The News Manager Module

The News Manager is an easy to manage tool for adding dynamic content to your website.  It is called dynamic content because it is generated from a database and requires low maintenance from you.

News items are beneficial because they direct users to content or products, and give your site credibility by showing you have current content (whch also gives visitors a reason to return to your site).

Essentially, the News Manager allows you to add, edit and archive news items as they need to appear on your site.

After you add a news item, the News Manager creates a list of all your current items on a current news page.  Once news items reach a specified age, they are automatically moved onto archived items page. Visitors can search through the archives and retrieve any previous news items.

The News Manager also creates a news feed that can be inserted onto any page through the content editor.

The news items will appear on the news page in the order that you add them to the manager. The news items have four main parts:

The Headline: This is the title of the news item.

Summary: This is a ‘teaser' from the main story. It should be short and interesting, encouraging your visitors to read more.

Preview Image: This is a small image that will appear next to the summary.

The Article: The news story. It can contain images, text and hyperlinks. Visitors can access the main item by clicking on the Headline or the small more> that appears beneath the summary. The item then opens in a new window.

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Adding/Editing a news item

The News Manager enables you to manage your latest news items from one location.  The advantage is that you can enter the details for a news item once and the Site Builder will automatically create a current news list page, an archived news list page, a news feed and an article details page.

1. Go to Modules > News Manager.
2. Click on Add News Item (or click the Edit button next to an existing news title to edit that item).
3. Enter a Headline for the article (compulsory): This will appear as the heading of the news item. Visitors will be able to click on it to read the entire news item. Each news item must have a headline to be saved.
4. Select a Status (compulsory): Active means that the news item will be displayed on the site as soon as you have entered all of the details into the News Manager. Inactive means that the item details will be saved but they will not be displayed at the front of your site.  This allows you to work on a news item over time or prepare it before it is ‘news'. You can change the status to Active at any time.
5. Enter a Start Date (compulsory): This is the date that the news item will appear in the news page. By default, 30 days after this, the news item will be archived. All items must have a start date.
6. Enter a Summary (optional):  The summary will appear beneath the headline of the item on the news page. This is a great way to pique visitors' interest in the item and make your website look professional. The first sentence of the news item is always a good idea for a summary.
7. Enter the News Item Text (compulsory): Enter the full text of the news item into this field. You will notice that the news item text area has a content editor. You can format the text in this item as you would a normal web page, including adding images and links to files.
8. Upload an Image (optional): This field enables you to add a small image beside the headline and summary that appears in the news feed. The image will be automatically scaled down to an appropriate size to fit near the item. The image will also appear beneath the article text on the detailed news page at it's full size.
9. Choose Item Display Options (optional): These tick boxes determine the way in which the news item will be displayed on the site.
10. Make Available to News Feed - The news feed is a short list of the latest news items that can be added to one or more pages of your site (the most common use for this is the home page). It is useful to draw visitors' attention to your news items so that your website appears active and current.  Place a tick in this box to make a story appear in the news feed.
11. Featured Items - Featured items are considered important news stories. These items will always appear at the top of the news feed and the news archive page. Place a tick in this box to make this story a featured item.
12. Save the item: Once all of the information is loaded into the item, click Save to update the news item and make it available to site visitors.  You will be returned to the list of current news items.
13. Publish the site to update the news feed with any new items or changes. See related article Publishing your website for more information.

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Adding a news feed to a content page

Once news items exist within the news manager you can insert a news feed of your most exciting and recent items to the content area of a web page.

1. Go to Pages > Add / Edit Pages
2. Choose the page from your main menu or unattached pages that you wish to add the news feed to.
3. Click on the Insert Module Content tool.
4. Select News Feed from the Current drop down menu.
5. Click Preview to preview the news feed before it is inserted.
6. Click OK to insert the news feed into the page.
7. Publish the website.

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Adding a current news page to website navigation

Once news items exist within the news manager you can add a current news page to the website navigation. You will only have to do this the first time that you create news items.

1. Choose Modules > News Manager.
2. Click the Add News Page to Site button. 
3. Enter a Menu Label. This label will appear in the navigation menu of your website and should be short i.e., "Current News".  Do not edit the Link Address field as this is automatically generated by the software.
4. Click Save New Link button. The News link is now added to your site at Pages > Add/Edit Pages > Unattached Pages.
5. Go to Pages > Move/Delete Pages to insert the News link into your navigation menu.
6. Publish the website.

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Changing news manager settings

You can alter default settings that will affect every news item.

1. Go to Modules > News Manager > News Settings.
2. Make changes to the parameters below. The first three options refer to the News Feed (the news feed is a way of displaying selected news items on a specific page, usually the home page).

• Number of News Summaries to Display: Enter a value into this field to set how many news headlines with summaries you would like to appear in the news feed.  I.e., enter a value of "3" to display summaries beneath the headlines of the first three items.
• Number of Headlines to Display: Enter a value in this field to specify the number of headlines that you would like to appear beneath the headlines with summaries in the news feed. This value is separate to the value entered above.  I.e.,If you add a value of 3 in Number of News Summaries to Display and a value of 5 in Number of Headlines to Display there will be a total of "10" news items in the news feed.
• Archive items after ... days: Enter a value into this section to set the number of days that a news item will be considered current. Once the amount of days has passed, items will be moved into the archive section. By default the Site Builder will archive items after 30 days.
• Maximum number of items per archive page: Enter a value to determine how many item headlines will appear per page within the archive. It will apply to the front of the site as well as the View Archived Items page in the Site Builder.  The higher the number, the more news items will appear on a single page.  Users will be able to click through to subsequent pages to view the remaining items.

1. Click the Save Settings button.
2. Publish the website.

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I can't find my news article in the View Current Items list. Where has it gone?

News items only remain "current" for a certain amount of time. Once they are no longer current, they are moved to the View Archived Items tab. You can view or change the amount of days that a news item remains current. See the Changing news manager settings article for further details.