News / Agenda
Basics
Please note: the references about News and Agenda are 99% equal. For readability purposes, whenever it says 'News', you may also read Agenda (unless specifically stated otherwise).
News Branch
All news items are placed in a dedicated News-branch. This branch has subdivisions by year, then by organisation, then (if necessary) by department, month, or any other relevant subdivision.
All editors with News rights will have access to the entire branch, which means they can view and edit all news articles. This choice has been made to avoid double entries; when you want to add an already existing news article (e.g. a TU Delft article) to your overview (e.g. a department overview), you are allowed to edit the TU Delft article to show up on your own overview.
With great power comes great responsiblity. Please follow these guidelines:
- Never change content or non-category settings of an article (without permission from the original creator)
- Never add your article to an overview that is not yours (without permission from that page's owner)
Categories and how they work
Dynamic Content Overview (SOLR)
News is shown in what is called a Dynamic Content Overview (or overview, in short). In the backend, you'll recognize the elements related to this overview as 'Lookup Results', 'Lookup facets/filters', and 'Lookup form'. Due to their complexity, these can only be edited by your content manager. SOLR is the name of the search engine we use - you'll probably not come across this word anywhere, but now you know.
Any page in typo3 can be pulled in an overview, although we generally use it for news and agenda items. We determine which news or agenda article to show in an overview, by looking at the categories.
Categories
There are three branches in the category tree: Owner, Type, and field of Study. Generally, every news article must have ticked at least one owner-category - this is the institute/faculty/department/service that posts the article. The other two branches can be used to distinguish between, for instance, an article intended for the Homepage news overview and an article intended for the Alumni news overview.
A Dynamic Content Overview works with logical rules. We can, for instance, input the following:
"Show me news pages published between now and two weeks ago, that have both the categories TU Delft AND Homepage, with a maximum of 5 results."
This will output a list of 5 results of recent news articles tagged TU Delft and Homepage.
You can also use negative rules:
"Show me pages that have the category TU Delft, but EXCLUDE all pages that also have the category Alumni."
This can be useful, for instance, if you want a separate Alumni news overview, and you don't want the pages popping up in both news overviews.
There is no user interface for the overview element, so these logic statements have to be entered manually. Getting it to work may be difficult, which is why setting up is limited to administrators. Please contact your content manager for more information.
Creating a new article / Specific properties
News and agenda articles are pages, and are created just like all other pages. When you create a new one in your own news folder, it should automatically have the type and appearance of a news folder. In the next paragraphs, we will be distinguishing News and Agenda items.
Relevant properties in the news page properties
General-Tab
- The publish date (Today's date by default) is the date on which the system thinks it's published. This doesn't affect accessibility to your page; it may only affect your news overview, if you ask it to display a specific time period.
- The Abstract-field in the General-tab is bugged; it will not register any changes you make. The same field can be found under the Metadata tab, where it does work. This bug is on our repair list.
- Under 'Files', you can choose a thumbnail that is displayed in certain overview layouts, and in the pillar item.
Access-Tab
- Publish Date and Expiration Date do affect accessibility of your page. The first date is the moment it will become visible; the second one the date it will be offline again. These fields are optional; you don't have to limit access rights. This might be useful though when for instance you need an article to go online or offline at 4AM.
Metadata-Tab
- The Abstract-field on this tab is the one you should actually use. The abstract will be shown in certain overview layouts, but it doesn't appear on the page itself.
- The Keywords-field is not actively used for any functions within Typo3, and search engines like Google also generally ignore it (due to abuse).
- The Description-field also does not have any practical use in front- and backend.
- The fields Author and Email are displayed in the front-end.
Relevant properties in the agenda page properties
General-Tab
- The Author, Email, and Location-fields are displayed in the frontend.
- The Event Type-field shows up in one specific agenda overview layout, but is optional.
- The Abstract-field in the General-tab is bugged; it will not register any changes you make. The same field can be found under the Metadata tab, where it does work. This bug is on our repair list.
- The Start Date and Time-field and End Date and Time-field are shown in the agenda overview (date only), on the page frontend (date and time), and may be used in an overview to filter a specific time period. The end date field is optional, and may be emptied.
- Under 'Files', you can choose a thumbnail that is displayed in certain overview layouts, and in the pillar item.
Metadata-Tab
- The Abstract-field is also shown as a first paragraph of your event page.
All other properties are equal to the News page properties.
Pro tip: every field you see in the page properties can be given a default value, for example when you always have the same category or author. This is a system setting that only administrators can edit; please contact your content manager.
Options for overviews
Layouts
There are several different layout options:
- Homepage layout
- News layout - overview
- News layout - widget
- Event layout - overview
- Event layout - widget
- Card layout
These layouts work for every type of content, but are usually specifically designed for a certain type of content. The news layouts for instance are (obviously) designed for news. The different types of layout are displayed on this page.
Other options
- RSS:
For all overviews, there is the option to disable or enable the RSS feed button. An RSS feed is a simplified overview, that people can use to include the news on their own page, in their own corporate identity. It is also used in our news letters. - Page browser:
You select how many pages are shown in an overview. You can choose to either show only those articles, or append a page browser at the bottom of the overview, with which people can see more search results.
Filters and search boxes
We have options to create additional refinement for the end user. Both can be found, for instance, on this page.
Filters
By adding filters, the visitor can sift through the results (for instance, filter on a specific year or category). There are many custom options; if you would like to create a specific filter for your search overview, contact your content manager who can connect you with the right person to design this.
Search box
You can also add a search box, by which visitors can use their own keywords to filter results.
Pro tip: the search box doesn't have to be on top of the overview; you can also place it on another page (one without an overview). When the visitor enters a search string, he will be redirected to a page with a search overview of your choice. For instance, you can place just the search bar on your homepage, without any overview)
Why is my article not showing in the overview?
There are several reasons why your article may not show up in the overview:
- You aren't patient enough
(wait 5-10 minutes. Sometimes, the system needs some time to re-index a page) - You have entered a publication or expiration date that makes the overview ignore it
(Examples:
- the overview shows all events from [now] until [2 months from now], but your event is in 3 months
- your article has a publish date after today, or an archive date before today) - You have forgotten to tick the right categories required by the overview
- Your article is not in the right page type
-(e.g. you're looking for a news article in an agenda overview) - Your article is only in Dutch, but you're trying to find it in an English overview (or vice versa)
- You're looking on the wrong page
- Your article is further down the list than you think
If none of these are causing your problem, there might be a problem with Typo3. If you are sure you are not causing the problem yourself, please contact your content manager.