What members see
A signed-in person who is not an admin uses the member area. It is a small sidebar layout with the site's name, the person's own pages, and the same menu for every install until an app changes it. It follows the member's language when the app declares one (see Member languages).
The menu
The member area starts at /user/dashboard. Its menu shows these items, in this order. The payment items appear only when the payments feature is on. An app built on Arc CMS may reword, hide, move or add items, for all its members or some roles (Change the member menu); Sign out is always there.
| Menu item | What it is for | Needs |
|---|---|---|
| Home | Back to the app's own home page. It appears only when an app sets a home page other than the dashboard. | An app's custom home |
| Dashboard | The member's landing page: a welcome line and a "Nothing here yet." card until an app puts its own page there. | Always on |
| Payments | The member's payments and credits. | payments |
| Account & Billing | The member's subscription and billing. | payments |
| Premium | What the member's plan unlocks. | payments |
| Profile | The member's own details. Read-only for an account an app manages (App accounts). | Always on |
| Plans | The public pricing page. | payments |
| Sign out | Ends the session. It is a button at the foot of the sidebar. | Always on |
With payments on, the sidebar also shows the member's credit balance.
The button at the top of the sidebar collapses it to its icons, each naming itself under the pointer, and opens it again; the browser remembers the choice. It stays in place while the menu scrolls. On a phone the sidebar folds into a bar that stays at the top of the screen: its button opens and closes the menu, and opening a page closes it.
Signing in and signing up
People sign in and sign up on the same page, with the methods the site has switched on (see Sign-in methods). A sign-in that started from a protected page returns there afterwards. Otherwise each role lands on its home: admins on /admin/dashboard, everyone else on /user/dashboard, unless the app sets another home.
Making it the app's own
An app built on Arc CMS decides what members land on, without editing core files:
- The app's own page at
/user/dashboard, set withCUSTOM_USER_DASHBOARD. - A different home for a role, set with
CUSTOM_HOME. - Whether accounts the app manages may open these pages at all, set with
CUSTOM_APP_ACCOUNTS(App accounts).
Both are explained in Build the member area.