A Quick Introduction

For those wanting an easy interface to create news updates, this is the tool for you. Obviously, one simply needs to write up a news article. But the question of when, where and how to display it is also a matter of concern.

Using News Manager

News Manager has many different options for how to include and configure content on a news article, as well as several other helpful features that make posting news articles to a website much easier.

General Posting Features

• Adding Dates - News articles can have several dates added to them by clicking the "Add A Date" link next to the News Date entry field. Having multiple dates has the article show up on those dates on the list of headlines when using the :::HEADLINES::: tag (see below for more details).
• Headlines - News Headline is required in order to enter the article, the sub-headline and byline are optional.
• News Embargo - Only displays the article on specific dates by selecting the "Specify Date" option (e.g. if the article describes an event, you can have the article stop being displayed after the event, or you don't want the article to display until registration is open)
• News Categories - These allow you to separate the different articles into various categories and display them separately (see categories_id under "Available Options" below)
• News Tags - Useful in scenarios where news articles are acting similar to a blog where articles will have tags that are related to the topic being discussed. The tags allow the readers of the blog find similar entries with the same tags included.
• WYSIWYG Editor - News Manager has a WYSIWYG(What You See Is What You Get) editor for formatting text without having HTML experience. In order to use this, the LOCAL_NEWSMANAGER_ENABLE_WYSIWYG_EDITOR map in Map Manager must be set to 1.
• Tab Contents - This adds tabs to the bottom of the news article in the order that is input in the "priority" fields of each tab. In order to add tabs you click on the "Add Another Tab" link, with a maximum of 50 tabs. If you select to use the WYSIWYG editor for the News section, it will be used for these tabs as well. In order for tabs to show up the LOCAL_NEWSMANAGER_TAB_ENABLED map set to 1.
• Using HTML in news article - When entering an article, News Manager assumes you will not be entering heavy HTML code but simple text. It will thus auto insert simple <br> tags at locations you have carriage returns (where you hit "Enter"). If, however, you would like to code your news article with particular HTML code, it would behoove you to begin the article with :::BR:OFF:::, which turns the auto-insert feature off; otherwise, your HTML code will have a lot of extra spaces due to the auto-insert feature adding in <br> tags to your pristine HTML-coded news article.
• Link and Email Auto-linking - News Manager will detect links and email addresses and auto-link them for you. However, if you choose to insert an anchor tag, it will automatically disable the auto-linking feature for the rest of the news article. So if you choose to do so make sure the rest of your links work when you are done posting your news. If you wish to add a lot of html to your news articles, the most appropriate route to take would be to use the :::BR:OFF::: tag and have full control over the layout.

Attachments

Attaching files to a news article is easy with News Manager, and there are several different options for controlling availability and the display of the attachments to readers of the article. To attach something to an article, at the bottom of the page where you add and edit articles, there are several fields under the "Attachments" section that are for uploading attachments. Simply click "Browse" on one of the fields and locate the file you wish to attach.

Attachment Options:

• Disable Photo Gallery - By default, photos that are attached to the news article are displayed in a gallery at the bottom of the news article. By selecting this option it disables that feature.
• Disable Attachments Listing - By default, attachments of the article are listed at the bottom of the article, this option disables that. If you disable this, there will be no way for people to access attachments(other than photos, which can still show up in the photo gallery if not disabled) or if the attachment is Auto Linked.
• Auto Link - This makes the link to the news article into a direct link for downloading the attachment and will hide any content in the rest of the article from the users of the site. This would be useful if you just wanted the users to have access to the attachment without having to add other content to the article. You can only have one attachment set to Auto Link at a time.
• Article Image - This displays the attached images in the article itself. If multiple images are selected, it randomly chooses one to show at a time.
• Headline Thumbnail - This displays the attached images as a thumbnail next to the headline where the list of news articles is displayed. If multiple images are selected, it randomly chooses one to show at a time.
• Caption - The caption for images will be place in the "alt" and "title" tags for the image, as well as displaying under the image in the article if Auto Thumbnail is selected.

Using Image Repository Manager for Attachments Feed

To enable Image Repository Manager for news attachments feed, add LOCAL_NEWSMANAGER_REPOSITORY_IMAGE_CATEGORY_IDS map with comma delimited repository image category IDs list to use. Then, all images in the categories will show in a set of select boxes under attachment image upload section of news add/edit form. You can use Image Repository Manager for images which will be used over and over. After an image is selected and saved, the same attachment options will be applied to the image from Image Repository Image.

