Admin screen to drive content via H-CMS

Help from Community
1

Hi all,

I am creating a product browser XP and I’d like to create an admin screen that allows the client to select which products from the H-CMS will be displayed. Is there a tutorial or example that would explain how to accomplish this?

TIA!

2

Hello @tlitostansky,

In the HCMS base collection if you include a boolean property (Show Product) with the product listing.

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And in the experience apply a filter to show only products with a True value.

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You can then give the client Content access to the HCMS base and they can change the boolean value to determine what is to be shown.

If you want them to be able to decide what to show while in the experience, this will require a more complex setup that would include the use of the Excel interface asset. If this is what you are looking to do then I suggest reaching out to us via our support channel. On there we will ask you to share your experience with us so we can see the best way to set this up.

Thanks,
Ryan

3

Hi Tim,

This could be a long discussion that might deserve a call so we can discuss your needs and project, but I’ll try to give some elements of response here.

Assumption: you want your client to select N products out of P products, all products being in a single Collection in the H-CMS.

As of today, you can’t change / edit / update content in an H-CMS base from an Experience as you can with an Excel data source, as we don’t have yet the add row / update cell / update row actions for the H-CMS.
You can filter an H-CMS collection though, so depending on the criteria used to select these N products, this might be an option.
But you can do an OR filter from an H-CMS collection, so you won’t be able to use a filter such as “ProductID == 001 OR ProductID == 002 OR …”

If your client to be able to select these N products for a “long period of time” (day, week, …), you could add a “Show Product” boolean field in the H-CMS, then let the client check or uncheck that box within the H-CMS directly (not in the XP), then send the XP a command to sync the base. The XP can then filter that collection where “Show Product == TRUE”.

If you need the client to make this selection “more quickly / more often” (ex: every time the XP is used with a different visitor), then this H-CMS method is probably not the most appropriated.

If you were using an Excel data source, you could:

  • Have a column “Show product” in your Excel file
  • In the Admin scene, display the whole list of products, with a toggle button “Show Product Button”, checked by default
    • When button is checked => set “Show Product” Excel field to TRUE
    • When button is unchecked => set “Show Product” Excel field to FALSE
  • When exiting the Admin scene, filter the products list where “Show Product == TRUE”

Let me know your thoughts on this and if you need to talk about this into more details, send me an email and we’ll schedule a call.

Seb

4

Oops, took me too long to write that answer, Ryan @rdriscoll was faster :smiley:

5

Thanks guys. This is great information. I do think it would be helpful to set up a call. I’m currently mapping out a more exact description of our needs/wants for the XP. Where should I reach out to send that along?

7

Hi Tim,

I’m sending you an email with my contact info :wink:

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8

Hi there, I’ve done what you’re asking many times. I always have an admin panel that allows the client to set different settings for their display, or monitor the connection status of different feeds.

Build a hidden button somewhere with a counter that a staff member can tap x times, or a little password to open the admin panel.

From there, you would have a variety of buttons that would set filters on their product list. Write their filters selections to an Excel doc, so that if the display is rebooted, the XP can find them and reapply them.

Or you could show the product list, and have them touch each product, which creates a record in Excel, to ‘save’ their product selections.

I use Excel all the time for saving client-settings, since Excel will keep data even after a reboot. For example, with the methods above, I have: built tradeshow displays with multiple brands - allowing staff members to change their products and brands depending on a show, change and save filter settings for product lists, change and save how prospects are tracked within an event display, or even a little setup screen allowing users to select different screensavers to show.

Lots can be done. Feel free to drop me a message as well, and I’m happy to offer advice or show examples.

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