Menu
The power of a SportzVault site comes from the menu bar which is displayed at the left of any screen of the SportzVault public site (note - the SportzVault Administration site that you are currently visiting has a separate menu for administrative tasks).
The Menu bar is a combination of
- 'static' items:'static' items:
- dynamic items that may be created with sub-items, so that a navigational structure can be defined that makes sense to the club. In the example image below, the mouse cursor over the_Photos_ item expands the sub items beneath.
- parent/governing body access - the relations between the selected (customised) body are automatically defined, and related bodies shown for easy access
- search bar items - see below.
Contents to be added to the website
The content that is attached to static menu items is fixed - for example, news items are entered in a rigid format, and the system takes care of all the formatting, layout, expiry of old items etc.
Dynamic content is much more flexible:
- HTML content -HTML'fragments' can be authored in our easy to use WYSIWYGeditor, or can be uploaded from existing HTML files. This gives complete control over the content displayed.
- Uploaded files such as PDF, DOC, XLS, PPT etc, in fact any file type you can think of. Depending on the setup of the person accessing the site, the file will either be shown in a new browser window, or will be available for saving on the user's system. This user must have the required software/viewer on their system to view the content, therefore this option should be used with care. See the help topic Content Type - Pros and Cons for further information.
- Slideshow Galleries - a collection of uploaded images can be grouped in a gallery, and shown as a slide show. A thumbnail version of each image is automatically generated and presented to allow easy image selection.
Locating other clubs and associations
A club or association's governing bodies can easily be located from the menu items under the Governing Bodies heading. Selecting these has the effect of 'customising' the site for that body - that is, the site displays content relating to the selected governing body. This makes it easy for club users to access relevant association sites (provided of course that they participate in SportzVault). To return to a previously selected club or association simply select it from the Recent menu item under the Club & Asn search menu.
The Search by Name menu item under the Club & Asn search menu allows searching for clubs/associations by their name (or part of their name).
News bar
Titles of the most recent current news items are shown on most pages on the right hand side of the screen. This means that current information is available on virtually every page on the site.
Advertising
Clubs and associations can easily place their own advertisements on the site, which makes for a potential revenue source. Advertising can be accessed via the Site...Advertising menu. Advertising can be placed in the banner, left or right bars, and statistics are available on the effectiveness of your ads.
Customisation
Your site can be customised in many ways, such as hiding or displaying the left/right bars, controlling the name and visibility of built in menu items, displaying of text logos in the header (in place of our standard logos), and changing the colour scheme of the entire site. These options are available via the Site...Site Customisation menu.