NOTE: The Auto Link, Article Image, Headline Thumbnail and Caption options are set on an attachment-by-attachment basis, so in order to have access to them, you must first add the article with the attachments and then edit the article either directly after adding by selecting "Edit Article" or by going to the News Manager administration page, finding the article and then selecting to edit it. The attachments are listed in a table at the bottom of the edit article page.

Installing News Manager

1. Run newsmanageradmin/install.pl, and follow instructions
2. Make sure the news_uploads directory and the news_* templates are owned by the correct user
3. News Manager is ready to use

The Basics

News Manager displays a list of articles at any location on your website by using typical LumpaCMS code. When each article is clicked, the content of clicked article displays. The example codes for a list of articles are as follows:

:::HEADLINES:5:ARGS: template=news_teaser_style&item_template=news_teaser_item_style&max_chars=55 :::
:::HEADLINES:-1:ARGS: yearly=1&rss_limit=10 :::

A number between HEADLINES and ARGS indicates maximum number of items to display in the list. -1 means no maximum. Comma separated variable and value pairs are options passed to news headline display function.

Using Templates And Overriding CSS

News Manager uses templatized HTML to generate output for News Headlines and News Article display.

Using templates and overriding CSS for News Headlines:

• When writing news headlines code, template and item_template variables can be passed. Following code tells News Manager to use headline_style.template file for the code's output template and use headline_item_style.template for output template for each items. If no variables are passed, News Manager's default templates will be used.

  :::HEADLINES:5:ARGS: template=headline_style&item_template=headline_item_style :::

• Following tokens can be used in template:
  ::DESCRIPTOR:rss_feed:: - replaced with rss feed link
  ::DESCRIPTOR:year_list:: - replaced with news year list
  ::DESCRIPTOR:filter_info:: - replaced with news filter criteria
  ::DESCRIPTOR:item_list:: - replaced with news item list
  
• Following tokens can be used in item_template:
  ::DESCRIPTOR:news_id:: - replaced with news id
  ::DESCRIPTOR:news_headline:: - replaced with news headline
  ::DESCRIPTOR:news_subheadline:: - replaced with news sub headline
  ::DESCRIPTOR:news_byline:: - replaced with news by line
  ::DESCRIPTOR:pretty_news_date:: - replaced with news date list
  ::DESCRIPTOR:image_count:: - replaced with image attachment count
  ::DESCRIPTOR:thumbnail:: - replaced with thumnail image
  ::DESCRIPTOR:attachment_list:: - replaced with attachment list
  ::DESCRIPTOR:news_content_shorten:: - replaced with shortened news content. Set the 'keep_paragraphs' variable to 1 in order to retain paragraph formatting.
  ::DESCRIPTOR:news_tag_list:: - replaced with tag list
  ::DESCRIPTOR:news_category_list:: - replaced with category list
  ::DESCRIPTOR:news_comment_count:: - replaced with comment count
  
• When replacing each tocken, each descriptor is in span tag with appropriate CSS class. Default CSS rules are defined in /globalresources/css/managers.css. If you need, override any default CSS rule in your local CSS file.

Using templates and overriding CSS for News Article:

• When writing news headlines code, article_template variable can be passed. Following code tells News Manager to use news_article_style.template file for news article randering. If no article_template is passed, News Manager's defulat template will be used.

  :::HEADLINES:5:ARGS: article_template=news_article_style :::

• Following tokens can be used in article_template:
  ::DESCRIPTOR:functions:: - replaced with miscellaneous buttons group
  ::DESCRIPTOR:admin_embargo_notice:: - replaced with news embargo notice for admin's view
  ::DESCRIPTOR:headline_block:: - replaced with news headline, sub headline, and by line block
  ::DESCRIPTOR:news_date_list:: - replaced with news date list
  ::DESCRIPTOR:news_content:: - replaced with news full content
  ::DESCRIPTOR:photo_gallery:: - replaced with photo gallery block
  ::DESCRIPTOR:all_attachment_list:: - replaced with attachment list
  ::DESCRIPTOR:acrobat_reader:: - replaced with acrobat reader link only when a PDF attachment exists
  ::DESCRIPTOR:comment:: - replaced with comment list and comment add form
  ::DESCRIPTOR:email:: - replaced with email form
  ::DESCRIPTOR:close_button:: - replaced with close button in popup mode
  
• When replacing each tocken, each descriptor is in span tag with appropriate CSS class. Default CSS rules are defined in /globalresources/css/managers.css. If you need, override any default CSS rule in your local CSS file.

