About the Structure Grouping Tool

Once you choose publication structures to hold your repository content, you may want to place some or all of those structures into a hierarchy. Using the structure grouping tool to nest structures on your site helps create useful categories for your collections and enhance your visitors’ browsing experience. In addition, the tool provides the flexibility needed to support future changes and collection development.

Nesting a structure in the structure grouping tool is as easy as indicating the community where that structure should be “grouped.” Communities serve as the virtual containers in Digital Commons. Each can contain one or more structures, which can include both publications that hold content and communities acting as sub-communities.

Nest a Structure in a Community

To start creating a hierarchy, all you need is a community and one other structure to nest under that community. This can be a publication or another community.

To group a structure into a community:

1. On the Configuration page of the publication or community you wish to nest, click the Structure grouping tool link (previously labeled Group) in the left-hand sidebar.
2. Enter the URL of the community where you’d like the current structure to appear in the Group field. You may enter the full URL or only the URL label. Example: The URL of a Working Papers community is repository.example.edu/wp, so you may enter either that complete URL or simply the “wp” URL label for the community.
3. Click Save group.
4. You will need to update the current structure, the parent community, and often the repository's site level to make your changes visible. To do this, click Publish saved changes in the Configuration sidebar at each level. For help with publishing saved changes when grouping multiple structures, you can request assistance from Consulting Services.

What Changes Occur When Using the Structure Grouping Tool

When you nest a structure using the structure grouping tool and publish saved changes in the appropriate locations on the site, the following changes appear:

• The navigation breadcrumb within the grouped structure shows the parent community’s URL label (or shortname, if present). Any communities up the hierarchy above the parent community will also appear.
• The parent community’s homepage displays a link to the grouped structure.
• The grouped structure will display on the site-level Collections page, depending on how far down the hierarchy the structure is nested. The Collections page (communities.html) shows three nested levels.

Move a Structure to a New Community

To group a structure in a different community, follow the above steps and replace the existing URL with that of the new community. Then choose Publish saved changes in the grouped structure, the parent community, the old community, and the site level. For help with publishing saved changes when moving multiple structures, you can request assistance from Consulting Services.

The structure grouping tool affects the browsing hierarchy on the site, but it does not alter any URLs. A virtual hierarchy is created that makes it easy to change where a publication or community displays at any time. Posted records in a nested publication will also retain their permanent links.