Need Help with Context Settings

Having just read a great article by Benjamin Marte regarding MODx Context Settings http://www.cmstricks.com/blog/2012/11/10/modx-context-settings/

I am a bit confused. I thought what a great idea for managing globel items in one location. Items like the address, phone, fax, social media links, etc. I initially had and issue with my new contexts not displaying on my web page, but then creating them within "web" resolved that issue.

I guess I am a bit confused though how to tell my client to update these settings. Do I tell them to go to contexts > web > and then change the content in the field?

I don't really understand the Lexicon field in the new context form. It looks like Benjamin created his own and typed in "Client Info" I typed in "Business Info" (no hyphen or underscore, but I can't see where that even shows up. Can anyone shed a bit more light on this for me? Having a hard time wrapping my brain around this?

I can see in lexicon management that two entries were added based on my creation of the new context. They are "setting_business_name" and "setting_business_name_desc"

In the context setting page I do see where a title was created "Area:Business Info" That must be where the entry in Lexicon Field gets inserted. So that must allow them to be grouped together in the context window. Is that correct? Thus, I could create an Area for say contact type information, and then another Area for say social media links, and so on.
[ed. note: mmcgee last edited this post 12 years, 8 months ago.]

If you want to store information that will be available in any Context, you should put it in System Settings. Context Settings are for when you want to either store information specific to that context or override System Settings for that context.

As for the client, take a look at Mark Hamstra's ClientConfig package.

Hi Bob: Thank you for responding.
Your suggestion makes sense. site_name is located there, and general contact type info would be along those same lines as well. I guess I will delete the contexts I created and then go recreate them in System Settings. If I name them all similarly, then they should be easily identifiable by my client when they take over the reigns (business_name, business_phone, etc. etc.) I'm guessing I might have the option to create an Area there like I did in contexts so that these items are all grouped together.

Mark's ClientConfig package is an add-on I presume?

I deleted the contexts, and then created new ones in system settings. Worked like a charm! Thanks for the feedback Bob. Much appreciated.

Yes my ClientConfig is a free add-on.

Once you install it there is a client friendly interface to manage site-wide settings in the Components menu.

There's some docs here: http://rtfm.modx.com/extras/revo/clientconfig but just head over to System > Package Management > Download Extras, find it in the list, and install it. Refresh page. Head over to Components > Configuration. Add a group and settings by clicking Admin in the top right and then back to the Client View, and you'll see why it's better than system settings.

Written all that, I feel there's a need for more docs and I'll work on that.

Now that I've already created the new system settings, can I also use clientconfig to determine access? I'll certainly give the add-on a try.

@mmcgee The Area Lexicon Entry allows you to organize your context settings in a category, if you look at /2/]this image you will see a collapsible link in the table that says: Area: Client Info

If you make another context setting with a different Lexicon Entry you will have another category in order to group context settings in the same category they need to have the same lexicon entry.

I haven't played with ClientConfig but it seems like an easy way to let clients change context settings.

I hope that clears it up for you.

This helps. The "Area: Client Info" displays in a light color on my system and thus it took me a while to notice. For now I went deleted my contexts and set them up as system settings, though I was able to get them to display when I had my entries in the context settings. Seems like context settings can be used for even more complex setups. clientconfig does look very promising. I'm both excited and anxious to give it a try.

Thanks for making that context post on your blog Benjamin and for jumping in on my question. Very helpful.