Create an article and enable the Articles block in the WMS


OVERVIEW

Target audience: Site Administrators, Site Managers

Use articles in the Web Management System (WMS) to create magazine or blog post-like content with author, date, and categories options.

In this article:

Create an article

  1. From the Administration toolbar, click Create content.

    (OR click My Workbench and go to the Create Content tab.)

  2. Click Article.

  3. Choose an appropriate Language setting from the drop-down options.

  4. Featured Image (optional): You can add a featured image to your article by clicking the Select button. Files must be less than 4MB. Allowed file types are: png, gif, jpg, and jpeg. Images must be larger than 960x250 px.

    The featured image will appear beneath the Dek and above the body of your article.

  5. Dek (optional): A dek is a short statement that leads into your article. Possible options for a dek include a summary of your article or a teaser line that encourages visitors to continue reading.

    The Dek will appear below the title of your article.

  6. Body: Add content to your article.

  7. Edit summary (optional): Click Edit summary (above the Body field) to reveal the Edit summary field and enter a custom summary. If you leave this field blank, a default summary comprised of the opening lines of your article will be used.

    The article summary appears in multiple places:
    • Articles block
    • Category landing pages – A list of articles belonging to a category. Can be accessed by clicking on the Category link(s) listed at the top of an article
    • Tag landing pages – A list of articles with a similar tag. Can be accessed by clicking on a tag link at the bottom of an article.
    • RSS feeds – The content from the summary populates the <description> tag in an RSS feed.

  8. Tags (optional): Enter keywords that describe your new article's content. These will be used by McGill's search engine to index your page. See Tagging content in the WMS for details.

  9. Categories (optional): Choose a category or categories for your article. Select multiple categories by using Control+Click on PC or Command+Click on Mac. For more information on creating and editing article Categories, see Tagging content in the WMS.

  10. Original Author (optional): By default, your name will appear as the author in the article byline.

    If the Original Author field is filled in, the article will display the author’s byline as a link to a list of all “Articles by” the same author.

    Note: It is important to always enter the author’s name consistently with the same spelling, otherwise, different lists of articles by the author will be created for different versions of their name.

    Articles by author are listed by their published date in descending order.

  11. Menu settings (optional)
  12. Scheduling options (optional): You can enter specific dates for when to publish and unpublish your item. For more information about scheduling, see Scheduling in the WMS.

  13. Publishing options (optional): 
    • Published on: You can backdate or postdate the current publication date. This feature supports dates between 1901-12-13 15:45:52 and 2038-01-18 22:14:07.
      Note: the pop-up calendar widget only displays past dates for the last six years but it is possible to enter older dates by manually typing in the Date field.
    • The Promoted to front page and Sticky at top of lists options can be ignored; they are non-functional for articles.Publishing options (optional)

Enable an Articles block

All sites in the WMS have two Articles blocks that are disabled by default:

The blocks are listed under Disabled under Structure > Blocks.

See Manage blocks in the WMS for instructions on how to position a block on your site.

Articles – Simple

The Articles – Simple block displays a list of articles along with summary details:

Articles are ordered by date published, in descending order with six articles appearing per page. If your site has more than six published articles, pagination buttons will appear at the bottom of the block so that readers can access older articles.

Articles – With thumbnails

The Articles – With thumbnails block displays articles in a grid format with thumbnail images and summary details:

Articles are ordered by date published, in descending order, with six articles appearing per page. If your site has more than six published articles, pagination buttons will appear at the bottom of the block so that readers can access older articles.

Configure the Twitter share icon

You can specify a Twitter handle that will display in tweets when visitors share your articles using the Twitter share icon found on your articles pages. To do this, add a Twitter account link to your Follow Site block, i.e., if your Follow Site block uses the Twitter URL https://twitter.com/mcgillu, then “via @mcgillu” will display at the end of tweets generated when visitors click the Twitter share icon on your article pages.

ADDITIONAL REFERENCES: