Navigate to our DX Training Video guide for further visual guidance.

Purpose

Automatic Lists let you make content lists that update on their own. They change as you add new content to your website. This eliminates the need to manually update lists whenever new content is published. Visitors can easily see fresh content without navigating through the entire website.

When to Use Automatic List

This list works great for showing information that changes often on your website. Here are some examples:

Upcoming Events: Make a list that populates automatically with events from your calendar.
Latest News Articles: Showcase your newest news articles in a dynamic list.
Featured Content: Automatically curate a list of featured content based on specific criteria.

Elements of Automatic List (Microcontent)

Title: Title of list
Description: Brief description of list displays atop the section. Limited to 120 characters.
List contents: choose from basic page (display as linked title or teaser), How Do I (display as linked title or teaser), News (display as linked title or auto listing teaser), Documents (document listing linked title or document listing linked teaser), News (featured)
Items per block: limited to between 2 and 6
Show only fields:
- news type: press release or standard
- topics: can choose from topic list (ie: Animal Feeding Operations, Hunting, Fishing, etc) limited to choosing only one from the topic list
Samples of automatic lists include:
- Upcoming Events
- Recent Board Meeting Minutes
- Featured News
- A subset of Documents within a Document Type

To create an automatic list, you'll create the content type and choose from available options.

Variant: Automatic List, by Title, 6, by Topic

This variant displays "How Do I" content, with linked titles, and displays 6 items. The "How Do I" content is also constrained to any item tagged as "Training".

Variant: Automatic List, by Teaser, 4, Alphabetical by Topic

This variant of an automatic list is constrained to How Do I content, and shows a teaser view. In this version there are four total items and they are also alphabetized, as well as constrained to any items tagged as "Training."

Log in to Your Site

You can login to your site from login.iowa.gov

Each person on your agency team has a specific user role for the website. These roles set permissions. They control who can edit, review, and publish content. You can ask for a role change or remove a role. Just submit a ServiceNow support ticket if you need help.

Navigate to /admin/content/micro

This Admin view displays all micro-content on the site and allows authors to sort and filter the list. Authors can edit micro-content types from this view.

Create a "Automatic List" content type

The Automatic List may be created by choosing "Add Content" and then seeking "Automatic List"

The available types of automatic lists include: Basic Pages, How Do I, News, Events, Contacts, and Locations.

When choosing, you may also specify how you want to "display" the content.

Save changes, and the automatic list is now available for placement.

Place an Automatic List in a Landing Page

Go to /admin/content and find your desired Landing Page, and navigate to that landing page.

Choose the "Layout" tab of your landing page. "Add a Section" and choose if you want a white, light, or dark background. Enter an optional administrative label.

Within that new section, "Add block" and choose "Automatic List" from the available options.

Add Automatic List, and a popup window will appear.

You may create a new Automatic list "on the fly." Alternatively, go to the Automatic List library tab and click the checkbox for the Automatic List you want.

Click Select, then when the window closes, click "Insert Block" on the side bar.

Save changes for your landing page. That automatic list will now display, on your landing page.

Place the microcontent into a Basic Page or a Landing Page

Now that there is Microcontent that has its place inside the /admin/content/microcontent menu, you may take that content and place it throughout the site.

As an example, common placements include:

Microcontent Placement
Type of Microcontent	Landing Page	Basic Page
Promo	Can be placed	Can be placed
Video Promo	Can be placed	N/A
Accordion	N/A	Can be placed
Link Collection List	Can be placed	Can be placed
Visual Link Collection	Can be placed	N/A
Statistic	Can be placed	Can be placed
Automatic List	Can be placed	Can be placed
Contact	N/A	Can be placed
Document	N/A	Can be placed

Confirm Your Knowledge

Check out our Video Training Page for step-by-step visual help with your website.

Content Manager Website Creation Playlist

How Do I Work with Microcontent: Automatic Lists?