The Designer Admin Mode
In a mature site, the Designer Admin Mode is the third most used App Mode after the User App Mode and the Editor Admin Mode.
In the Designer Admin Mode an administrative user can change the site’s skin as well as the top navigation style.
The Designer Admin Mode allows an administrative user to reformat the look and feel of grids and sections as well as create and configure Directories and Summaries.
While in Designer Admin Mode, the following tasks can be accomplished.
1) Change site skin or page skin
2) Change site top navigation style or page top navigation style.
3) Edit section view properties
4) Change column design
5) Change list of functionality
6) Create or configure directories
7) Define and Configure Query Portals
When the application is put in Designer Admin Mode, a “Revert to User Mode” button becomes available in the Control bar.
Figure : List of Customers in User Mode
Figure : List of Customer in Designer Mode
Edit section view properties
Figure : Edit section view properties
While in Designer Admin Mode, the look and feel of the section of the page that contains the list can be changed. The following elements can be changed
1) Section Width (1-12)
2) Background color
3) Hide header
4) Hide section frame
5) Hide section border
6) Enable additional content area (above section.)
Change column design
In Designer Admin Mode, buttons representing all columns available in a list or grid are displayed.
Figure : Change column design
Clicking on a button will open a Column Designer for that particular column. So clicking on the “Alias” button as seen in the Change column design figure above will open the screen shown in the Column designer figure below.
Figure : Column designer: Top: Visibility and labels
Figure : Column designer: Bottom: Header and Content layout
Change list functionality
The Change List Functionality section allows an administrative user to configure the following:
1) Rows – the number of rows per page to display
2) Action buttons – Delete, Details, Edit, Use dialog, Show Tagging
Figure : Change list functionality
Configure Directories
A directory is a user configured categorization of data in a dataset.
The user can select fields, apply filters against the fields, and arrange the fields and filters in a hierarchical order.
Figure : Directories in User Admin Mode
To configure or create a Directory, you have to be in Designer Admin Mode.
Figure : Customer Directory in Designer Admin Mode
Apart from the Designer Mode features that are available for lists, a Directory view in Designer Admin Mode, has the following additional features
1) A Data Security button 
2) A Directory Configuration button 
3) A Create Directory button 
Edit or Create Directory
Figure : Edit Directory Configuration
Configuring the ‘Field List’
The data entered into the ‘Field list’ textbox in used to create the Directory’s menu.
The ‘Field list’ data in Figure 92 will lead to the following menu structure:
• A-Z (based on the first character in the Email field)
o A date range: 1/1/2000 to 1/1/2011
o A date range: 1/1/2011 to 12/31/2012
o A date range: 1/1/2013 to 1/1/2100
Figure : Directory menu showing submenu
Format for 'Field List'
Multiple rows can be entered into the Field List textbox. Each row should have the following format:
Field, Range (Display Text)
Example 1
Age; 19-40 (Young adults)
Field
The field portion of the text must be the name of a field in the entity.
Range
The Range portion is only applicable to number and date fields. The following are examples of possible range definitions:
1) 404 – 409 : Defines a number range from 404 to 409
2) [404 to 409] : Defines a number range from 404 to 409
3) > 404 : Defines a range from 404 to infinite
4) < 404 : Defines a range from 404 to negative infinite
5) = 404 : Defines a range from 404 to 404
6) 404 : Defines a range from 404 to 404
Display Text
The Display Text portion of the text is used as the menu item’s label.
Query Portal
A Query Portal is a system generated query page similar to a multi-field search page.
A Query Portal has the following characteristics.
1) It points to a pre-existing page on the site – the target page should host a web form
2) Query Portal may only be defined on Shortcut pages
3) For any shortcut page, three Query Portal definitions may be defined
4) Query Portals are sensitive to a user’s role membership
5) For aesthetics reasons, Query Portals supports a maximum of three fields
As an example, the “/JobBoard” shortcut may be overridden by a Query Portal by adding the following Portal Definitions in Designer Admin Mode.
1) “JobBoard/Queries/JobPostingSkillsSearch?searchCriteria&City”
2) “JobBoard/Queries/ResumeSkillsSearch?searchCriteria&City&roleName=Employer”
The first entry will create a Query Portal with two fields – SearchCriteria and City. A system generated view will be displayed instead of the current navigational shortcut. See below
Figure : Query Portal view
The first entry points to the “JobPostingSkillSearch” query page.
The second entry points to the “ResumeSkillsSearch” query page.
The two entries have the same field definitions – SearchCriteria and City, but the second entry also has a RoleName criteria defined.
For the second entry, the additional RoleName criteria means that a Query Portal view that points to the “ResumeSkillsSearch” query page, will only be displayed for users that belong to the “Employer” role.
Change Skin and Top Navigation style
In Designer Mode an administrative user will be able to change the site’s skin or a single page’s skin. The administrative user can also change the style of the top navigation.
To enable skin variations or change the skin or top navigation for the entire site, navigate to:
/ SiteProperties/GlobalDisplayProperties
There are 4 skin variations and 4 navigation styles
Skin Variations
1) Blue
2) Black
3) Green
4) Red
Navigation Variations
1) Icon Only
2) Top Icon
3) Right Text
4) Text Only
Figure : Skin and Navigation Variations in User Mode
Figure : Skin and Navigation Variations in Designer Mode