Some sample template files (news_examples.template, news_archive_style.template, news_archive_item_style.template, news_article_style.template, news_teaser_style.template, and news_teaser_item_style.template) are available in your template directory. Please refer them. If you don't have them in your template directory, you can find them from LunpaCMS codebase.

Available Options

• template: Filename of template which contains HTML code and replacement tokens for news headline list block. Currently following tokens are available for this template: rss_feed, year_list, and item_list.
• item_template: Filename of template which contains HTML code and replacement tokens for each news headline. Currently following tokens are available for this template: news_id, news_headline, news_subheadline, news_byline, pretty_news_date, image_count, thumbnail, attachment_list, news_content_shorten, and news_tag_list.
• limit: Maximum number of items to display. This option is identical to :::HEADLINES:limit:ARGS: ... :::
• rss_limit: Maximum number RSS feed items to display.
• yearly: If yearly is set to 1, news headlines are grouped by each year.
• max_title_chars: Maximum number of characters in news_headline. limit option is good for news teaser style of brief headline listing.
• upcoming: If upcoming is set to 1, only news articles with today's date or a future news date show in the list.
• category_ids: If category_ids is set, only news articles in the category ids shows in the list. Comma delimited multiple category ids can be passed. The ID for all categories can be found on the Manage Categories page.
• exclude_category_ids: If exclude_category_ids is set, only news articles not in the category ids shows in the list. Comma delimited multiple category ids can be passed.
• attachment_limit: Maximum number of attachments to show.
• default_thumbnail_image: An image filename to be used when no auto thumbnail is set for an article.
• default_thumbnail_path: Path to default_thumbnail_image of html directory.
• no_popup: If no_popup is set to 1, news article shows in the same window when its headline is clicked. News article shows in a popup window by default.
• target_template: If target_template is defined with no_popup=1 option, all generated headlines will have an anchor which opens the article in given template page. This template page also needs :::HEADLINES:limit:ARGS: ... ::: code to show requested article.
• max_email_daily: Each logged in user can email news articles up to given number of times daily. 15 is default value for this option.

Using News Manager as a Blog

With a combination of the category_ids, template, and item_template options as well as formatting the templates with the proper descriptors, newsmanager can be easily formatted as a blog.

Example:

This example has a blog where all the articles are set to the category of id 1, and the formatting of the news pages is controlled by the news_blog_archive_style template and the news_blog_archive_item_style template, shown below

news_blog_archive_style.template - simply displays the item_list for the news headline list block:

<div class="newsMgr">
  <div>
    ::DESCRIPTOR:item_list::
  </div>
</div>

news_blog_archive_item_style.template - edits the display of each headline

<div style="padding-bottom: 25px;">
  <table style="width: 100%;">
  <tr>
    <td style="vertical-align: top; width: 30px; text-align: right; padding-right: 5px;">::DESCRIPTOR:thumbnail::</td>
    <td style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left; padding-top: 5px;">
      ::DESCRIPTOR:news_headline:: ::DESCRIPTOR:news_byline::
      ::DESCRIPTOR:news_subheadline::<br>
      ::DESCRIPTOR:pretty_news_date::
      ::DESCRIPTOR:news_content_shorten::
      ::DESCRIPTOR:news_tag_list::
    </td>
  </tr>
  </table>
</div>

Enabling Comment

You can enable comment feature on your news articles by adding the ::DESCRIPTOR:comment:: tag to the article style template.

By default, all news comments require moderation process before they are allowed to be posted on the site. To moderate comments, go to the News Manager Admin page, click "Moderate Comments" and review the comments to moderate. In order to skip moderation, set the LOCAL_NEWSMANAGER_COMMENT_AUTO_APPROVE map to 1, and comments will be posted as soon as they are entered.

Displaying News Articles Independently on a Website

In order to display the contents of a news article on another page of the site, without adding a link or using the :::HEADLINES::: tag which just lists the headlines of various news articles, you can use the :::NEWS_ARTICLE:ID:<news article id>::: tag. This displays the contents of the article where you place the tag, with the article truncated and including a link to the full article. By using using the :::NEWS_ARTICLE:ID:<news article id>:ARGS: <options> ::: tag with the options below.

Options:

• full_article - displays the full article with gallery, attachments and everything you get on a news article. The other options below don't work together with this unless specifically noted.
• no_headline - does not display the headline of the article
• no_subheadline - does not display the subheadline of the article
• no_date - does not display the date of the article. Works with full_article
• max_chars - maximum amount of characters that will be displayed before being truncated. Note: takes into account all the html characters so it isn't exact.
• no_highlight_text - links and email addresses won't be automatically linked. Works with full_article.

