News Enabling a full news implementation in minutes

To power the front-end of your website or intranet, we provide a whole range of standard news web controls to suit almost any circumstance.  We take a look below at some of the standard controls that are available to any web user in just two clicks.

The News Archive

The News Archive control is generally used within a full-blown news section on your site.

The data displayed can be filtered to a particular section or filtered based upon any meta data assigned.

RSS and Atom are standard, and the control provides a simple mechanism for navigating to different months and years, something that is a must when you have a lot of news.

 

 

The News Combi

The News Combi control will often be used on home pages, as it shows the main articles with thumbnails, and then another set following with a simple Mini List.

The numbers of items in each set can be configured.

The example shows the Combi Control in use with the default Simple theme. 

RSS and Atom Feeds

Most Contensis controls come with the option to generate an RSS feed or an Atom feed.

News is no different. The RSS is categorised by either taxonomy or tags, and the body of the article is presented, which can be really useful for syndication purposes.

 

 

 

The Mini List

The Mini List is used in all those places where you want to be able to provide a simple list of news. Often the Mini List will be filtered to a particular section of a site so that in the Features section, let's say, we would only show feature-based news.

The Mini List can be rendered as either an unordered list or an ordered list, and as with most other news controls, the publish date format is configurable.

The News Ticker

The News Ticker, quite literally, does what it says on the box. It simply ticker-tapes articles and, as with all other news controls, the datasource is configurable, so if you just want to ticker News with a meta data flag of feature news, for example, it is simple to implement.

We have shown a News Ticker of our News section on this site below.

The News Record

The News Record control is the control that is used to display the full news article itself when the user clicks on any of the listing controls to get to it.

As with most other structured content modules, the News Record can have any webcontrols of your choice embedded, so if you want to add Flash video or even a bespoke banner control, it is no drama.

The News Portlet

The News Portlet is typically used on a portal-style homepage. It has the functionality to allow users to configure the view of the news to suit there needs. If, for example, you are only interested in sports news, you can click the edit option which will reveal the edit panel, allowing you to configure the news categories to suit your needs.

Once you have chosen the categories that are of interest to you, the system will remember the selection for your next visit.

The Editor

Creating a new news article can be achieved in just three clicks. All you need do is log-in to Contensis and then simply click the 'create new News article' option.

As with most Contensis modules, the News Module comes with a set-up wizard which means that, assuming you have already created you general Contensis templates, you can have the full news archive up-and-running in less than five minutes.

Editing is simple and intuitive.

You don't need any technical skills and new editors can be up-and-running creating new news articles in minutes.

We aim at every stage of the process to keep the editing environment consistent. If you have created an event, for example, you will immediately understand how to create a news article.

 

Because it uses the Contensis WYSIWYG editor, we are guiding users down the path of creating accessible content without them even realising it.

As with all Contensis content, a full QA check is available and if the content does not meet the relevant criteria, then the page can be prevented from being submitted or approved, depending upon how you configure the QA module.

 

As standard, you will have keywords and description meta data to complete, but any other meta data can be entered if configured. When entering keywords the system will auto-suggest other keywords that have already been used.

Often it is also useful to configure a meta data element for categorising the content under a particular topic. When this is done the listings will then be able to be filtered and categorised by this topic or category.

 

As you can see from the screenshot of the News Portlet, using categories to organise data such as news, gives you flexibility in then personalising the data to meet the needs of your end-users.

The News Portlet shown is user-configurable. Once users have selected the categories they are interested in it will then save their choices, so every time they visit the homepage, for example, they will see news that is relevant to them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

News is an integrated content type within Contensis. This ensures that all of the same rules apply to this as to any other type of content.

 

 

From an administrator's perspective, you will need to initially configure the module and assign workflow and permissions.

Once this is done there should be no need for any involvement, other than just sitting back and letting the users create content.

Hopefully you have seen the depth and breath of the controls available to implement news onto your site.

All of the controls have configurable options which allow for customisation to suit your needs, but sometimes this may not be enough; you may have specific requirements that are not included in the standard control set.

If you are using .Net then you can simply inherit from any of the standard controls and extend them to suit your needs, or you can use the same framework we use to develop new news controls that have your specific requirements.

If your idea is something that would be beneficial to all Contensis customers, then just run it past us, as often we will extend the system and provide new functionality based upon user specifications and ideas.

If you attend our Developer Training course then you will be able to create any structured content module just like we do.

 

Typical Customer Implementations