How it works
The content model
The six kinds of content — guide, article, checklist, quiz, video and audio — what each one holds, which editor opens it, and what operators get.
Everything you write in ROK is a content item, and every item has one of six types. By the end of this page you will know what each type holds, why two of them share one editor and the other four share another, and what an operator ends up with on their phone.
One frame, six bodies
Every item, whatever its type, has the same frame: a title (up to 200 characters), a summary (up to 500), tags, the guides it belongs to, and one of three statuses: Draft, In review or Published. The review, sign-off and publishing rules are the same for all six. See how publishing works.
What differs is the body, stored as a single structured value whose shape depends on the type:
| Type | The body holds |
|---|---|
| Guide | A rich-text introduction. What the guide contains is kept separately, not in the body |
| Article | A rich-text document. PDFs sit alongside it as attachments |
| Checklist | Sections, each with an optional title and a list of steps |
| Quiz | Questions (single answer, multiple answers or true/false), their options, the correct answers, an optional explanation for each, and a pass mark |
| Video | An uploaded file or a hosted link, and an optional duration |
| Audio | The same as video |
You choose the type once, on New content (opens the admin console). The edit page has no way to change it, so a checklist that should have been an article has to be started again.
There is no "document" type any more. It was retired, and the database refuses to create one: a PDF is now an attachment on an article.
Two editors, split by the shape of the body
Guides and articles have rich-text bodies, so they open the full editor: the formatting toolbar, Preview, document import, a word count, the checks for empty bodies and broken links under the body, a Cover image and Schedule publish. Guides add Guide appearance (short description, hero image and colour). Articles add PDF attachments.
Checklists, quizzes, video and audio have structured bodies, so they open a form built around their fields. It has no preview, no cover image and no schedule control. You can still schedule these types from All content (opens the admin console) with the bulk actions. Their Publish button stays disabled until the body is complete: every step has text, every question has a prompt, at least two filled-in options and a correct answer, and a media item has a file or a link.
Templates exist for articles, guide introductions and checklists (see Templates). Every field and button is described in The content editor.
What operators get
| Type | In the operator app |
|---|---|
| Guide | A landing screen: hero image, short description, a progress bar, a control to download the whole guide, the introduction, then its contents in order |
| Article | The formatted text, any PDF attachments, and Mark complete |
| Checklist | Steps to tick off. Progress is kept on the device and synced; ticking every step counts as completing it |
| Quiz | One question at a time, marked on the device, then the score, the explanations and Retake quiz. Passing counts as completing it |
| Video, Audio | A player and Mark complete |
A guide's progress counts the items inside it, including those in its sub-guides. Guides themselves are never counted as items to complete. How guides hold their contents is covered in how guides organise content.
What this means in practice
- Quiz answers travel with the quiz. That is what lets a quiz be marked with no signal. It also means a quiz suits self-check training, not a supervised exam.
- Search on the phone reads the body. Operators' offline search matches the title, the summary and the body text. Video and audio have no body text, so for them the title and summary are all search can find. Write them with that in mind.
- Hosted media needs a signal. An uploaded video or audio file can be saved on the device and played offline. A hosted link always streams. Upload anything an operator might need in a black spot. See how media and files work.
- Comparisons depend on the body. In an item's History, articles and guides are compared block by block, formatting included. Checklists, quizzes and media items are compared as a line-by-line listing of their underlying data: complete, but more technical to read. See versions, history and comparisons.
See also
- How it worksHow guides organise contentWhy a guide is itself a content item, how one item can sit in several guides, the two-level limit, and what operators see when only part of a guide is published.
- How it worksHow publishing worksThe path a piece of content takes from a blank draft to something an operator can read offline — and what the database will and won't let you skip.
- ReferenceNew contentStart a guide, article, checklist, quiz, video or audio item, optionally from a template, and what happens the moment it first saves.
- ReferenceThe content editorEvery card, field and button on an item's edit page — save, submit for review, publish, schedule, unpublish, restore — who can use each, and what operators receive.
- How it worksHow media and files are storedWhere ROK keeps your images, PDFs, video and audio, how the storage limit is measured, and why every content file is reached through a short-lived signed link.