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•  » Using Local Content Indexes to Create a Slideshow

Using Local Content Indexes to Create a Slideshow

Creating a slideshow for your homepage can be a great way to showcase your newest blog posts or news articles. Mura makes adding a slideshow a simple task.

You can pull items from anywhere in your site but for this example, create a new portal called "News" in your site from the Site Manager. If you are unsure how to create new objects within the Site Manager, visit the Adding Content section.

You can then create child pages for your articles underneath the "News" portal. The portal will automatically list each article you add. Be sure to add a "Release Date" for each item as we'll use this to sort the Slide Show.

Note: You will want to add a Content Summary and Associated Image for each new page underneath the "News" portal.  The summary and image are both displayed in the slideshow.

Creating the Index

When you have finished creating your section and populating it, you can make a content index. Follow the instructions for creating a new index on the Creating A New Local Content Index page.

When refining your index, make sure to Select the News section you created earlier. This will populate the index with all the articles you have created below it.

You will also want to manage the display settings for your index under the Display Tab:

Limit the Number of Displayed Items

To avoid overflowing your slideshow with a large number of slides, it is good to have a limit on the number of items displayed in the index. For the purpose of this guide, select "5" under the "Max Items" menu.

Sorting Slides by Date

To sort the slides so that the most recent appear first, select "Release Date" under the "Sort By" drop down menu. Then select "Descending" from the "Sort Direction" menu.

Using the Index to insert a Slideshow

Now you can insert your index into a page as a slideshow. The method of inserting the index is similar to adding a regular feed.

1. Open an existing page for editing or create a new one.
2. Navigate to the Content Objects tab.
3. Under Available Content Objects, select Local Content Index Slide Shows (jQuery only).
   
   
4. In the new select box, find your local content index (for this example, "News") and click the right double arrow  next to the Main Content box.

When you have added your slideshow and finished editing the rest of your page, click publish to see your changes reflected on the site.