Select Yes if you want to display on the page listing the feeds the number of News Feeds in each News Feed category.. l Feed Image: Select Yes if you want to display the feeds that the
Trang 1played in category view This control relates to the display characteristics of the table holding the lists of feeds Select Yes if you want to display a column showing a link to the source of the feed in the table
l Category Description: The settings chosen here are only visible on pages where the feeds
are displayed in category view Select yes if you want to display on the page listing the feeds the category description The category description is set by the administrator when a News Feed Category is created
l # Category Items: The settings chosen here are only visible on pages where the feeds are
displayed in category view Select Yes if you want to display on the page listing the feeds the number of News Feeds in each News Feed category
l Feed Image: Select Yes if you want to display the feeds that the Feed Image provided by
the source of the feed on the page listing
l Feed Description: Select Yes if you want to display on the page listing the feeds the Feed
Description set by the source of the feed
l Item Description: Select Yes if you want to display on the page listing the feeds a short
description of the item The description is taken from the first few words of the item Note that this parameter works in conjunction with the Word Count control below, which dic-tates the length of the description displayed
l Word Count: An integer value that determines the size of the Item description, in words
Set the value of this field to zero to display the entire feed item
After you have set the parameters you desire, click the Save button at the top right to save your changes or click Cancel to close the Parameters window without saving the changes
Managing Feeds and Categories
Categories are created by the administrator for the purpose of grouping news feeds Every news feed must be assigned to a category
Note
Before you can add your first news feed you must have at least one category in the system.
To view the categories available in your system, click on the categories link at the top of the News Feeds Manager The News Feeds Category Manager loads in your browser, as shown in Figure 14.2
Trang 2FIGURE 14.2
The News Feeds Category Manager
The toolbar at the top of the News Feeds Category Manager provides quick access to the following functions:
l Publish: Select one or more categories from the list and then click this icon to publish
them
l Unpublish: Select one or more categories from the list and then click this icon to
unpub-lish them
l Delete: Select one or more categories from the list and then click this icon to delete the
category(s)
l Edit: Select a category from the list and then click this icon to edit the category’s details.
l New: Click to create a new category.
l Help: Click to access the online Help files related to the active screen.
Trang 3you manage long lists of categories:
l The Filter field on the left works like a search box Type a word or phrase into the field
and then click Go The page reloads and displays the results of the search To clear the screen and return to a full listing, click the Reset button
l The Select State filter on the far right allows you to filter and display the categories
according to whether they are published or unpublished This provides an easy way to identity all categories that are currently active on the site To reset this filter, change the combo box back to the default setting (- select state - )
The main content area of the screen contains a list of all the News Feeds categories The columns provided are:
l #: This field is an indexing number set automatically by Joomla! You cannot alter this
field
l Checkbox (no label): Click in a checkbox to select a category The checkbox is needed if
you want to use several of the toolbar options, referenced previously
l Title: This field displays the full name of the category Click on the name to edit the
cate-gory’s details
l Published: A green checkmark in this column indicates that the category is published
The field will show a red X if the category is not published Administrators can toggle between the two settings by clicking on the icon shown
l Order: The numbers in this field affect the ordering of the categories on this list Change
the numbers and click the Save icon at the top of the column to reorder the categories
l Access Level: Indicates the access levels assigned to the category You can toggle between
the options Public, Registered, and Special by clicking on the words
l ID: The system-generated user ID number.
Finally, at the bottom of the screen, below the content area, is the Display # option Change the value in the combo box control to alter the number of categories that are displayed on the page The default value can be altered by changing the List Length option on the Global Configuration Manager
Creating a new category
Before you can add news feeds to your system, you must create at least one category Categories are created from within the News Feed Category Manager, by clicking the New icon on the toolbar Category data is entered into the New News Feed Category dialogue, shown in Figure 14.3
Trang 4FIGURE 14.3
The New News Feed Category dialogue
The toolbar at the top of the New News Feed Category dialogue provides quick access to the fol-lowing functions:
l Save: Click this icon to save your work, create a new category, and exit the New News
Feed Category dialogue
l Apply: Click to save your work and create a new category without exiting from the New
News Feed Category dialogue This option lets you save without exiting the screen and it
is useful in case you are interrupted or you otherwise want to save yet keep working on this screen
l Cancel: This option cancels the task and exits the New News Feed Category dialogue.
l Help: This option displays the Help files related to the active screen.
The workspace in this dialogue is broken into two sections, Details and Description The Details section contains the following fields:
Trang 5a search engine friendly path for the category This field only accepts small case letters, with no spaces Note that if you leave this blank, the system will automatically use the value you entered into the Title field
l Published: A green checkmark indicates the category is published A red X means it is not
published You can click on the icon to toggle the state
l Section: This field is not applicable to the News Feed category, and as a result the system
displays only n/a
l Category Order: This field cannot be controlled when a new category is created New
cat-egories always default to last on the list The order can be changed from the News Feed Category Manager or by editing the category
l Access Level: Sets the access level restrictions for the category and its contents The
options Registered, Public, or Special appear in this column You can click the names to toggle the level If no value is chosen, the system defaults to Public
l Image: Provides the option to display a small image next to the category name on pages
listing the categories This is optional The Image Position control is related to this option Note that the image you want to select must be located in the folder images/stories
l Image Position: Controls placement of the image relative to the category name The
choices are limited to Left or Right Left is selected by default Note that this control is only applicable if an image is selected from the Image control
The Description field at the bottom of the screen provides you with a place to add a description of the category The description appears on pages where the categories are listed The text box allows you to use images and formatting for the description The Image button at the bottom of the Description field gives you easy access to controls for inserting an image into the description
To create a new category, follow these steps:
1 Log in to the admin system on your site.
2 Access the News Feeds Category Manager To do so, go to the Components menu
and choose the Categories option from the submenu under the heading News Feeds The News Feeds Category Manager loads in your browser.
