Understanding Site Root
Overview
All site structure trees have a site root as the base element of the tree. The site root is used by Websydian Express to have one place to start processing the site structure tree when the site is loaded or when the site structure tree is shown in the administration interface.
Each site structure only contains one site root and this site root will always be the base element of the site structure tree.
The immediate children of the site root specifies what will happen when the site is loaded.
It is important to note that the site root can have several child site elements - when this is the case, the authorization level of the site elements determines which child will be used for a specific session - see more below.
Possible child element types
Frameset
This is by far the most common site element type to use as a child to a site root.
When a frameset is the immediate child of a site root the browser page will be split as defined by the frameset as soon as the site is loaded.
Business Process
In certain situations you want to execute one business process in the top browser page when the site is loaded (for certain users). An example could be if you just want to show the login page - and nothing else - at the first access of a user to the site.
Menu
This will probably be quite rare - but it is possible to define that certain users will just be shown a menu in the browser page when accessing the site.
Selection of the child element used for loading the site
When a session is loaded a number of roles will be assigned to the session. A detailed description of this assignment of roles to the session can be found here.
All child elements of the site root is read and the roles of these child elements are compared with the roles of the session. Only site elements that has adequate roles can be used.
If there are no child elements of the site root with adequate roles - an error will be shown to the user and an message will be thrown in the message log.