New DBs

This will show your five most recently added databases. Note that they need to have the Databases A-Z flag set in Records to qualify.

New Databases Box--Front End

Newdbs-public

New Guides

This will show your five most recently created guides.

New Guides Box--Front End

Newguides-public

List Guides

This pluslet/box type could be used to create the main listing of guides. Obviously, a) you would want to put it in a wider column, and b) you'd want to give it some CSS love.

List Guides Box--Front End

Listguides-public

Guide Collections

It doesn't look like much, but this will create a box of all your collections of Guides.

Guide Collections Box--Front End

Guidecolls-public

Experts

This pluslet will randomly grab four subject specialists and for each randomly grab one subject area.

Experts Box--Front End

Experts-public