3 Click the New icon on the toolbar at the top of the News Feeds Category Manager
The New News Feeds Category dialogue opens Refer to Figure 14.3
4 In the Title field, type a name for this category This is the only required field.
5 Add additional information or optional settings as you see fit.
6 Click the Save icon on the toolbar at the top right to save your new News Feed
Category The dialogue closes and returns you to the News Feed Category Manager.
Trang 6Editing and deleting categories
You can edit existing News Feed categories from the News Feed Category Manager To edit a cate-gory, do either of the following
l Click on the category name in the News Feed Category Manager
l Select the category on the list and then click the Edit icon on the News Feed Category Manager toolbar
Regardless of which method you use, the system opens the Edit Category dialogue
The Edit Category dialogue is identical to the New Category dialogue, with the same fields and requirements as discussed in the section above
To make changes to a category, simply alter the desired fields in the Edit Category dialogue and then click the Save or Apply icon on the toolbar Any changes you have made are applied immediately
To delete one or more categories, follow these steps:
1 Open the News Feed Category Manager.
2 Select one or more categories.
3 Click the Delete icon.
Caution
Deleting a News Feed category is permanent and cannot be undone Moreover, there is no confirmation dia-logue — clicking the Delete icon immediately deletes the category! However, a category cannot be deleted if there are News Feeds assigned to that category If you want to delete the category, you need to first delete or reassign any news feeds assigned to that category.
Adding a new feed
To add a new news feed to your site, visit the News Feeds Manager and click the New icon on the toolbar The New News Feed dialogue opens in your browser, as shown in Figure 14.4
The toolbar at the top of the New News Feed dialogue provides quick access to the following functions:
l Save: Click this icon to save your work, add a new News Feed, and exit the New News
Feed dialogue
l Apply: Click to save your work and add a new News Feed without exiting from the New
News Feed dialogue This option lets you save without exiting the screen, and it useful in
Trang 7The New News Feed dialogue.
The Details section of the workspace contains the following fields:
l Name: Use this field to give a name to your news feed This is a required field.
l Alias: The alias field is an internal identifier for your news feed An alias is used in some
cases to create search engine friendly URLs for the item You can specify the contents of this field if you want, but note that it only takes lowercase letters with no spaces If you do not specify the contents of this field the system automatically creates the alias based on the item’s name
l Published: Select Yes to publish the news feed The default state is Yes.
l Category: Assign the news feed to a category using the combo box This field is required.
l Link: Enter into this field the URL for the source of the news feed This field is required
Note that this should normally begin with http://
l Number of Articles: This field requires an integer value to specify the number of items
that will be cached The default is 5
l Cache Time: This field requires an integer value to specify the length of time the items are
Trang 8l Order: Note that this control is not available for a new news feed New items are placed
by default in the last position on the list After you add your news feed, you can adjust the list position from either the News Feed Manager or edit the News Feed item
l RTL Feed: If your site uses right-to-left text orientation, use this control to specify the text
direction of the feed’s contents
Note
Supported feed formats include: RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, Atom 0.3, and Atom 1.0.
To add a new news feed, follow these steps:
1 Log in to the admin system on your site.
2 Access the News Feeds Manager To do so, go to the Components menu and select
the News Feeds option The News Feeds Manager loads in your browser.
3 Click the New icon on the toolbar at the top of the News Feeds Manager The New
News Feed Dialogue opens Refer to Figure 16.4
4 In the Name field, type a name for the feed This field is required.
5 Select a category for the feed from the category combo box This field is required.
6 Type the address for the feed source in Link field Normally this begins with
http:// This field is required
7 Select any additional options you want; all other fields are optional.
8 Click the Save icon on the toolbar at the top right to save your new news feed.
The dialogue closes and returns you to the News Feeds Manager
After you bring news feeds into your system with the News Feed Manager, the question becomes how
to display the news feeds on your site Adding feeds to the Manager does not automatically translate into displaying feed output on your site
There are two common ways to display news feed content on your site: use either a page or a module
By linking your menus to the News Feed component, you can display feeds or categories of feeds as content items on your site For a discussion of how to add news feeds to the pages on your site through the creation of Menu Items, see Chapter 8
Alternatively, you can bypass the News Feeds component completely and create a new module to hold
a single news feed Modules can be used to aggregate and display individual news feeds and are not dependent in any way upon the News Feed component Chapter 20 covers adding news feed content
Displaying news feeds on your site
Trang 9Editing and deleting feeds
Existing news feeds can be edited from the News Feeds Manager To edit a news feed, either click
on the news feed name in the News Feeds Manager or select the news feed and then click the Edit icon on the News Feeds Manager toolbar Regardless of which method you use, the system opens the Edit News Feed dialogue
The Edit News Feed dialogue is identical to the New News Feed dialogue, with the same fields and requirements as discussed in the preceding section
To make changes to a news feed, simply alter the desired fields in the Edit News Feed dialogue and then click the Save or Apply icon on the toolbar Any changes you have made are applied immediately
To delete one or more news feeds, follow these steps:
1 Open the News Feeds Manager.
2 Select one or more news feeds.
3 Click the Delete icon.
Caution
Deleting a news feed is permanent and cannot be undone Moreover, there is no confirmation dialogue — clicking the Delete icon immediately deletes the news feed as well as any cached content of the feed.
Summary
In this chapter, we cover the use of the News Feed Component You learned the following:
l How to configure the News Feeds component
l How to create, edit, and delete news feeds
l How to create, edit, and delete News Feed categories