News Page User Guide
16 Dec 07
User Guide for RAFSA News Pages
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News Page User Guide
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Table of Contents
Document Revision History....................................................................................................2 Logging In...............................................................................................................................3 Adding News Items................................................................................................................6 Editing News Items................................................................................................................9 Adding Links To News Items...............................................................................................10 Deleting/Editing News Links................................................................................................11 Deleting Items......................................................................................................................12 Filtering News Item Views....................................................................................................13 Web Master Information.......................................................................................................13
Document Revision History
Version Draft 0.1 Draft 0.2 Issue 1.0 Issue 1.1 Date 18 Mar 07 24 Mar 07 22 May 07 01 Jun 07 Comments
Initial draft – for user user feedback and comment Updated to include new picture alignment functionality Final update to include Expiry Date functionality Update: (1) News picture uploads resize automatically, (2) Max news picutre size increased to 6 MB (3) News pictures can be deleted without deleting entire news item. (4) .PNG file can be uploaded as news pictures Updated for new MOD style website and changes to common news table that supports multiple divisions.
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Logging In
1. To update the news pages, you must be a registered member of the RAFSA Forum and must be associated to the appropriate division Groups in the Forum. If you need to be associated to particular division Groups then contact the division web master. To log in, navigate to the main Forum page.
2.
3.
Use the Account drop down menu or click on the Log in link to bring up the log in form.
4.
Enter your User name, Password and check the 'Log me on automatically each visit' box.
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5.
Once successfully logged in, navigate back to the news page.
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6.
Logged in users who are members of the appropriate division news groups will see additional links on the page. In the news menu bar there will be an Add a News Item menu option and existing news items belonging to the same groups as the user will be prefixed with Edit -.
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Adding News Items
7. To add a new News item click on the Add a News Item menu and the page will display an input form.
8.
Enter an Expiry Date for the news item. This is the date after which the news item will only be visible under the Old News menu option. a. Note that the default life of news items is 12 weeks from the date it was first posted. Change the date as appropriate for the item you are posting.
9.
All news items must have a headline and must have an owner selected in the drop down list. All of the other fields are optional and any of them may be left blank if appropriate. a. b. Users who are not familiar with HTML should enter plain text and let the page do the formatting when the item is published. Users who are familiar with HTML may enter HTML tags/code inside the text boxes but must bear in mind that they should enter tags compliant with XHTML 1.0 Transitional standards.
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10.
A .GIF, .JPG or .PNG picture file may also be uploaded with the news item. The picture can be any size but will be resized to fit the page. Click on the Browse button to display the file upload browser and select the picture file that you want to upload from your computer's hard drive, then click on the Open button.
11.
Make sure that the picture is not greater than the maximum file size. This is checked on the server when the item is posted and the news item will not be accepted if the picture is too big. The position of the picture may be changed using the Align Picture drop down options: left, right or blank(default). a. If Left or Right is selected then the bottom text field and any associated links will wrap on the opposite side of the picture.
12.
13.
To publish the news item click on the Add This News Item button at the bottom of the page. Large pictures may take a little time to upload even with broadband so be patient. a. To cancel click on the CANCEL text at the bottom of the input form.
14.
The new item will appear at the top of the News page.
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Editing News Items
15. Clicking on the Edit – link next to a news item will show the input form, populated with the news item text.
16.
Changes may be made to the Expiry Date, Headline, News Owner, Top Text and Bottom Text. If a picture was previously published the filename of the picture will be displayed next to the Align Picture field. If desired, click on the filename to view the picture in a new browser window. a. b. c. To change or add a picture click on the Browse button and select the picture (see paragraph 10). Adding a picture will overwrite an existing picture. To change the position of a picture, click the Align Picture drop down option: left, right or blank(default). To delete the picture without deleting the whole news item, click on the DELETE THIS PHOTO link.
17.
Any number of additional documents and files can be added to the news item but
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these should not be done at the same time as changes to the news item. 18. When all changes have been made click the Update This News Item button. a. To cancel the edit, click on the CANCEL link next to the Update This News Item button.
Adding Links To News Items
19. 20. Additional documents and files may be added to the news item which will appear as links in the news item. From the main news page click on the Edit – link next to a news item. At the bottom of the input form there is a second form title Add Link To This News.
21.
To add a file as a link to the news item: a. b. Enter a Link Title. This is the text that the User will click on to open the link so make it as descriptive as possible. Click on the Browse button and select the file you want to upload to the news item in the browser and then click on the open button. Any type of file be uploaded e.g. documents, spreadsheets, photos etc.
22.
Make sure that the file is not greater than the maximum file size. This is checked on the server when the item is posted and the news item will not be accepted if the
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file is too big. 23. When the file has been selected, click on the Add This Link button. a. 24. Note that you cannot add links and make changes to the news item at the same time.
The linked file will be shown next to the news item.
Deleting/Editing News Links
25. From the main news page click on the Edit – link next to a news item. At the bottom of the form there is a list titled Links Associated With This News.
26.
To delete a link click on the DELETE option next to the link you want to delete.
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27.
To edit a link click on the Edit – option next to the link you want to edit. The link input form will be shown populated with the current link data.
28. 29.
Changes can be made to the Link Title. To change the file click on the Browse button and chose another file (see paragraph 21.b). To make the changes click on the Update This Link button. a. b. If the file was changed then the original file will be deleted and replaced with the new file. To cancel the changes click on the CANCEL option.
Deleting News Items
30. To delete any part of a news item click on the appropriate option: a. b. c. 31. DELETE THIS NEWS ITEM at the top of the input form will delete the entire news item, photograph (if any) and all associated files (if any). DELETE THIS PHOTO will delete the photograph on a news item. DELETE next to a link will delete a link and its' associated file.
When deleting any item a confirmation page will be shown.
32.
Click on the I am sure. Delete It Now button to perform the delete. a. Click on the CANCEL link to to return to the news page without deleting anything.
33.
All deletes are permanent, there is no undo facility.
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Filtering News Item Views
34. The following date filtering options are available in the news menu at the top of the news page: a. b. c. d. 35. Latest News will show all of the news items that have been posted and updated since your last visit. Current News will show all of the in date news. Old News will show all of the expired news. All News will show all news items.
News can also be filtered by a particular division. Click on the owner under the news headline to show news items belonging to that division only. a. When a division filter has been applied a Clear Filter option will be shown in the news page menu. Click on this option to remove the division filter.
Web Master Information
36. 37. 38. 39. To use the news page functions see comments in the MultiNews.php file. Divisions (owner groups) that are allowed to post/edit news items are controlled by the NEWS_PHPBB_GROUPS array variable set in the MultiNewsGlobals file. The main news function fn_News will include all of the additional files it needs except for 3 conditions which are detailed in the MultiNews.php. The fn_News is called by passing it either an empty string or an array e.g. a. b. fn_News(''). This will show news from all divisions in the NEWS_PHPBB_GROUPS array. fn_News(array(12, 13, 14)). This will show news from all divisions in the array that are also in the NEWS_PHPBB_GROUPS array. To show the news from one division then the function should be called with an array containing the division e.g. fn_News(array(14)).
40.
To avoid conflicts the following naming convention has been used: a. b. c. All global variables are pre-fixed with NEWS_. All specific styles are pre-fixed with news. All news functions are prefixed with fn_News.
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