News
These FAQs summarise key points regarding the news / blogs system in Composr.
For more information, check out these tutorials:
For more information, check out these tutorials:
Question | How do I schedule a news post to be published at a specific time? |
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Answer | Once you have enabled the system scheduler (requires the Composr calendar and commandr addons), an advanced scheduling option will appear when adding or editing news posts. By setting a future date and time, your post will remain unvalidated until the chosen time, at which point it will be automatically validated and published. |
Question | What is "pinging" and how does it work in Composr? |
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Answer | In blogging, "pinging" is an automatic notification sent to blog search engines and other services when you publish a new post. Composr can automatically ping services defined in Admin Zone > Setup > Configuration > Feature options. These services then index your new article, making it searchable. A default ping service (http://pingomatic.com/ping/?title=title&blogurl=url&rssurl=rss) is pre-configured to relay your ping to numerous other services. You can customize the ping URL with these placeholders:
Pinging only occurs for news categories accessible to the public (guests). |
Question | What are Personal Categories/Blogs in Composr? How do I create one? |
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Answer | Composr allows members of permitted usergroups to have their own personal news categories, also known as "blogs". These blogs appear as a tab on the member's profile (Conversr-only) and may also appear in the main news block depending on your configuration. To create a blog, a member simply adds a news post and selects their personal category. If the category doesn't exist, it will be automatically created upon submission. A dedicated "Blogs" CMS module (Admin Zone > Content > Blogs) is available if the "Separate blogs" configuration option is enabled. This simplified module focuses on blog posting and can be used to restrict members from submitting to general website news. |
Question | What are RSS/Atom feeds and how do they benefit my website? |
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Answer | Feeds, in formats like RSS and Atom, are XML files that syndicate your website content, making it accessible beyond your website. They can be viewed using feed reader applications (e.g., Feedly, Vienna) or integrated into other websites or web browsers. Composr supports both RSS and Atom for syndicating news and other content. While RSS is more common, Atom is a cleaner, standardized format. Both effectively share your content updates. Benefits:
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Question | How do I display external RSS feeds on my Composr website? |
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Answer | Composr offers two blocks for displaying RSS and Atom feeds in a news-like format:
To add a block, use the Block Construction Assistant or insert the following Comcode into your page: [block="http://example.com/feed.xml"]main_rss[/block] [block="http://example.com/feed.xml"]side_rss[/block] Replace "http://example.com/feed.xml" with the actual feed URL. Important: Exercise caution when using external feeds. Ensure the source is trustworthy, as malicious feeds can contain harmful code. |
Question | How can I filter the news archive to show specific content? |
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Answer | The news system allows advanced filtering:
These filters are controlled through parameters passed to the news blocks and carried through navigation links. When viewing a news post, you can also filter by the categories associated with that post. |
Question | What are Trackbacks and how do they work in Composr? |
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Answer | Trackbacks are a blogging feature that creates a link from an article on one blog to an article on another, acting as a citation mechanism. How Trackbacks Work:
To enable trackbacks, go to Admin Zone > Setup > Configuration > Feature options and check the "Trackbacks" option. You can then enable trackbacks for individual content items. |
Question | How can I change the news archive display to show summaries instead of just headlines? |
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Answer | By default, the news archive screen shows only headlines. To display summaries like the news block, add :inline=1 to the page-link. For example, if your news archive page-link is site:news, modify it to site:news:inline=1. This will show summaries instead of just the headlines in the archive view. |