In the SX-Creval modular website building system, the article entry module is mainly used for the homepage or landing page, helping businesses showcase the latest company news, industry insights, or blog articles to visitors.
To meet the design needs of different foreign trade companies, the system includes four built-in article display modules with distinct layout styles. All modules can be found under the "Articles" group in the backend. These modules all utilize front-end preloading technology, ensuring smooth category switching while maintaining 100% SEO friendliness.
I. General Module Settings
All four article modules include the following basic configurations:
- Title and Description:
- Badge: Small decorative text above the title.
- Main title and description: The core title of the block and the supplementary explanation below it.
- Font size and color: The font size and color of the title and description text inside and outside the card can be set independently.
- Alignment: Supports left alignment or center alignment of the entire text.
- Background settings: The background color of the block can be customized to create a visual hierarchy with the modules above and below.
- Animation settings: Controls the entrance animation of this module when the page scrolls into the visible area.
II. Module Details and Layout Characteristics
1. Articles - Category Cards (Blog 1 Block)
Layout features: Standard grid and card-based design. Category toggle tabs are provided at the top, and three columns of tiled text and image cards are below.
Applicable scenarios: Suitable for regular news lists with high-quality images and requiring standardized and orderly display.
Special configuration items:
- Card Color Inversion (Dark Mode): When checked, the card will display a semi-transparent frosted glass effect with a dark background, which is perfect for use on blocks with dark background images or dark background colors.
- Rounded corner control: The "card rounded corners" and the "top category button rounded corners" can be set independently.
- Data retrieval: Administrators select the category to display in "Article Category," and the system automatically extracts the latest articles and generates corresponding category switching tags. The number of articles to display can be set (default is 3).
2. Article - Box Layout (Blog 2 Block)
Layout features: Employs a sophisticated "magazine-style" layout. Category switching is also supported at the top. In the article display area, a featured post with a large image is highlighted on the left, while other articles are presented as a smaller list of images and text on the right.
Suitable for scenarios where you want to highlight a key news article on the homepage while also including other information in a comprehensive display area.
Special configuration items:
- Visual Focus: The first article retrieved is automatically displayed as the large headline on the left, while the remaining articles are arranged in a list on the right.
- Data retrieval: Data is automatically retrieved by selecting the "Article Category". It is recommended to set the "Number of Articles to be Displayed" to 4 articles to perfectly present a visual balance of "1 large + 3 small".
3. Article - Text List (Blog 3 Block)
Layout features: minimalist design, no image distractions. The left side prominently displays the article's publication date in extra-large font (day and month arranged vertically), while the right side features the title and description, accompanied by a smooth arrow animation when the mouse hovers over it.
Suitable for use as "company announcements," "exhibition schedules," or for companies with relatively few accompanying images. This plain text list layout appears extremely professional and compact.
Special configuration items:
- Minimalist settings: Card and image settings have been removed, focusing on typography and fonts.
- Data retrieval: It still supports switching between multiple categories and automatically fetching the latest data.
4. Articles - 3 per post (Blog 4 Block)
Layout features: Employs a highly modern Bento Box (bento box/grid puzzle) layout. The overall layout is divided into three sections:
- Large graphic cards occupying two rows on the left (with a dark gradient mask).
- The upper right corner features a solid-color text card with the brand's primary color background.
- The bottom right corner features a small image card with a dark overlay.
Suitable for: "Editor's Picks", "Featured Recommendations" or as the core guide area on the homepage.
Special configuration items:
- Manual Precise Control: Automatic crawling is no longer available. The system requires administrators to precisely select 3 articles or category pages from the "Article Page List".
- SX-Creval intelligent inference logic:
- Tag inference: Automatically extract the parent category name of the selected article as the display tag.
- Smart "View All" Link: The system will intelligently calculate the final link address that the "View All" button at the bottom should point to based on the first item you select, eliminating the need to manually fill in complicated URLs.
III. Best Practice Recommendations
- Automated operation: If daily news updates are frequent, it is recommended to use "Module 1 (Category Cards)" or "Module 2 (Box Layout)" and configure the article categories accordingly. Subsequent updates will be automatically synchronized to the homepage upon posting articles in the backend.
- Key Marketing Strategies: For major events such as invitations to important exhibitions or releases of annual reports, it is recommended to use "Module 4 (3 fixed articles)" to manually fix them in the most eye-catching position on the homepage with strong visual impact.
- Performance and Aesthetics: When using modules containing images, please try to ensure that the uploaded main image has a consistent aspect ratio (such as 16:9 or 4:3) to obtain the best SX-Creval front-end visual experience.