Articles is one of the Content Modules included with Tendenci websites. Articles can be used to display basic content throughout the site and have special built-in search engine optimization tools, authorship properties, and selective permission settings to customize who can view and/or edit Articles on your website.
Why You Might Use Articles
Articles have a variety of uses and these are a few examples to help you understand how other Tendenci clients are using this content module. Feel free to think outside the box and use articles in other ways that suit your own organization's needs.
A Few Articles Content Ideas:
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Research Papers
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Blog Posts
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Members Announcements
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How-To Guides
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Landing Pages for Custom Form submissions and Special Events
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Industry News Items
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Whitepapers
Create a New Article
Creating a new article is easy. Go to Apps on the Tendenci nav bar and select Articles. This will load the Articles menu on the Tendenci nav bar.
Choose Add Article to get started. Here are the different content fields of an Article and explanations on what each field does.
Please note that items marked with an * are required. All other fields are optional.
Headline*
The Headline is the Title of your article and is what will display at the top of your article as well as in the Articles search view.
URL Path*
The URL path is the article link after https://www.yoursite.com/articles/
For example, if you enter great-story in the URL path in the image above, and your website is https://www.greatwebsite.com then the link once you've saved the article would be https://www.greatwebsite.com/articles/great-story.
You can customize the URL path or simply hit tab after you've entered in your Headline and Tendenci will auto-suggest a URL Path for you.
Summary
The Summary box is where you type a short description that explains what the article is about. This should be 2-3 sentences that will explain why someone wants to read the article. The summary is displayed on the Articles Search and in the RSS feed.
Article Body*
The body of the article is the rich text (WYSIWYG) editor where you can add your text, upload and embed media including photos, images, and files, and customize the look and layout of your Article.
Tags
Tags enable your site users to quickly search for articles with similar topics and are search engine friendly. You can also use tags to dynamically pull in content from Articles to your homepage and custom boxes. (This is an advanced feature that requires some basic knowledge of Django Template Tags and web design.)
Source
The source is the name of the company, non-profit, or media outlet where this Article was obtained.
Website
The website field is for linking to the URL of the Source. Enter the website URL as https://www.website.com. Once saved, this field will be converted into a hyperlink and displayed with the article for readers to link to if they'd like.
Release Date/Time
The Release Date/Time is a field to select the date and time that you publicized the article. This can be the data and time that you created the article here, on your Tendenci website or it can be a custom selected date/time based on when the article was first released elsewhere.
Time Zone
This field is to customize the time zone for the release date.
Contact Box
The contact box allows the author or publisher of the article to be credited and provide contact information where they can be reached. All of these fields are optional.
Permissions Settings
The Permissions Settings allow you to customize who is allowed to view and/or edit this specific article. You can select Public View, (all visitors can see), or choose from Groups, Users, Membership Types, and Superuser only permission options by clicking the "Show Advanced Permissions" link. Read more about Tendenci's content specific permissions controls in this help file.
Superuser Only Settings
Superuser Only settings are only visible to Superuser-level site users. These settings include selecting to include the article in your RSS feed, and then whether to publish the article (check "Active") or to keep the article unpublished if you aren't done editing but want to save it (uncheck "Active").
The Status detail drop down gives you a way to noting if you want to article Active, Pending, or if you have made it Inactive. The status detail is ONLY for a quick way of noting why the article is active or inactive and has nothing to do with publishing the article. You must have the "Active" checkbox checked above the Status detail menu to publish the article.
Add Articles Button
After you have added your content, simple click the Add Articles button to save and finish creating your Article. You will be directed to the Articles View page after it has saved.
Edit an Article
Editing an article is just as simple. To Edit an article, navigate to the article's page view while logged in as a site Superuser and click Edit in the lower right of the page.