Folders vs. Sections
When organizing content in Modern Campus CMS, you can create either a Folder or a Section. Although both appear as folders within the CMS, they serve different purposes.
The simplest way to remember the difference between a section and a folder is:
Sections contain webpages. Folders contain supporting files.
What Is a Section?
A Section represents an actual content area of your website. Sections contain webpages and often correspond to categories or groups of related information within your site's navigation.
For example, a department website might have sections for:
- About
- Academics
- People
- Research
- Resources
When you create a new section, Modern Campus CMS creates an index page (index.pcf) inside it. This serves as the main landing page for that section.
A section can also contain additional pages and subsections.
For example:
- academics/
- index.pcf
- undergraduate.pcf
- graduate.pcf
- programs/
- index.pcf
- biology.pcf
- chemistry.pcf
In this example, academics and programs are sections because they represent areas of website content with their own landing pages.
When to Use a Section
Create a section when you are organizing webpages that belong together.
Sections are especially important when using the Sidebar Layout, because the side navigation reflects the structure of the section and helps visitors navigate between related pages.
What Is a Folder?
A Folder is primarily used to organize supporting files rather than webpages.
For example, your site includes folders such as:
- _images/
- _media/
- _includes/
The _images folder stores images, _media stores (WCAG 2.2 AA-compliant) PDF, PPT and other documents, and _includes contains configuration and supporting files used by the website.
You can create additional folders inside these areas to keep files organized.
For example:
- _images/
- faculty/
- students/
- events/
- research/
These folders do not represent sections of the public website. They simply make files easier for editors to find and manage.
Why Do Some Folders Start With an Underscore?
An underscore (_) at the beginning of a folder name identifies it as a folder containing supporting files rather than webpages.
For example:
- _images
- _media
- _includes
Folder or Section?
| If you need to… | Use |
|---|---|
| Create a new area of your website | Section |
| Group related webpages | Section |
| Create a landing page with pages underneath it | Section |
| Create an area that may appear in section navigation | Section |
| Organize images | Folder |
| Organize PDFs or documents | Folder |
| Organize other supporting files | Folder |
| Create a subfolder inside _images |
Folder |
A Good Rule of Thumb
Ask yourself: “Will visitors navigate to this as an area of my website?”
If yes, create a Section.
If the folder exists only to help editors organize images, documents, or other supporting files behind the scenes, create a Folder.
Keep Your Site Structure Simple
- Your CMS file structure should reflect the organization of your website. Create sections when they provide a meaningful grouping of related pages, but avoid creating unnecessary levels of nested sections.
- Use folders for organization behind the scenes and sections for the structure visitors actually experience.
- A clean structure makes your website easier for visitors to navigate and easier for future web editors to understand and maintain.