Context Widget

Using XperienCentral's Context Widget, you can switch between the views of how your website appears on different devices, for different Personas (if configured), at a specific time or active content items versus all content items, both planned and published. For devices, there are three views: desktop, tablet, and phone. For a Persona, you can view your website from the perspective of an individual or group of website visitors who belong to a known segment and who can as a result be targeted with special content that other website visitors do not see. For the Time option, you can preview how your website appears or appeared at any given time in the future or past. For Active/All, you can view your website in the context of only active content items (published) or all content items (published and planned).

In This Topic

Devices

Using the Context Widget, you can view a content item in order to see how it appears in different devices. By default, XperienCentral offers three device previews:

• Desktop
• Tablet
• Phone

XperienCentral uses the design templates for each of the device views to render your content. You can edit content items in the context of all device views.

To view your website content in a different device, click the device icon. The three options appear. Select the device. The content item appears as it will on the selected device. For the tablet and phone views, a representation of the device appears in the Workspace and the current content as it appears on that device appears. The device view that is currently selected is shown in the widget. For example:

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Personas

Using the Context Widget, you can view a content item in order to see how it appears to different Personas. This allows you to see what content is targeted at which visitor or group of visitors. The available Personas are created and managed by your application manager. Click the Personas icon and select a new Persona from those available. For example:

The content and look and feel of the current content item changes to show how they will appear for that Persona.

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Time

Using the "Time" options, you can see how content items and your entire website will appear at any given time in the future or past. The Context widget takes into account the publication status of versions of content items as well as the workflow status when showing how your website will look at any given time. When viewing a content item, you can specify a date and time and then preview how it will look based on the version that is determined to be current at that time. Furthermore, you can lock the context to a specific date and time and then navigate through your entire website to preview how it will appear in the future or how it appeared in the past.

When you lock the date and time, you can see which version of a content item will be active at that time. This has the following effects:

• Pages for which there is no version available in the published state at that date and time cannot be viewed.
• Page sections for which there is no version in the published state at that date and time are not shown on a web page.
• Items from the Content Repository for which there is no version in the published state at that date and time do not appear in Content Overview and Dynamic Content Overview content elements.
• Images, Downloads, Articles, Multimedia and custom content items for which there is no version in the published state at that date and time cannot be opened.
• Images, Downloads, Multimedia and custom content items for which there is no version in the published state at that date and time will not appear on pages, page sections and/or articles.
• Hyperlinks to content items with no version in the published state at that date and time will not appear as hyperlinks.

Whenever you attempt to view a content item that will not be available at the time specified by the "Time" option, the following message will appear:

In this topic, the term "Current time" refers to the time that is currently specified by the "Time" option. The current time can be the present moment (now), a date and time in the future or a date and time in the past.

Default Time

When you select the "Default time" option, the current time becomes that of the publication date of the content item that you are viewing. When you view a different content item, the current time will change to the publication date of that content item. The content within the content item will reflect the reality of the current time. Any content that has a publication date in the future (Download, Image, Page Section, etc.) will not be visible in the content item.

Because the default time that is shown is calculated against the present moment (now), the following rules apply to the time that is considered current for a content item:

• If the content item has a publication date in the past, the current time is the present moment (now).
• If the content item has an expiration date in the past, the current time is the moment just after the content item expired.
• If the content item has a publication date in the future, the current time is the moment just after the content item will be published.
• If the content item is not in the published state, the current time is the moment just after the planned publication date.

The website and all its content items now appear as they will at the selected current time. For example, if you view a content item that is or will be published on October 14, 2014 at 1:31 P.M., the time in the Context widget will show that date and time as the current time:

If you then view another content item that will be published on October 17, 2014 at 9:55 A.M., the current time in the widget becomes that time:

Lock the Date and Time

The "Lock Date and Time" option allows you to set the date and time of day to a fixed time, which makes it possible for you to navigate throughout your website and content items and preview them in the context of that specified time. The publication status of all content items is taken into account and the version of all content items that is considered to be current at that time are shown. Content items that have no current version at the time you choose will not be shown (Downloads, Images, Page Sections, etc.). The time locking functionality is useful for previewing situations such as online campaigns where you show specific content for a limited amount of time and want to see how it will look in the future or how it looked in the past.

To lock the date and time to a particular moment, follow these steps:

1. Expand the "Time" option.
2. Select the "Lock date and time" option.
3. Click the calendar icon and then select day, month, and year you want to preview.
4. Click the clock icon and select the time of day.
5. If you want to lock the date and time to the present moment (now), click [Now].
6. Click [Apply]. For example:
   
   
   
   
   The "Time" option now shows an icon indicating that the time is locked, together with the specific date and time at which it is locked. For example:
   
   
   

Determining the Current Version of a Content Item

The following table describes how XperienCentral determines which version of a content item to display at the specified date and time. Note that the returned version of a content item can differ depending on whether the Context Time is locked or not locked.

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Active/All (Publication Status)

Using the Publication Status option (Active/All), you can view your website from the perspective of all content items on your website (planned and published) or only the content items that are active (published).

When "Active" is selected, only content items that are currently published will be available. This has the following effects:

• Pages for which there is no active version cannot be viewed.
• Page sections for which there is no active version are not shown on any web page.
• Items from the Content Repository for which there is no active version do not appear in Content Overview and Dynamic Content Overview content elements.
• Images, Downloads, Articles, Multimedia and custom content items for which there is no active version cannot be opened.
• Images, Downloads, Multimedia and custom content items for which there is no active version will not appear on pages, page sections and/or articles.
• Hyperlinks to content items with no active version will not appear as hyperlinks.

When you are viewing only published content items, the following message appears when you attempt to navigate to content that is not published at the present time or, if using the "Time" options, at the specified date and time:

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