Homepage Sections

Overview

The home page allows up to 7 content sections to be assigned to a page. These sections can contain basically anything that a page can (text, images, videos, etc) and will display under the header image/rotator/header video space on your homepage.

Sections may be reordered in the "1-7" dropdowns, which displays from top to bottom on the page. You can assign a section as "None" to remove it, and you can create your own new sections to add to the home page.

Not all of the sections need to be used and can be changed whenever you would like different content on the homepage.

Using Sections and Monklets

Sections: The majority of this template is built using sections, which are selected under the "Sections" area of your page settings. A section can display any type of content you create: text, images, videos, links, and monklets. Your site has a number of pre-built sections available, and most of them use monklets to pull content from different modules (events, sermons, etc).

Monklets: Your site has pre-built monklets which display information from other modules of Ekklesia 360, and these can be added to your sections and pages. For example, an events monklet will pulls the latest events from the Events Module.

Within the monklet, you can also add parameters to pull in content by  a specifica category or group, like a category of events.

Help Article: Using Sections and Monklets and Using Inline Parameters

Section Fields Overview

In order to edit sections, you will need to first navigate to Content > Sections > Click on the name of the section you wish to edit.

Once you are in the Section Editor, you should see a screen that looks similar to the image above. Below is a description of the different fields you see in the image:

#1 - Name: For internal use only. For the name, we recommend including the page or ministry where the section will be used, so that it can be easily located in the Sections module.

#2 - Description: This is an optional field that is mostly used for SEO.

#3 - Category: This is used for internal organization/permissions only. It is an optional field.

#4 - Content: This is the main content block for your section. This is a full editor and resembles the content area of your pages. Oftentimes, sections use Monklets or Forms to pull in content from another moduke, and you can add these in by clicking the "Insert" option in the toolbar and then select the monklet or form you wish to use.

#5 - Background Color: This field allows you to designate a specific background color for the section. The hex code of the color will need to be used, and you can find hex codes here.

#6 - Background Image: This serves as the section background image.  This image should be 1,400px in width by the desired height.  The height will depend on the amount of content in the section.  A recommended height would be between 600px and 1,200px (double for retina).

#7 - Dark Background: Selecting this checkbox displays the content in white color on top of the site default section background color or dark background image. *NOTE - This does not change the color of any text that is a link.

#8 - Parallax Background: This option adds parallax scrolling to the background image. 

NOTE: If the section does not have a Background Image or Background Color assigned, the section will display a white background color from the "Page BG" item in the Color Picker.

Pre-Built Sections

Below is an overview of the pre-built sections for your home page, and these default sections can be removed or added from the Sections area of your page as needed. These sections can also be used on your subpages >> see more info here.

Within each section, you are able to edit the section title and "view all" button, as well as utilize the optional section properties (background image, color, etc).

This section is designed to highlight three images/links for visitors to learn more. Within the content area of this section, you will see the section title and the links monklet:

Sectiion Monklet - Featured Links → {{section-monklet-featured-links|find="featured-links"}}

This monklets pulls the content from a link list, which is managed under Content > Link Lists > Featured Links. The items will display in the list, and the pencil icon can be used to edit the each one.

For the featured links, the following fields are used:

  • Name: This is the text that will show as the title with each item
  • Link: Either select an item to link to (page, event, sermon, etc.) by pressing "View All" or enter a URL if you wish to link to an external site (i.e. linking to your online giving portal).
  • Open link in new window (optional): It is recommended that you check this box if you are linking to an external site
  • Icon Class: This is where you can designate which icon will show for each item. A list of available icons can be seen here: http://mk037.monkpreview.com/_assets/fonts/icons/ .

Note: To break a title into two lines, add a <br> tag in between, ex: Find a<br>Small Group

Home - Sermons

This section is designed to show your latest sermons from the Sermons module: Content > Sermons. Within the content area of this section, you will see the section title, "view all" button link, and the following monkets:

  • Section Monklet - Latest Sermon → {{section-monklet-latest-sermon}} - displays the most recent sermon at the top of the section
  • Section Monklet - Latest Sermons (offset 1) → {{section-monklet-latest-sermons-offset-1}} - displays a row of the next 4 most recent sermons

If you only want to display the row of 4 sermons without the large one above, you can use the following monklet:

  • Section Monklet - Latest Sermons → {{section-monklet-latest-sermons}} - displays a row of the 4 most recent sermons

This section is designed to display a carousel of the next 12 upcoming events published in the Events module: Events > Events. Within the content area of this section, you will see the section title, "view all" button link, and the events monklet:

Section Monklets - Upcoming Events Carousel → {{section-monklet-upcoming-events-carousel}}

Home - Articles

This section is designed to display the 4 most recent articles from the Articles module: Content > Articles. Selecting from the bottom row of articles populates the top featured article area.

Within the content area of this section, you will see the section title, "view all" button link, and the articles monklet:

Section Monklets - Latest Articles → {{section-monklet-latest-articles|find_category="articles"}}

In the monklet example above, the "find_category" inline parameter is added so that only items that have the "articles" category assigned will display in this section.

Note: When using parameters in a monklet tag, the "Slug" version of the category or group title needs to be used, which is a web-friendly version of a title. You can create a slug by using this tool.

This section displays a newsletter sign up. Within the content area of this section, you will see the section title, description, and the newsletter monklet:

Newsletter Sign Up → {{newsletter-sign-up}}

When the user fills out the signup field, their existing profile (found in People > Members) will be assigned to the "Newsletter" group. If they do not have a profile on your site yet, one will be created for them. The user will also be taken to the "/mailing-list" page to let them know that they have successfully signed up for the newsletter.

This section is designed to display the 4 most recent posts from the Blog module: Content > Blogs > Blog Posts. Selecting from the bottom row of populates the top featured post area.

Within the content area of this section, you will see the section title, "view all" button link, and the blog monklet:

Section Monklet - Latest Posts → {{section-monklet-latest-posts|name="blog"}}

In this example, the "name" inline paramater is added to pull posts from the blog titled "Blog".

Note: You must use the inline parameter shown in the example to define which blog to pull from.

Home - Wysiwyg

This is an example of sections that can be created on your own! All of the content is pulling from the "content" field of the section, and similar to your pages, you can add text, header styles, buttons, links, etc.

The additional field options within the section can be used as well, including background image, parallax background, dark background, etc.