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How Channels work

Channels items created on your site are immediately accessible and can be displayed on your site by defining Channels blocks.

If you want to display Channels items from other WMS sites within your site, you can import them and then create blocks to display them based on their Categories and/or Source Site (the WMS website where the items were originally posted).

Categories can also be used to configure blocks to show both locally created and imported items. However, this method does not allow you to control when the imported items appear and disappear.

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Importing Channels news and events from other WMS sites

To display Channels content created on other WMS sites, the content must be added to the Channels import queue. For each import source, you can import all items from one Category (regardless of where they were created), all items from one Source Site (regardless of their Categories), or a combination of Category and Source Site.

To add content to the import queue:

1. From the administrative toolbar, click Structure > Channels. You are brought to the Sources tab by default.
2. To select a Category from the list, start typing the first few characters of the category. Select the category you want from the list.
3. To select a Source Site, start typing the source site URL, and you will see a list of all the sites in the WMS. You can then scroll down to find the source site you want to import.
4. Once you have selected a Category and/or Source, click Add to import queue. This will add the source to the list at the bottom of the page.
5. Click Import at the bottom of the page to bring the channels items from all your sources into your site so they can be displayed in Blocks.

   Note: The more sources you are importing, the longer it takes for the import process to complete.

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Setting up Channels blocks for your site

There are three steps to setting up a Channels block:

1. Creating
2. Configuring
3. Positioning

Once you have completed all three steps, the content will automatically flow into your Block from the Channels system. 

Creating Channels blocks

To create a Channels block:

1. From the administrative toolbar, click Structure > Channels and then click the Blocks tab. If you already have Channels blocks on your site, they will be displayed in a table on this page; you can edit or delete any of the blocks listed by clicking the appropriate link.
2. Click Add Block at the top of this page.
3. Enter a Block Name. This will help you identify the block when it is listed among all the other blocks on your site.
4. Under CONTENT TYPES, select News or Events (they cannot be displayed in the same block).

   Here you can also select what sources of Channels items you want to display:

   • Include content from this site (items that were created on this website)
   • Include distributed content (items created on other WMS sites)
   • Only show content from McGill central communications
5. In the FILTERS section, select one or more of the Category/Source Site Combinations. This list will only contain local Channels categories and those you have imported. You can hold down the Ctrl or Shift keys to select multiple sources. Choose Any/Local to display all Channels content created on your site, regardless of the Category classification.
6. Under Audience, put a check next to the boxes if you wish to filter the contents based on audience or leave all boxes unchecked to display contents for all audiences.
7. Under Tags, select one or more keywords to filter the items displayed in the block based on specific keywords with which the items have been tagged. Leave these tags unselected if you don't want to filter the contents based on tags. Use the Ctrl or Shift keys to select multiple tags.
8. Under Display, you can choose the following options:
   
   • Specify the number of items to display within the block
   • Check Show "View More" link if you want the user to be able to click a "View More" link to see additional items in a separate web page.
   • Check Show primary image to display the first image for each item within the block.
   • Check Display text when block is empty to display a message when no news or events items are available.
     
     
9. Click Add at the bottom of the screen to create the new block.

Configuring Channels blocks

Once the Channels block has been created, go to Structure > Blocks to configure it by choosing the block's title, styling options, and pages on which it will appear.

Positioning Channels blocks

To position the block (sidebar, top of the page, etc.), see Manage blocks in the WMS.

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