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Resources

Who this page is for: client website admins — the volunteers who run the day-to-day site once it's launched.

The resources module is an optional feature that allows your association to publish downloadable resources on the website.

Enabling resources

Whether resources are switched on is a decision made during onboarding — see question 5 of the decision questionnaire and the AMS_RESOURCES_ENABLED settings glossary entry.

This isn't something you configure yourself: your provider switches it on when your site is set up (see provisioning runbook: environment settings). If you don't see Resources in the Django admin, ask your provider to turn it on. For the technical detail of what the flag does, see feature flags: AMS_RESOURCES_ENABLED.

Managing resources

Once enabled, resources are managed via the Django admin interface. To create a resource:

  1. Go to Resources → Resources in the admin.
  2. Set the name, description, and at least one author (user or entity).
  3. Set Visibility (see Who can see a resource below).
  4. Add one or more components (see below).
  5. Check Published when the resource is ready to appear on the website.

Resources appear publicly at /resources/ and include a listing page, detail pages, and a search page.

Resource components

Each resource has one or more components representing its actual content. Each component must have exactly one of the following:

  • URL — a link to an external website, video (YouTube/Vimeo), or Google Drive file. The component type is detected automatically from the URL.
  • File — an uploaded file. The component type is detected from the file extension and content.
  • Linked resource — a reference to another resource in the system.

The component type (PDF, document, video, etc.) is set automatically when the component is saved — you do not need to select it manually.

File uploads

Uploaded files are stored privately and are never accessible via public URLs. Members access files through download links on the resource detail page. Each download link generates a short-lived authenticated URL — the file itself remains protected.

Who can see a resource

The Visibility field controls both whether a resource is listed at all, and whether its components can actually be opened or downloaded:

Visibility Who can see it listed Who can open its components
Public Everyone Everyone
Account required to access Everyone Anyone signed in
Membership required to access Everyone Members only
Members only Members only Members only

Most associations only need Public and Members only — the two middle options exist for the less common case of wanting a resource visible to everyone, but its actual content restricted.

Taxonomy: categories and tags

Resources can be tagged with a two-level taxonomy that you define:

  1. Go to Resources → Resource categories and create categories (e.g. "Year Level", "Curriculum Area").
  2. Within each category, add tags (e.g. "Year 9", "Digital Technologies").
  3. Assign tags to resources via the Tags field on the resource form.

Tags appear as grouped filter facets on the search page, allowing users to filter results by category.

A Language category is created automatically, with English and Te Reo Māori — tag a resource with the language(s) it's available in, and visitors can filter by language the same way as any other tag. You can rename or add to these tags freely.

View counts

Every resource and component tracks how many times it has been viewed — shown publicly on the resource card, the resource detail page, and next to each component. Viewing an unpublished or members-only resource you can't access is never counted.

Thumbnails

You can add an optional thumbnail image to a resource from the name/description section of the resource form. It's shown as a small square on the resource card and larger on the resource's own page. Resources without a thumbnail display without an image — nothing looks broken.

Tag colours

There are two ways to colour the tags in a category:

  • Colour each tag by hand. Set a Colour on the individual tag — this always takes priority. Use this when tags need specific, unrelated colours (e.g. matching an existing colour-coded framework or your brand palette), or when a category has tags that shouldn't look part of a sequence.
  • Colour a whole category automatically, as a gradient. Set a gradient start colour (and optionally a gradient end colour) and a style (solid, outline, or soft) on the category. Every tag without its own colour is then shaded along that gradient, in the tags' display order — the first tag gets the start colour, the last gets the end colour, and the rest fade between them. Leave the end colour blank to give every tag in the category one flat colour instead. This suits categories with a natural order, like year levels or ascending reference numbers, where the colour should visually communicate progression.

You can mix both within one category: a few tags with their own hand-picked colour, the rest automatically gradient-shaded.

Adding resources to menus

You can add links to resources pages via the Wagtail CMS menu system (Main Menu or Flat Menus). Menu items pointing to /resources/ URLs cannot be added while the resources module is disabled.

See Tutorial 10: Resources for a step-by-step walkthrough of adding a resource.