Example: :::NEWS_ARTICLE:ID:<news article id>:ARGS: no_headline=1&max_chars=500&no_highlight_text ::: This will display the article with no main headline, 500 characters of the news article and will not highlight urls or email addresses.

Using Custom Headline Routine

News Manager provides a default sub routine for new headline, however, this sub routine can be overridden for any purpose. To override default sub routine, define LOCAL_NEWSMANAGER_CUSTOM_NEWS_OUTPUT map with custom sub routine's name as its value.

Embargo by Default

News Manager supports the option to embargo all new articles by default. This feature is useful for organizations that require a review process on new postings. To embargo news articles by default, set the LOCAL_NEWSMANAGER_AUTO_EMBARGO map to 1.

News Subscription

News Manager supports the option to email new postings to subscribers automatically.

Configuration

The style template is called news_subscriber_email.template, which allows a style template to be configured seperately from other styles on the website due to the special nature of css and email.

In order for the subscriptions to be sent, several maps are required to be set:

• LOCAL_NEWSMANAGER_VERP_MAILBOX - The address to which bounced emails should be sent.
• LOCAL_NEWSMANAGER_VERP_SERVER - The server to which bounced emails should be sent.
• LOCAL_NEWSMANAGER_NEWS_SUBSCRIBER_WEB_TEMPLATE - Set this to the template that will be used to style the news article when the user click 'view in browser'
• LOCAL_NEWSMANAGER_PRIVACY_POLICY_LINK - Set this to the link to the privacy policy template on the site.

Since a news article will be set a maximum of one time to the subscribers, it is recommended that the map LOCAL_NEWSMANAGER_AUTO_EMBARGO is set to 1 which will make it so news is automatically embargoed, and may help from accidentally sending articles before they are ready. This also allows the admin creating the article to view the article and share it with other admins for approval before sending. To send, either set a real embargo date and add the lines below to the crontab, or edit the article and turn off all embargos.

In order for news to be sent when they come off embargo, add these lines to the crontab for the site:

0,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * perl /htdocs/your domain.com/html/admin/newsmanager/sys/batch_send.pl
01 00 * * * perl /htdocs/your domain.com/html/admin/newsmanager/sys/expired_embargo_email_check.pl

To enable VERP, the following line must be added to the mail aliases file:

news-your-domain: "|/htdocs/local/newsmanageradmin/sys/news_mailbox_check.pl --cnf-file /home/mail/yourdomain-my.cnf --database yourdatabase --host yourdomain.com"

News Statistics

LunpaCMS keeps statistics on news articles. To view the statistics for news manager, go to the admin page, click on News Manager and then News Statistics. At the top will be several different statistics to look at, such as Top Emailed Articles, Top Viewed Articles, etc. When on one of the pages of statistics, they can be filtered by time period by selecting the period desired from the drop down menu and clicking "Refresh." Statistics are not collected if you are viewing the article through the admin side of the website.

In order to view a single article's statistics, find the article you wish to see the stats for under the admin newsmanager page and open it. On the functions bar, next to the social media links, there will be two admin functions "edit" and "stats." Click stats to see all of the stats for that article. These can also be acquired by going to the News Statistics Page and clicking "Single Article" and entering the News Article's ID.

News Statistics Archiving

For sites that have a large amount of news articles and high traffic, LunpaCMS has the ability to archive older statistics. By not keeping track of the day-by-day stats older than 6 months (by default), the table size is greatly reduced.

Setting Up Archiving:

Place this line in your crontab to run the archiving script once a month:

01 0 1 * * perl /htdocs/<Your Site Name>/html/admin/newsmanager/sys/archive_news_stats.pl

News Search Indexing

LunpaCMS indexes newsmanager articles once a day to make sure that searches in news articles are as accurate as possible. The price for this is that indexing news articles (especially on a site with a large amount of articles) can be a timely process. To avoid the first user of the day encountering a problem with a very slow load time on their page, an automatic call to the page does the index can be made daily.

Steps:

1. On the server that hosts the site, type crontab -e which will bring up the cron processes
2. Add this line to your crontab: 01 00 * * * perl /htdocs/<sitename>/html/admin/newsmanageradmin/sys/generate_glimpse_general.pl

Email News Article Ajax

When the option no_popup is applied to a list of headlines, the news article will open on the same page as the headlines. This also activates the ajax email functionality for the news article. In order to make sure the email functionality still works properly when switching from a popup article to a no_popup article, make sure that you add the ::DESCRIPTOR:email:: tag to the news article style. This will add a form on the same page as the news article from which users can send the article and will submit the form via ajax.