Core Docs - Digital Publishing - Use Content Channels

Rock Version: v19.0
Last Modified: 2026-02-17 3:04 PM

If content channel types define the structure, content channels represent the implementation. Here's an example: you might have a channel type of Blog and channels Pastor Foster's Blog and Rock Solid Church's Blog that implement this type. You might be wondering why channel types are even needed. The answer is that they help enable reuse. In our blog example in the Content Channels article, if you didn't have channel types you would have to define the structure every time you wanted to create a new blog - yuck!

Create a new channel under Admin Tools > CMS Configuration > Content Channels.

You’re not limited to HTML just because a Content Channel started that way. By enabling Is Structured Content, you can start using the structured content editor right away for every new item you add. This means team members who aren’t comfortable with HTML can jump in to help write blog posts, update external website ads or collaborate on ministry updates. It’s a great way to share the workload and invite more voices into your communication without losing the work you've already done.

Note that Content Items that were originally created with HTML will stay that way, but all new items will use Structured Content.

Content Channel Tags

Just as you can tag people in Rock, you can also use tags to help identify and categorize content channels. One small difference, though, is only organizational tags can be used with content channels (as opposed to personal tags), and those tags must belong to a category specified when the content channel is configured.

Let's take a closer look at how to set this up.

Using Categories
Each category will have a list of tags. Say you have a "Sermon" category and a "Podcast Sermon" category you would create two tags for each category. Tags are all about how you want to organize your Content Channels. The power is in your hands to create the categories the way it makes sense for your organization.

2. The next step is enabling tagging in your content channels. Select the content channel you want to tag from the list found at Admin Tools > CMS Configuration > Content Channels and click Edit to modify its configuration. Check the Enable Tagging box, then select the category you'd like to be available for the content channel.

3. The final step is creating the tags you'll use with your content channel items. You can create as many as you need. Tags are created in the Tags screen, located at Admin Tools > General Settings > Tags. For each tag you create, use the Entity Type of "Content Channel Item" and select "Organizational" for the Owner. Leave the Qualifier Column and Qualifier fields blank. Alternatively, you can add tags directly from the content channel. You will be able to view and edit those tags in the general settings after they've been created if need be.

Now that your categories and tags are set up, you can add tags to content channel items. Simply type the tags you want to use in the "add tag" area of the Content Detail screen and click Save when you're done.

Block Settings
You can create a page dedicated to viewing all your content channel tags using the block settings.