Static pages
Every classifieds site needs a handful of pages that are not listings: About, Terms, Privacy, How it works, Contact.
Pages in the admin panel.
Creating a page
Section titled “Creating a page”Pages → Add page. A page has a title and body per active language, and a URL slug (the name as it appears in web addresses) taken from the title.
To link a page from the site footer, tick Show a link in the footer in the page’s settings. It is off for a new page. Deleting a page also removes its footer link, its blocks and its uploaded images.
Two ways to build one
Section titled “Two ways to build one”Pick the Page template field when creating the page:
- Default template: the text editor. A rich-text field, right for prose. Terms and Privacy want exactly this.
- Page builder (blocks): composes the page from blocks instead. Right for a landing page or a How-it-works page with images and sections.
Add block shows the block types as tiles in three groups. Layout blocks belong to pages only:
| Block | What it is |
|---|---|
| Image and text | A picture beside text, left or right, half or a third wide, with an optional button. |
| Columns | Two or three columns of text side by side. |
| Heading | A section title, left or centred, with an optional intro line. |
| Button | One or two links drawn as buttons, left or centred. |
Content blocks are the types used on the Widgets screen too:
| Block | What it is |
|---|---|
| Rich text | Formatted text: headings, bold, lists and links. |
| Image | An image from your media library, optionally linking somewhere. |
| Form | A form from Forms. |
Advanced holds Custom Code (HTML / JavaScript): raw markup and script, with a warning. Only a super admin can add it.
Images come from one picker, in both the text editor and image blocks: upload a file or drop it on the window, pick one from the library, or add a link to an image elsewhere.
Click a picture in the text editor for its toolbar: Wrap text, picture on the left or on the right floats it at up to half the width with the text beside it, Centre puts it on its own line, and No alignment clears it. On a phone a wrapped picture takes its own line.
Rich text and Page text blocks choose a Width (reading width or full width) and, at reading width, a Position (left or centred).
On a phone every block stacks to one column, the picture first. Plugins can register further block types.
A page that opens with its own heading can tick Hide the page title in Page settings. The title is then hidden on screen, but screen readers and search engines still get it.
Edit in the Pages list opens a Page builder page’s block editor; Page settings (in the list and in the block editor) opens the page form for the title, template and footer link. The page form shows a summary of the blocks, a note when you have unpublished changes, and an Edit blocks button. Saving a page keeps it open. A new page is saved first; saving a page with the Page builder template for the first time opens its blocks.
Edit blocks
Section titled “Edit blocks”Edit blocks opens the Customise screen, beside a live preview of the page, on any theme.
It is at ?page=pages&action=blocks&id=<page id> in the admin. The block name is optional; an
empty name takes the type’s name.
- The left panel lists the blocks. Drag one, or use the arrow keys, to move it. Pick a block in the list, or click it in the preview, to open its fields. All blocks goes back to the list.
- Add block shows the block types as tiles. Remove is inside the block’s fields.
- Expand beside a text field opens the editor large, with its full toolbar. Done puts the text back in the block.
- Changes are saved as your own draft for seven days and shown in the preview. Nothing is live until you press Publish. Discard drops the draft.
- The Page text block edits the page’s own text, with one tab per site language. Picking a language also shows the preview in it. The text is part of your draft and goes live with the blocks on Publish. On a Page builder page the page form no longer shows the text editor.
- If the blocks or the page text were changed elsewhere after your draft began, Publish asks before it replaces them.
- Old blocks with no type are read-only for every admin. A moderator who may open Pages also sees Custom Code blocks read-only: they can move them but not edit or remove them, and cannot add Custom Code.
A page builder page renders correctly on any theme. If the active theme
ships its own template-widgets.php the theme owns the layout; otherwise core
wraps the theme’s header and footer around the blocks.
Forms on a page
Section titled “Forms on a page”A form can be placed on a page to collect submissions: a contact form, an application, an enquiry form. Responses arrive in Forms → Submissions rather than only by e-mail, so nothing is lost if mail delivery fails.
Pages worth having
Section titled “Pages worth having”Beyond taste, some of these are load-bearing:
- Terms and Privacy: required by most payment providers and by law in many jurisdictions, and the first thing a user checks before posting personal contact details.
- Contact: an actual route to a human. A marketplace with no contact page reads as a scam.
- How it works: the page that converts a visitor into a first-time poster.
- About: who runs the site. On a local marketplace this is worth more than any feature.
Editing safely
Section titled “Editing safely”- Changing a title changes the URL. Rename early or not at all.
- Custom Code blocks run on visitors’ browsers. Paste only what you understand, from a source you trust.
- Write each language. A page with an empty translation shows empty to visitors in that language: see languages.