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.
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
You can now find Microcontent in the /admin/content/microcontent menu. You can place this content across the site.
As an example, common placements include:
| 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.