Elxis Glossary

This glossary, provides some of the most important terms used in Elxis CMS.

Access Manager: A bult-in system that gives freedom and flexibility to administrators to define new access groups, apply rights and control who has access to where.

Admin Templates: Administrator Templates define the lay-out of your Elxis Web site's Back-End.

Administrator: The user that has access to Back-End (administration area) and is responsible for creating and maintaing the web site. Elxis site's can have more than one administrators.

Administrator (Super): The higher rank in the administration hierarchy. Responsible for everything. Super administrator accounts cannot be deleted.

Alt Tag: The "alt" attribute, often called the "alt tag" is a text attribute added to the image tag to describe the image contained in the tag. This text is viewable (inside a text box) when one hovers their mouse over an image in the Frontend of a Web site.

Archive: Content items can be archived and managed trough the Back-End. The Archive Module provides a way of displaying archived items on your Web site.

Automatic Translations: Elxis can help you translate content from one language to another. Includes an automatic translations mechanism that in seconds creates a new content item or autonomous page based on initial language. Applies to Content Items and Autonomous Pages.

Autonomous Page: An article that does not belong to any category or section. Autonomous is a Greek word for "Independent".

Back-End: The "Back-End" is the Elxis Administration Panel, from where site administrators manages the site and content.

Blog: A Blog style within Elxis is the listing of Content Items in a summary form. Intro text is used to create the blogs. Clicking the "Read more..." link you can read the full article.

Bot: A Bot is a small, task-oriented function that intercepts content before it is displayed and manipulates it in some way. Elxis provides a number of Bots in the core distribution. The name bot is a legacy of Mambo, where it was introduced as mambot.

Category: Category is the name for a collection of items that are related in some way. Categories belong to Sections. Example: The category "Cities" may contain the records "Athens", "London" and "Rome".

Check Out (an item): When a user edits a file they "Check it Out". This prevents other users from being able to edit the item in the same time, thus preventing loss of data upon saving.

CMT: CMT is an acronyme for Components, Modules and Templates.

CMTB: CMTB is an acronyme for Components, Modules, Templates and Bots.

Components: Components are Elxis content elements or applications that usually appear in the center of the layout. Components are core elements of Elxis functionality. Elxis core components include: Banners, Contact, Database Manager, News Feeds, Polls and Weblinks. You can install new components. Visit www.elxis.org for more information.

configuration.php: Is the file that Global Configuration parameters are stored. For security reasons it should be unwritable during normal operation.

Content Item: Content Items are "articles" contained inside a category.

Content Management System (CMS): A CMS is a software for managing content on a Web site directly on the server.

Core: The Elxis core is the zip-file containing the official standard Elxis installation, which can be found in Elxis.org web site. It contains some built-in CMTM's, but can be extended with 3rd party developer's addons.

Database: A database is an organized collection of information. It contains a collection of records that you can search, sort and analyze rapidly. Elxis supports currently MySQL and Postgre databases

Front-End: Front-End is the Web site that your visitors will see. You administer Front-End from Back-End.

Frontpage: Frontpage is a built-in Component which shows all published content items from your site marked with the parameter "Show on Frontpage". You may configure the display of the Frontpage by editing the menu item associated with it, usually 'Home'.

Global Checkin: When an item is "Checked Out" and it is not saved or cancelled correctly (e.g. in case of a connection error), it will remain "Checked Out", and thus uneditable for all other administrators. Performing a "Global Checkin" will make those items available again.

Global Configuration: Parameters saved in global configuration control the behavior of your Elxis site. They are very important and should be treated with respect. Global configuration parameters are stored in configuration.php file.

Intro Text: When creating or editing a Content Item, the Intro Text can contain a brief introduction. Intro Text is used in blog mode, followed by a "Read more..." link that is used to display the full article (Intro and Main Text).

Language (Site): Language that is used in the Front-End. Users can change language and view the content that is provided for this language. You can install new site languages.

Language (Administrator): Language that is used in the Back-End. You can change administrator interface language. You can install new administrator languages.

Language (Translation): If you wish you can translate Elxis in your language and send us the language files to offer them through www.elxis.org. Please visit www.elxis.org for more information.

Main Text: When creating or editing a Content Item, the Main Text usualy contains the main body of an article. You can write articles using only the Main or Intro text. When viewing articles in blog view, you have to click the "Read more..." link to view the full article (Intro and Main Text).

Elxis: Elxis is a multilingual Open Source Content Management System.

