Group, Area and Teaser Options

Both group elements and area elements can have options associated with them, defined in a child options element:

    <area name="main">
      <ui:label>Main stories</ui:label>
      <ct:options scope="current">
        <ct:field name="teaserStyle" type="enumeration">
          <ui:label>Teaser Style</ui:label>
         <ct:enumeration value="default">
            <ui:label>Default</ui:label>
          </ct:enumeration>
          <ct:enumeration value="breakingNews">
            <ui:label>Breaking News</ui:label>
          </ct:enumeration>
          <ui:value-if-unset>default</ui:value-if-unset>
        </ct:field>
      </ct:options>
    </area>

An options element that is a child of an area element can have a scope attribute, the purpose of which is to specify whether the options belong to the area itself (scope="current" as in the example above) or to the individual content items desked in the area (scope="items"), in which case they are referred to as teaser options rather than area options.

Options are displayed in the right hand panel when a group, area or desked content item is selected in CUE, allowing the CUE user to make choices about how the selected component is to be presented. Exactly how such choices are interpreted and the effect they have on layout is determined in the presentation layer.

The options element is not actually a member of the layout-group namespace, it is "borrowed" from the content-type namespace. If you use this element, therefore, its name must include a prefix declared on the groups root element, as follows:

<groups xmlns="http://xmlns.escenic.com/2008/layout-group"
        xmlns:ct="http://xmlns.escenic.com/2008/content-type"
        xmlns:ui="http://xmlns.escenic.com/2008/interface-hints">
...
</groups>