This article describes the Sitekit CMS What's New page which displays an automatically updated list of new pages, events and news articles.

An example can be seen at http://www.hie.co.uk/recent-changes.htm

Difference with the audit trail

The Audit Trail is designed to provide a comprehensive, accountable list of activity within the admin system. It is a report intended for auditors. The "What's New" page is designed to show site visitors what has recently been added to the site. The audit trail contains many elements which may not be for public consumption, for example unpublished pages, previous versions, and details of exactly who edited what.

How to create a What's New page

1. Create a new content type based on an existing one
   CMS > Design> Site templates
   beside 'content types' click 'add new'.
   Select a template to base the new one on (for example 'Picture Flow')
   click 'next'.
2. Add the following code to the content type where you wish the list of new additions to appear.
   <COMMENT>WHATSNEWPAGE</COMMENT>
   Name the content type (for example "Whats new page").
   Save the new content type.
   Note: avoid usage of the ' character.

   For example
   <TABLE>
<TR><TD>
<COMMENT>BODY1</COMMENT>
</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>
<COMMENT>WHATSNEWPAGE</COMMENT>
</TD></TR>
</TABLE>

3. Create a new page which uses the content type.
   CMS > add/edit pages
   New page
   give a page name and select the content type from the "Function / Content Type" dropdown (it will appear in blue in the list).
   Save and publish
4. You may set the number of days shown, and the styles as below.

How to control the What's New page

The number of days shown on the "What's New" page can be increased or reduced under CMS > Design > Site Settings > Site Search > "Whats New period "(number of days to show)
The default value is 40 days

This can be changed according to the size of the site and the frequency of changes. For example if new content is added every day then you may wish to only show the last 7 days.

 

How to style it

By default all items in the list will be styled in the same way as text on the page (the same as text with the <p> tag), however elements are classed as follows allowing the class to be customised in the stylesheet.

.Whatsnewheader {}

.whatsnewlinkweek {}
.whatsnewtitleweek {}
.whatsnewdateweek {}

.whatsnewlinkmonth {}
.whatsnewtitlemonth {}
.whatsnewdatemonth {}

.whatsnewlinkyear {}
.whatsnewtitleyear {}
.whatsnewdateyear {}

For example if you wanted a black bold header, items added in the last week to appear blue, items for the last month to appear red, and items for the last year to appear in green use the following:

---------------------------------------------------

.Whatsnewheader { color: black; font-weight: bold; }

.whatsnewlinkweek { color: blue; }
.whatsnewtitleweek { color: blue; }
.whatsnewdateweek { color: blue; }

.whatsnewlinkmonth { colour: red; }
.whatsnewtitlemonth { colour: red; }
.whatsnewdatemonth { colour: red; }

.whatsnewlinkyear { colour: green; }
.whatsnewtitleyear { colour: green; }
.whatsnewdateyear { colour: green; }

Note: colours are only used to enhance readability.

---------------------------------------------------

To edit the stylesheet choose CMS > Design > Site Templates

Notes:

• Pages hidden from the menu will appear in the What's new page, as the What's New page is not the main menu.
• In cases where a highly secure extranet is used, you should not implement the "what's new" page if you wish the actual name of extranet pages to be hidden from non-extranet users.
• In sitekit CMS, sub pages (and sub branches) of the extranet are hidden from the sitemap, from the search results and from the main navigation for any visitor who is not logged on. However, when a "what's new" page is added the page name, title and date will show for extranet sub-pages.
• The main extranet page (the root node of the extranet) will always be visible in the navigation, and the sitemap, and search results (unless expressly hidden) to allow a person to log on.
• Avoid usage of the ' character, especially in template names. It is better to call a template "Whats new page" and not "What's new page" although the latter is gramatically correct.
• The tag <COMMENT>WHATSNEWPAGE</COMMENT> can also be added within the text of a page.

Key Where to go in Sitekit CMS Any code which can be copied and pasted HTML tags XML tags .CSS-Class { CSS-property: CSS-value ; }