News articles are written pieces of content that provide information about current events, issues, or updates from your organisation.
Articles serve as a valuable tool for communicating updates to your members. They can also act as signposts, directing your members to other pages on your MSL website, such as election ballot pages or popular events, or to external web pages with updates from your University or College.
You can present articles in various ways, from a list on your news page to a dynamic rotating banner on your MSL website's homepage.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
You can access this feature from your MSL website. Only Content Editors with access to News Admin or Organisation Admins with permissions to submit, edit or approve news can access the News Admin window.
For further information, see Communications Overview.
News Admin Fields
This table lists and explains the fields on the News Admin windows.
| Field Name | Definition |
|---|---|
| Organisation | This is the name of the Organisation to which the Article belongs. |
| Change Organisation | Click the Change Organisation linkfield to open the Change Organisation dialog. Only Content Editors with access to News Admin can change an Article's organisation. This field is displayed only in Edit News window. For further information, see How to Change an Article's Organisation. |
| Title | This is the name of the Article. There is a default character limit of 100 characters. To change the character limit, contact support@ukmsl.com. It can be reduced, or extended to up to 200 characters. This field is mandatory. |
| Byline | This is the author of the Article. This field is pre-filled with the logged in user's name, but can be left blank or updated, if required. This field is displayed only in the Add News and Edit News windows. |
| URL | This is used to make a friendly URL for the Article i.e. https://[domainname]/news/article/[orgID]/[URLname]/ The default URL name is a hyphenated version of the Title. The URL name must be unique among the selected organisation's articles. This field is displayed only in the Add News and Edit News windows. |
| Leader | This is a brief introduction to the Article. Content should be written as plain text. There is a character limit of 500 characters. This field is displayed only in the Add News and Edit News windows. |
| Display Period | The Article is displayed between the specified period. There is a default Display Period of 7 days. Contact support@ukmsl.com to change this. The start date and time is mandatory, but the end date and time is optional. This field is displayed only in the Add News and Edit News windows. |
| Show In Archive | Select this checkbox to display the expired Article where ‘Include archived articles’ is selected on the respective News List widget. |
| View Permission | This specifies who can view the Article. The options are:
This field is mandatory. This field is displayed only in the Add News and Edit News windows. |
| Allow Comments | Select to allow commenting on the Article. Run the Comments report in your Report Server to view a list of news article comments, helping with moderation. This field is displayed only in the Add News and Edit News windows. |
| Enable Sharing | Select to enable any Share Content widgets present on the Article's display page. Sharing is available only for articles where the View Permission is set to Everyone. Before users can share your article, see How to Add a Share Content Widget to an Article Display Page. This field is displayed only in the Add News and Edit News windows. |
| Enable Ratings | Select to allow users to rate the Article using a star classification. News lists can optionally be arranged with either the highest-rated articles at the top and the lowest-rated at the bottom, or conversely, with the lowest-rated articles at the top and the highest-rated at the bottom. This field is displayed only in the Add News and Edit News windows. |
| Tags | This is a classification feature that enables you to curate the Articles displayed in a news list. For instance, you can configure a news list widget to either showcase or exclude Articles with specific Tags. Add multiple tags to each article by either listing one tag per line or separating them with commas. On an article's display page, you can display news articles related to the current article based on similar tags. Additionally, you can control whether tags are shown or hidden on the article display page. This field is displayed only in the Add News and Edit News windows. |
| Image | Upload an image for the Article. This field is displayed only in the Add News and Edit News windows. |
| Thumbnail Resizing | This is the cropping style for the uploaded Image. The options are:
This field is displayed only in the Add News and Edit News windows once an Image has been uploaded. |
| Alternate Text | Add Alternate Text to help adhere to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. It helps screen-reading tools describe the image to visually impaired users. This written content is displayed in place of an image on the Article if the image fails to load on a user's screen. This field is displayed only in the Add News and Edit News windows once an Image has been uploaded. |
| Image Caption | This is a brief description of the uploaded image, or it can be used to credit the image's source. This field is displayed only in the Add News and Edit News windows once an Image has been uploaded. |
| Body | This is the longer Article text that should contain the detailed information, facts, and narrative of the news event or topic. Any content you add is displayed on the article page and can contain:
The News Editor Toolbar can be edited to add or remove the available buttons. This field is displayed only in the Add News and Edit News windows. |
| URL of Alternate Web Page | If specified, this is the URL to which users will be redirected, rather than the default Article page. It could be another page on your MSL website or an external website. For further information, see How to Redirect an Article to an Alternate Web Page. This field is displayed only in the Add News and Edit News windows. |
| This Article Is Approved | The Approval checkbox is selected by default, allowing immediate publication of the article. To save the news article as a draft, or if another admin must review and approve it, deselect the checkbox until you are ready to publish. For further information, see How to Approve a News Article. This field is displayed only in the Add News and Edit News windows. |
Edit ( ) | Click to view the Edit News window. This field is displayed only in the News Admin window. For further information, see How to Edit a News Article. |
View ( ) | Click to View the Article. This field is displayed only in the News Admin window. For further information, see How to View a News Article. |
Delete ( ) | Click to Delete the Article. This field is displayed only in the News Admin window. For further information, see How to Delete a News Article. |
Restore ( ) | Click to Restore the Article. This field is displayed when the Show: Expired or Deleted checkbox is selected. This field is displayed only in the News Admin window. For further information, see How to Restore a News Article. |
| Expire | Click to Expire the Article. This field is displayed only in the News Admin window. For further information, see How to Expire a News Article. |