Integrate (custom) help pages / docs in the panel

Kirby 2 Suggestions đź’ˇ
1

Hi,

as far as I can see at the moment theres no way to add custom help pages to the panel for editors. I know the docs at getkirby.com and like them. But for not so “nerdy” people, i.e. clients, and for the fact that most sites add custom tags, templates etc. it would be great to have a way to integrate custom docs to the panel.

This is how I can think of a way it should work / look like:
In site/ add a folder help/ or docs/ in which lives a kind of kirby page e.g.

site/
    help/
        1-intro/
            default.de.txt
            default.en.txt
        2-adding-pages/
            default.de.txt
            default.en.txt        
        3-adding-content/
            1-text/
                default.de.txt
                default.en.txt
            2-images-and-files/
                default.de.txt
                default.en.txt
                example.pdf
                image.jpg
            default.de.txt
            default.en.txt

and the text files look like the common kirby markdown files. This could also support a multi language version of the docs, depending on the language of the user.

This section could be accessible by a link “help/docs” in the menu (like “users” or “site options”). This lnk would lead to a view where the left column of the panel shows the navigation for the docs and the right column the docs.

What du you think about that?

2

I actually made pretty much just that, but by making a help directory in the regular content. So there’s an item named help among other pages in the panel. Users can open that, see any custom tags etc. I have in my theme and press the preview to see how they look on the site.

Depending on who your users are, this might of course be problematic. Works for us because all my users are fellow co-workers at the same office and the site is version controlled, so I can roll back any changes anyone does to that help page for any reason.

Not sure if this was helpful, but there you go. :slight_smile:

3

Yeah, thats what I do already, but there are two (or three) problems:

  1. Editors can (accidentally) change or even delete the docs
  2. Editors can (accidentally) make the docs visible in the front end
  3. They aren’t protected against being viewed by normal visitors that know the URL example.com/help.

I know that I can prevent 1 and 2 by using a new template help and filter these pages out in the fronted, but having them separated from the real content would be much better.

4

You can also prevent 3 by access controlling the template for users that are no logged in. IMHO, the site folder does not feel to be the right place for such content.

Also, I would feel more comfortable with help pages that can be viewed in a different browser window on the front end, while editing in the panel.

5

Good point. I’ll try this in that way … but having an “official” way to add docs would still be nice to have!