Elxis Administration: Elxis Administration is part of Elxis CMS and is used for administering Elxis web site. Sometimes it is also referred as Back-End, Administrator Back-End, Administration Panel or Control Panel.

Elxis Defender: A tool that helps you protect your web site from attacks.

Elxis Team: People around the word that contribute to Elxis development.

Elxis Community: People around the word that participate to Elxis official forums.

Floodblocker: A tool that helps you protect your web site from attacks.

Media Files: Media files such as .gif, .jpg, .png or .bmp, doc, mpg, xls, avi, flv, pdf, ppt, etc, files can be used in Content and are organised using the Media Manager.

Member: See "Registered User".

Menu: Used for navigation purposes are a main feature of Elxis. Menus consist from one or more menu items (links) that can be organized hierarchically. Menus are displayed in Front-End using modules. You can have as many menus as you need.

Menu Item: Menu Items are links that form Menus. Elxis supports several types of menu items. Each type of menu item is used to display content or other stuff in a particular way.

Modules: Modules extend the capabilities of Elxis, giving the software new functionality. Modules are small applications that can be displayed inside module positions defined in a template. Elxis modules may include: Main Menu, Top menu, Template Chooser, Polls, Newsflash, Hit Counter, etc. You can install new modules. Visit www.elxis.org for more information.

Multilingual: Multilingual are the web sites that can display their content in more than one languages. With Elxis you can create advanced multilingual web sites where you can even have different layouts and content structure based on selected language.

Newsfeeds: Newsfeeds are a way of sharing content between different sites. We call newsfeeds articles that are published in other web sites and site owners allow us to display them in our site through RSS Feeds. Newsfeeds are not the whole article, but only the title and a short introduction. If you find the article interesting, you can click the title and read the article in the web site that published it. Elxis can display newsfeeds and provide RSS feeds to other sites.

Open Source (OS): Open Source is a general term describing several parts of the Free Software Licence movement. "Free software" is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of "free" as in "free speech", not as in "free beer".

Parameters: Parameters can be used to control the presentation, or behavior of items, menu's, components, bots or modules.

Preview: While in Back-End you can preview (see how the will look like when they will be used in the Front-End) content and modules.

Publish: For an item to be visible in Front-End it should be published. Only published items are visible. Please note that in certain cases more ctiteria must be met in order for an item to be visible. The most important of them are: Access Level and Language.

Record: A Record is a generic term for a "row" in a database. A record very often represents a "piece" of content. The dynamic functionality and much of the content of Elxis relies on a database in order to function.

Registered User: A user that has an account to your Elxis site and he can login and access content addressed only to members. Also called member.

Section: A Section is a collection of Categories that are related in some way. Think of it this way. A section might be called "Wines". Categories in this section might be "White", "Red", "Rose", "Dry", etc.

SEO title: See "Title (SEO)".

Site: The Elxis Site is the web site displayed to your visitors or users, containing all the content added in the Admin Section. It is also referred as the "Front-End".

SoftDisk: SoftDisk is a virtual storage area for variables and parameters of any kind. You can add new or edit/delete existing SoftDisk's entries except the ones labeled as owned by the system. Also entries marked as "Undeletable" can only be edited. For naming SoftDisk's sections and value names you are only allowed to use capital latin letters, digits and underscore (_).

Submitted Content: Is the content (news, articles, etc) that are submitted by users from the Front-End. Administrators, inspect the submitted content and decide if they will publish it or not.

Super Administrator: See "Administrator (Super)".

Templates (Administrator): Administrator Templates define the look of Elxis administration (Back-End). You can install new administrator templates

Templates (Login Screens): Login Screens are templates that control what a user sees when he tries to login to Back-End. You can install new Login Screens.

Templates (Site): Site Templates define the lay-out of your Elxis web site (Front-End). You can assign different templates to pages of your web site. You can install new site templates.

Title: This is the name displayed above a Content Item.

Title (SEO): It is a text that will be used to form the URL for a part of Elxis when SEO Pro is enabled. It can be defined by administrator or suggested by Elxis.

Tools: Tools are applications available only to administrators that are generally used for site maintenance. Tools are another unique feature of Elxis CMS.

User: A general term that describes people that have created an account to an Elxis site and belong to a user group. See also "Visitor" and "Registered User".

Wrapper: A Wrapper is a built-in Elxis component which can display any URL in your website. This can be used to wrap an application like a forum or a gallery, individual pages as well as an entire website. An alternative name is IFrame.