Contao page types
The page type determines whether a page shows content, forwards to another page or defines the starting point of a new website within the page tree. Contao supports 6 different page types which are explained below.
| Page type | Description |
|---|---|
| Regular page | A regular page contains articles and content elements. It behaves like a static HTML page. |
| External redirect | This type of page automatically redirects visitors to an external website. It works like a hyperlink. |
| Internal redirect | This type of page automatically forwards visitors to another page within the site structure. |
| Website root | This type of page marks the starting point of a new website within the site structure. |
| 403 Access denied | If a user requests a protected page without permission, a 403 error page will be loaded instead. |
| 404 Page not found | If a user requests a non-existent page, a 404 error page will be loaded instead. |
Multi-domain mode ¶
Contao supports multiple websites within the site structure and automatically redirects visitors to a particular website root page depending on its DNS and language settings. Let us assume that you are running a bilingual corporate website which uses the domain www.company.com and a small private website which uses the domain www.personal-website.com. You need three website root pages for that:
| Type | DNS | Language code | Fallback language |
|---|---|---|---|
| German corporate website | none | de | no |
| English corporate website | none | en | yes |
| Personal website | personal-website.com | de | yes |
The following table shows to which page a visitor will be redirected depending on the domain and his browser language.
| Domain | Browser language | Redirect target |
|---|---|---|
| www.company.com | English | English corporate website |
| www.company.com | German | German corporate website |
| www.company.com | Spanish | English corporate website |
| www.personal-website.com | irrelevant | Personal website |
Note that if we had not set the language fallback option, the personal website would only be available for German speaking users!
Access rights ¶
Access rights determine what back end users are allowed to do with a page and its articles. It has nothing to do with protected pages that can only be accessed by certain front end users! Similar to the Unix file permission system, there are three permission levels:
- Access as the owner of a page
- Access as a member of the group that owns the page
- Access as an unprivileged user
Each level can have different permissions. By default, the owner of a page is allowed to edit the page itself as well as its articles, whereas a member of the group that owns a page is only allowed to edit articles. Unprivileged users have no writing permissions at all.
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