Overview

Description

DEMO

Documentation

1. Using Libraries

2. Using the Book Manager

3. Using the Template System

Libraries

Build a richer publishing and knowledge experience for Invision Community with a native system for articles, books, and documents. Libraries is designed for communities that need more than a flat docs area. It gives you structured libraries, nested shelves, multi-format content, reader-friendly navigation, and IPS-native moderation and engagement tools in one app.

What It Does

Libraries lets administrators and approved members organize long-form knowledge content into a clear hierarchy:

• Libraries group major knowledge areas, product collections, or publishing sections

• Shelves organize topics inside each library, including nested shelf structures

• Articles, Books, and Documents give you the right content format for editorial writing, multi-page manuals, and reference material

Instead of forcing every piece of content into the same shape, Libraries supports different reading experiences while still keeping everything inside IPS-native content workflows.

Key Features

Articles for Editorial and Guide Content

• Dedicated Article Type: Publish articles as their own content type instead of treating everything like a plain document entry

• Single-Page Reading Flow: Ideal for announcements, tutorials, opinion pieces, changelog explainers, release writeups, and in-depth guides

• Rich Presentation: Articles support cover images, subtitles, overview text, tags, prefixes, and formatted editor content

• Native IPS Engagement: Articles participate in follows, reactions, reporting, comments, reviews, ratings, and read tracking

• Software Linking: Articles can be tied directly to Software Marketplace items when you want release or feature documentation attached to a product

Books for Multi-Page Manuals and Structured Reading

• True Book Content Type: Create multi-page books instead of splitting manuals into disconnected posts or standalone documents

• Book Page Manager: Add, edit, delete, reorder, enable, disable, and organize pages from a dedicated management workspace

• Intro Page and Reading Paths: Books can open on a preferred intro page, then continue through a structured chapter flow

• Nested Page Structure: Build parent and child page relationships for more advanced manuals, handbooks, and product guides

• Reader-Friendly Navigation: Books can expose page outlines, current-page table of contents blocks, and clean page-specific URLs inside the parent book

• Draft-First Workflow: New books start in draft so authors can build page structure before publishing

• Publishing Safeguards: Books are protected from being published as empty shells without readable pages

• Unified Discussions: Comments, reviews, follows, helpfulness, moderation state, and other IPS content behavior stay attached to the parent book item

• Revision-Aware Authoring: Book pages and book changes fit into the app revision-oriented publishing workflow for ongoing maintenance

Documents for Straightforward Reference Content

• Single-Page Reference Format: Use documents for FAQs, support notes, internal reference material, setup steps, quick answers, or short technical explanations

• Cleaner Than Forum Posts: Documents keep knowledge content separate from discussion-first areas while still supporting IPS engagement where needed

• Shared Feature Set: Documents also support editor content, overview text, cover images, tags, related software links, comments, reviews, and moderation controls

Structured Libraries and Shelf Navigation

• Library and Shelf Hierarchy: Organize content in a way that feels closer to a real documentation center or digital publishing library

• Nested Shelves: Use parent and child shelf structures to separate products, departments, categories, chapters, or knowledge domains

• Finder-Style Browsing: Members can browse through index, library, shelf, and item views instead of relying on one flat listing

• On-Page Navigation Aids: Heading-aware table of contents support helps readers move through long-form content more easily

• Related Content Discovery: Surface more items from the same shelf to keep readers moving through connected material

Native IPS Publishing, Community, and Moderation Tools

• Comments and Reviews: Let members discuss and review articles, books, and documents directly on the content item

• Helpfulness Voting: Readers can mark content as helpful or not helpful for lightweight quality feedback

• Private Negative Feedback Threads: Not-helpful responses can include private written feedback, with author or staff replies when needed

• Drafts and Approval Workflows: Shelf-level controls can govern draft saving, approval requirements, and moderated publishing behavior

• Silent Editing and Revision Tracking: Maintain content cleanly without losing control over edit visibility and history

• Read Markers, Reporting, Embeds, and Follows: The app uses familiar IPS content behaviors instead of reinventing them in a parallel system

Marketplace and Commerce Integration

• Software Marketplace Bridge: Link content directly to Marketplace software items and surface it in the software item Documentation tab

• Related Software Panels: Show readers which Marketplace item a piece of content belongs to, with pricing and product context where relevant

• Paid Content Support: Documents, articles, and books can participate in paid-access workflows when Commerce integration is enabled

• Purchase Terms and Renewals: Support monetized documentation workflows with terms acceptance, renewals, and entitlement-aware access control

Template System and Visual Families

• Multiple Shipped Design Families: The app includes distinct visual family foundations inspired by Basic, Apple Finder, GNOME Files, and Windows Explorer

• Full Template Set Architecture: The front end is split into managed runtime targets for the frame, index, library, shelf, document, My Items, book manager, terms manager, submit flow, and Marketplace tab body

• ACP Template System: Administrators can manage template sets directly from the AdminCP instead of editing one hard-coded front-end layout

• Fork, Clone, Import, and Export: Start from a shipped family, create blank sets, clone existing sets, or move full template sets between installs as JSON packages

• Per-Set CSS and JavaScript: Each template set can carry its own custom CSS and JavaScript for deeper visual and interaction customization

• Baselines and Revisions: Save set-wide baselines for restore points and keep template-level revisions for safer iterative design work

• Global Theme Switching for the App: Activate a template set to change the Documentation and Libraries experience across the app from a single managed system

Use Cases

Libraries is especially well suited for:

• software product documentation

• release notes and feature explainers

• premium article publishing

• multi-page manuals and handbooks

• customer knowledge bases

• internal team documentation

• developer guides and API references

• training materials and onboarding content

AdminCP Areas

The app includes dedicated AdminCP management areas for:

• Libraries

• Shelves

• Documents and content items

• Helpfulness Ratings

• Statistics

• Settings

Why It Stands Out

Most IPS knowledgebase-style solutions focus on a single document format. Libraries goes further by giving you a broader publishing model: articles for polished single-page reading, books for structured multi-page content, and documents for quick reference material, all inside one organized library and shelf system.

Developed by InvisionMarketplace.com - Professional Invision Community Applications