Data Sources

The Teaser widget performs two functions:

It retrieves a set of content items from the Content Engine.
It renders selected fields and information about each of the content items in the set.

The widget's data retrieval function is performed by a component called a Data Source. A Data Source is actually an independent, separate component and can be used in three ways:

Embedded in a widget
Defined independently and then used by one or more "client" widgets
Desked in a group on the section page, where it behaves like an automated list

The Data Source component is very powerful and flexible. It allows you to define multiple queries that can select content items using a variety of different methods. You can, for example:

Select the content items desked in a specified group on the current section page
Select the current content item's related content items
Select content items that are tagged with the same tags as the current content item
Select content items based on data returned by the Escenic Analysis Engine (the most read content items, for example)
Select content items using a free text search

The results returned by the queries you define are merged into a single collection that you can filter and sort in various ways to produce the final list of content items that will be displayed by a widget or widgets (or directly on a section page in the case of a desked data source).