News as Pages

This Help topic covers three areas:

•  News as Pages Module (NaPM)  How to create and configure.
•  News as pages Archive How to create an Arhive for old news.
•  Aggregate News Module  What it is and how to create one.

News as Pages Module

In addition to displaying News Articles in News Modules, Sitekit allows you to create News as Pages Modules, which manage web pages as if they were news articles.

A typical work flow is shown below:

• First you create a blank editorial page which will become the News Source Page. In this example we'll call it "News Home".
• Secondly you create a News as Page Module which uses the "News Home" page as its Root Page. In this example, we'll call the NaPM "Our News".
• Thirdly you edit the News Home page, changing its Page Properties Content Type from Editorial to the NaPM name - in this case "News:Our News".
• Finally you create your news pages as normal editorial pages, placing them as Child Pages under the parent News Source page. You keep adding new News Pages as and when required.

Creating a News as Page Module: Step 1

1. Open the News as Pages option from the Configure tab.
2. Type in the Name of the new module.
3. Type in the Description of the Module.
4. Enter the Archive Period in Days. (For example: If you enter 10 Days, then when the date is 10 days greater  than a News Page's "Start date", that  News Page will no longer be displayed. Instead it will be archived).
5. Click the Select Page action, navigate to your Root Page (News Home, in the example above). Click OK to select the page.
6. Click the Add Action to save the new module.

 Creating a News as Page Module: Stage 2

Having created the Module, you now have to configure it.

1. Open the Page Properties of the  source news page (News Home, in this example), and change the Content Type to News:module name  .... where module name is the name of the NaPM. So in our example it would be News:Our News.
2. Edit the Page Content of the Source Page (News Home, in this example).
3. Click the Edit/Configure News Page button. When the News screen opens, fill in the  information shown below.
4. Name:  Type in the box the name of the news module.
5. Description: Type in the box a short description of the news service. This will be used in RSS feeds.
6. Archive period :Enter the number of days after which news articles in this module will be automatically archived. (The default value will be the period you entered iwhen you created the NaPM. If you change the archive period, it will update the NaPM to the new value).
7. Text to display if no news:  Type a short piece of text that will be displayed on the news page if there are no current news pages.
8. Text to display if no archive news: Type a short piece of text that will be displayed on the news archive page if no articles have been archived.
9. Link to news details? Select Yes to activate links to the news pages.
10. Allow image pop-up?  This defaults to No, since it isn't relevant to a NaPM.
11. Select Root Page?  This will already be defaulted to the Root Page you selected when you created the NaPM. But you can, if you wish, navigate to and then select a different root page.
12. To save your work, click the Update News Module button at the bottom of the page.

News as Pages Archive

The News as Pages Archive is not a Module - it's just a different view of an existing News as Pages Module. So you don't have to create a new module. You just need to create a new Editorial Page, and then edit its Page Properties to change it to News:Archive (newsmodulename). The process is described below.   

1. Create a new Page and in its Page Properties set it's Content Type to NewsArchive:modname  .... where modname is the name of your News as Pages Module. Save the page.
2. Edit the Page Content, and click the Edit/Configure News Archive button. Then enter the information shown below.
3. Name:  The default value is fine, so don't alter it.
4. Description: Type in the box a short description of the news service. This will be used in RSS feeds.
5. Archive period:  Best to leave the default value alone - changing it will affect the NaPM Module, and hence the Current News.
6. Text to display if no news:  Holds a short piece of text that will be displayed on the news page if there are no current news pages. Not relevant to an Archive, so leave the default value alone.
7. Text to display if no archive news: Type a short piece of text that will be displayed on the news archive page if no articles have been archived.
8. Link to news details? Select Yes to activate links to the news pages.
9. Allow image pop-up?  This defaults to No, since it isn't relevant to a NaPM Archive.
10. Select Root Page?  This will already be defaulted to the correct Root Page, so it's best not to alter it. (The option is useful if you're Editing an existing NaPM to point to another news source)
11. To save your work, click the Update News Module button at the bottom of the page.

Note that while both Current and Archived Pages will be displayed in the News Archive, Expired Pages will not be displayed.

Aggregate News Module

An Aggregate News Module displays all the news on your site, displaying both news articles from News Modules, and News Pages from News as Pages Modules. To create the module you must:

1. Open the News as Pages option from the Configure tab, and enter the following information into the Aggregate Modules area.
2. Type in the Name of the new Module.
3. Type in the Description of the Module.
4. Enter the Archive Period in Days. (For example: If you enter 10 Days, then News Articles and News Pages that have been 'live' for greater than 10 days will be ignored).
5. Text to display if no news:  Type a short piece of text that will be displayed on the news page if there are no current news pages.
6. Text to display if no archive news: Type a short piece of text that will be displayed on the news archive page if no articles have been archived.
7. Link to news details? Select Yes to activate links to the news pages.
   Allow image pop-up?   Select Yes to make the image that is associated with a news article clickable. When the image in the article is clicked a full-size version of the image is displayed in a pop-up window.
8. Click the Publish button to save the new Aggregate Module.

Because the News Aggregate Module aggregates all news on the site, you generally only need have one of them. Although you might, perhaps, want different Aggregate Modules for different Archive periods -  say a Ten Days and Thirty Days view of the news.

You can create an Aggregate News Archive in exactly the same way as you would create a News as Pages Archive.