Happy Center Kit HubDB Setup

Getting HubDB set up is relatively straightforward.  The video above will walk you through it, or you can follow the step-by-step guide below. I want to let you know that the Happy Center Kit works specifically with this setup and will not work with existing HubDB tables you might already have. You'll see why.

Let's jump in!

Create your HubDB Table.

1. Navigate to the HubDB section of HubSpot and click Create table

Be sure to give your table a label and name that makes sense for what you're creating, or simply call it "Happy Center." 

2. Click the Actions dropdown and then Manage Settings.

It's here where you'll need to enable the creation of "dynamic pages" so go ahead and click this toggle, then the Save button. Don't worry about the Metadata, we'll come back to that later.

 

3. Click the Add Row button in the middle of the screen.

This will help you better visualize what happens as you add columns to your table. You should now have something that looks like this.

4. Click the Actions drop-down and then Add Column

This is a process you'll be repeating a number of times, but we'll walk through the first few, and then I'll give you a list of the others to add.

 

6. Create a column for the Canonical URL

Add the column label, name, and select URL as the column type so it looks EXACTLY like this.

 

Important: As we go through this process and order, it's very important that the column name and type are set exactly as stated. If you misspell something or create your own name, the template and modules won't be able to read it.

7. Add a new column for the Popular article feature.

Again, click Action -> Add column and then create the label, name, and this time set the column type to Checkbox. It will look like this.

Are you getting the hang of it now?

8. Create the Featured Image column

I think you know the drill by now.  It will look like this.

 

9. Create the Category column

This one is a tad different and likely a column you'll continue to revisit to add additional categories over time. With this column, you'll want to select the Multi-Select type. This is going to allow you to create all your different category options.

As you create an option label, if you click Tab, it will automatically create the Internal Name or ID for that option. This may be something you need to reference in the HCK Article Card module. More on that later.  The important thing to note is that the internal name just be lowercase_with_no_spaces.

 

10. Create the remaining columns in this order.

Now that you've got the hang of it, here are the remaining columns you need to create, along with their label, name, and type.

 

1. Tags
   name: tags
   type: Multi-select
   
   
2. Article
   name: article
   type: Rich text
   
   
3. Video (if you don't plan to use this feature, still create the column)
   name: video
   type: Video
   
   
4. Meta Description
   name: meta_description
   type: text

Great work! You've now got all your columns set up.  That wasn't so hard, was it?

11. Set up your Metadata configurations

Remember Step #2, where you turned on the dynamic page option? We are headed back to that screen. Click the Actions dropdown, then Manage Settings.  With the dropdown, you want to set the columns for the meta description, featured image, and canonical URL.  It should look like this.

 

12. Add content to each row.

Think of a row as a single article.  When you want to create a new article, just create a new row and then add all the content to it. It's that easy.  

13. Click Publish and watch the magic happen

HubDB will automatically save your work as you add content, but this won't be reflected on any of your pages until you click the Publish button.  This is good to keep in mind in case you have any draft articles in progress you don't yet want shown live in your Happy Center.

14. Create Your Main Happy Center Page

Just like you would any other page, create a new website page, make sure your child theme is selected, and then type "HCK" into the search to find the two available templates.  Select the Dynamic Page template first.

 

15. Point the modules and page to your new HubDB Table

You'll need to do this in a few places.  Namely, the modules on the page and in the page settings.  For each of the modules, look under the Start Here section and use the dropdown to find your (Published) HubDB table.

 

 

Next, click the Settings button in the top right corner of the page and scroll down to the Advanced Settings section, and use the dropdown to set your HubDB table.

 

16. Set the Page URL and publish the page

Once you're good to go, set the page URL.  This URL will be part of the URL for each of your dynamic article pages.  For example, the main page for the Clean Pro knowledge base is:

clean.pro/kb

Then each respective article will have the following URL like this:

clean.pro/kb/how-to-create-a-child-theme

Once you're ready, publish the page, and you'll be able to access all the dynamic article pages.

17. Give yourself a high-five

I know that was a lot of work but you pulled it off.  I'm proud of you.