A tour

The admin is the part of Manablox you use in the browser to write content, upload images, build menus and manage who may do what. This page walks you around it once, so you know where to find things. The other pages in this section then explain each area in detail.

Opening the admin

Open the admin’s address in your browser. When the CMS runs on your own computer, that is http://localhost:3000. On a server, your team gives you the address, for example https://cms.example.com.

Sign in with your email and password on the Sign in page. If you do not have an account yet, ask an administrator to create one for you; see Users and roles. The very first account of a new installation is created on a setup page instead; see Sign in and create a space.

The layout

+----------------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| Manablox       | Website > Content > About     Language EN|DE   [?] bell  |
| [Website    v] +--------------+-------------------------------------------+
|                | Tree         |                                           |
| Dashboard      |  Home        |                                           |
| Content        |  About       |       the page you are working on         |
| Templates      |  Blog        |                                           |
| Menus          |              |                                           |
| ...            |              |                                           |
| Settings       |              |                                           |
|                |              |                                           |
| Anna Berger    |              |                                           |
+----------------+--------------+-------------------------------------------+
  sidebar          side panel     main area

The screen has three parts: the sidebar on the left, the top bar along the top, and the main area. Some sections add a side panel between the sidebar and the main area, for example the content tree.

From top to bottom, the sidebar holds:

The Manablox logo. Click it to go to the dashboard.
Collapse sidebar. The small button next to the logo shrinks the sidebar to icons. Click it again (Expand sidebar) to bring the labels back.
The space switcher. A dropdown with the name of the space you are working in. Pick another space here to switch. Everything below it in the sidebar belongs to the chosen space.
The sections. Dashboard, Content, Templates and so on; see the table below.
You. At the bottom: your initials, your name and your account type (superadmin for an administrator of the installation, editor for everyone else). Click them to open your profile; see Your account.
The theme button. Switches between light, dark and your system’s setting.
Sign out. The button with the arrow at the very bottom right.

The sections

What you see depends on your role in the current space. A section you may not use has no entry in the sidebar at all.

Section	What it holds	Who sees it	More
Dashboard	The space at a glance: figures, recently updated documents, quick links	Everyone	This page
Content	The content tree, search and the document editor	Everyone	Editing content
Templates	Block lists written once and used in many documents	Everyone	Editing content
Menus	Navigations such as “Main navigation” or “Footer”	Everyone	Menus
Workflows	Automations: emails, notifications, calls to other systems	Owners, admins, editors	Workflows
Webhooks	Messages to and from other systems	Owners, admins, editors	Webhooks
Content types	The builder for document and block types	Owners and admins	Building content types
Assets	The space’s images and files	Everyone	Images and files
Activity	Who did what and when	Owners and admins	Activity
Settings	Spaces, roles, AI, credentials, users and API keys	Owners and admins	See below

“Owners, admins, editors” means the built-in roles of that name. A role your team defined can open more or fewer sections; see Users and roles. An administrator of the whole installation sees everything. Plugins can add further sections.

Settings

Settings has tabs along the top:

Tab	What it is for	More
Spaces	Each space’s name, address, languages, members, uploads and transfer	Spaces and members
Roles	What each role may do in the current space	Users and roles
Tags	The space’s tags: rename, merge or delete them	Tags
AI	The AI services a space can write text and make images with	AI
Credentials	Passwords and keys that workflows use to reach other systems	Workflows
Users	All accounts of the installation. Only administrators see this tab	Users and roles
API keys	Keys that let programs read or change content in your name	API keys

While Settings is open, the side panel lists all your spaces.

The top bar

From left to right:

Where you are. The space’s name, the section, and the document or item you have open, for example Website > Content > About. Click the section name to go back to its start page.
Language. When the space has more than one language, a switch such as EN | DE chooses the language you work in. The tree, the lists and the editor follow it. See Languages and translations.
Keyboard shortcuts. The button with the keyboard icon lists every key that works on the current page. Pressing ? does the same. See Keyboard shortcuts.
Notifications. The bell shows how many unread notifications you have, for example a document waiting for your approval. See Notifications and approvals.
Visit site. Opens the space’s website in a new tab. It only appears when the space has a frontend URL; see Spaces and members.

A thin moving bar at the very top of the top bar means the admin is loading or saving something.

The side panel

Content, Templates, Menus, Workflows, Content types and Settings show a list next to the page: the content tree, the templates, the menus, the workflows, the types, the spaces. It stays in place while you open items from it.

Drag the panel’s right edge to make it wider or narrower. The admin remembers the width.
Hide it with the Hide button at its top (for example Hide tree), or press ]. A hidden panel leaves a narrow strip; click Show on it, or press ] again, to bring the panel back.

The dashboard

The dashboard is the first page after signing in. It shows:

a greeting and the space’s name, technical name and website address,
four figures: Documents, Content types, Block types and Languages, each a link to its section,
Waiting for your approval, when documents wait for you to approve them,
Recently updated: the latest changed documents in the current language, each with its status,
Start something: quick links such as New document, Define a content type, Upload assets and Edit the navigation, depending on what you may do,
the space’s Language or Languages, with a switch when there are several.

If you are not a member of any space yet, you see “Ask an administrator to add you to a space.” instead.

On a small screen

On a phone or a narrow window, the sidebar is hidden. Tap the menu button at the top left of the top bar to open it. On pages with a side panel, a second button next to it (for example Tree) opens the panel. Tap outside, or press Esc, to close either one.

Habits every screen shares

Technical names fill themselves in. Spaces, content types, fields and roles have a label and a technical name. The technical name follows the label as you type (spaces become hyphens, capitals become lower case) until you type one yourself. Once saved, it is locked, because websites and programs depend on it.
Unsaved work is marked. An editor with unsaved changes shows an unsaved badge, and the Save button is only active when there is something to save.
Risky actions ask first. Deleting asks for confirmation in a dialog that says what will happen. Deleting a space or an account also asks you to type its name or email.
Messages appear briefly in a corner of the screen, for example Published "About" or an error that explains what went wrong. A field with a problem is marked in red with the reason under it.
The keyboard works everywhere. Ctrl+S (Cmd+S on a Mac) saves in every editor, and g followed by a letter jumps to a section. See Keyboard shortcuts.