Sharing Content and Modules

One of Brightspot's strengths is sharing content within an instance (i.e. within the BYU Brightspot sites). For example, a college can feature articles from BYU News that relate to that college, and departments can do the same with articles from the same college or BYU News. This article will also talk about shared modules.

General Sharing Setup

To allow content from site B to be shown on site A, site B needs to be accessible to site A. Sites need to be added to the site's Accessible Sites list at Sites and Settings > CMS tab > Advanced (at the bottom) > Accessible Sites. They must also be added to Sites and Settings Tab > Content Discovery > Front End > Front End Accessible Sites. Adding sites to these lists makes content from these sites available to the admin's site. Only site admins have access to make sites accessible. Toggling on "All Sites Accessible?" makes all BYU Brightpot sites accessible.

Find Other Sites' Content in Search

Once sites are added to the Accessible Sites list on site A, the content will be searchable in a search window within site A. To see content from another site, open a search window and change the website filter to the desired website to search from. Whatever site is currently selected, is the site where it is searching for content. To find the shared content, select the site that owns it. This is useful for adding promos to specific content from another site.

Limited Content Sharing

Adding a different site (site B) to the accessible sites list opens up all the content (including events) from that site. Although users who are not editors of site B cannot modify its content, there could be concerns. Another way to share content in a more restrictive manner would be to use the Access setting in the right sidebar inside any content item's editor page. See the screenshot for details.

Change the Access setting from None to Some Other, then select the websites that should have access to use this piece of content, and save or publish. Only site admins can do this. This would allow the websites listed under Access to be able to use this content item on their website. They won't have access to other content items that were not shared.

Note that the Access setting and Accessible site list are not mutually exclusive.

Tagging for Dynamic Lists

A dynamic list would be a good way to reference content from other sites. See the Lists feature guide for more information on how to set up a dynamic list.

Shared Modules

Shared modules are modules that can be shared across the site on any page. Shared modules allow an editor to only make it once, and then copy the same module over to as many pages as needed in the website. Media can be shared in this way as well, it might be better to share the media as a promo since it allows editors to curate their own content, select the title, caption, and photo that is shown, and open the original media in another tab for users to view.

Before a module can be shared, it needs to be created by following the steps below:

1. Open the search window by clicking in the Search field at the top of the screen.
2. In the bottom left, under the Create heading, change the dropdown to say Module.
3. Click the New button.
4. In the New Module window, add a Name for your module.
5. Choose the correct Type from the dropdown. This tutorial uses Rich Text, but there are many other useful options, such as List and Promo.
6. Add the appropriate content to your module.
7. Click Publish in the top right.

Incorporate the Shared Module

Follow the steps below to add a shared module to a web page.

1. Go to a new or existing Page.
2. Under the Content heading, click the +Add button to add a new content block.
3. In the new content window, scroll down to the Misc section and click Shared.
4. Search for your module by clicking the magnifying glass under the Module heading.
5. Click on the name of your shared module. Close the window.
6. Your shared content should appear on the page.

See the video tutorial below for more guidance.
Add a Shared Content Module

Shared modules can also be added within a rich text module by using the "add module" button in the rich text editor. This is helpful, especially for articles that only allow a rich text module as their main content. This feature is also useful for inserting custom HTML/CSS/JS into an article. Read more on the Rich Text feature guide.

Shared Modules in Aside and Below

Shared modules can also be used in the aside and below on web pages. Once the aside and/or below are set up, select the shared option from the dropdown menu. This will allow the editor to select the desired module the aside and/or below. See details on the Aside and Belows feature guide. In general, across Brightspot, turning on the shared option makes it a shared module.