All you need to know about using the News Module, including adding news items, editing, deleting and notifying app users when you have added a news item.
What does the News Module Do?
The News Module is an excellent way to update your site with news items and keep content regularly updated on your website. The News page displays all of the current and active news items in order by their start date. You can schedule all of your news items in advance or set them with expiry dates so they are automatically removed from your site on a particular date.
As well as the News page, the "News Module" can easily be displayed on any page of your website, automatically displaying the latest five news items.
- Setting up the News Module
- Accessing the News Module
- Adding a News Item
- Adding a Long News Item
- Managing Your News Items
- Notifying the Mobile App of News Items
- Options to Display News Items on a Page
Setting Up the News Module
- To display your news, you will need to have a page on your website selecting "News" as the Module Name. The page must also be active. You will be able to tell which page is assigned to the News Module by the News icon (as shown below). If you would like any text to appear above your News items, enter it in the content area with Page Administration.
Refer Adding Pages.
Accessing the News Module
To access the News Module click on the Modules icon in the top navigation and select "News" from the dropdown list. You will be taken to the News Administration area which shows all of the news items on your website.
- To administer News Items select from the left hand menu:
- News Admin List - for a list of all the news items.
- Add A News Item - for adding a News Item
Adding a News Item
To add a News Item click on "Add A News Item" button in the left navigation, a new screen will appear as follows:
- Headline: This is the name of the News Item.
- News Type: Select from "Brief News Item" or "Long News Item".
- "Brief News Item" has a maximum of 500 characters.
- "Long News Item" is selected, additional content will become available after you Save. Refer to "Add a Long News Item" for further information, below,
- Author: Who wrote the News Item, this is an optional field.
- News Item Live on Site Date: this is the date the News Item will commence to appear on the live website and the order the items will appear
- News Item Expiry Date: this is the date the News Item will no longer appear on the live website, NOTE: this field is optional and unless you want the item to be removed it is often an advantage to keep the item for search engine reasons.
- Featured News Item: this indicates whether the News Item is appears in the Featured News display. (this option is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Do not use).
- More Information File: If you wish to have another file attached to your news item i.e. a pdf brochure, click on the "Browse" button and select the file from your computer and click "open"
- Upload News Image: select an image to be displayed within this News Item, click on the "Browse" button and select the file from your computer and click "open"
- News Image Width: this is the width of the News Image to be displayed if you would like it resized as it is uploaded. Note: It will need to be in pixels and the width of your website is 1170px
- Upload News Thumbnail: If you wish to have a different thumbnail image to the one above, select an image to be displayed as the thumbnail for this News Item. Click on the "Browse" button and select the file from your computer and click "open"
- Left or Right: this will indicate which side of the screen the thumbnail image will be displayed.
- URL Link Name: if more information is available and you wish to link to another page or website, type in the URL link name here.
- URL: Enter the URL Link name here that you wish to link to above including http://
- Brief News Item Description: This is the plain content field for you to type in the News Content. This field will fit up to 500 characters , if you exceed 500 characters, you will receive an alert when you click save and will need to instead select the News Type as "Long News Item"
- Once you have completed the fields, click the Save & Close button.
You will now be returned to the News Administration Area, where your news item will be displayed as inactive and awaiting approval.
Note: The content you enter for the Brief News field will appear on the Latest News Page as a summary and also in the Display Output. The Long News Content will only appear on the News Items own page.
Adding a Long News Item
After saving a News Item, if you have selected "Long News Item" you will be able to then edit the news item and see an additional "Long News Article Content" field.
- Complete all of the steps of adding a Brief News Item and click the Save & Close button.
- You will be returned to the News Administration Area where your news item will appear.
- Click on the Edit button, located to the right of the News Name you wish to make a Long News Item.
- A News Detail screen will appear with the same information as the Add News Item, however with an additional section at the bottom for the Long News Content.
- Type in Long News Article Content: type in the additional news into the editor. You can format the new content using the same editor as in the Page Administration Area Refer: Using the Editor
- Once you have completed the Long News Article Content, click the Save & Close button.
- You will now be returned to the News Administration Area, where your news item will be displayed as inactive and awaiting approval.
Note: The content you enter for the Brief News field will appear on the Latest News Page as a summary and also in the Display Output. The Long News Content will only appear on the News Items own page.
Managing Your News Items
Editing a News Item
- To edit a News Item, click on the Edit button, located to the right of the News Name you wish to edit. If a locked icon
is showing in place of edit, then someone else may be editing the new item. Please check if anyone else is editing the item before proceeding. If they are not, simply click the lock icon to unlock and start editing the news item. - A new screen will appear with all of the same fields as the Add A News Item window.
- Once you have made the relevant changes click on the Save & Close button.
- You will now be returned to the News Administration Area, where your news item changes will be awaiting Submission.
Activating a News Item
- Once you have added a News Item it will automatically be created as Inactive. (Therefore the News Item will not appear on your website).
- To make a News Item Active, click on the red Activate button to the right of the News Name. The button will change to green Activate.
Deactivating a News Item
- To remove a News Item from your live website, you need to make the News Item Inactive.
- To make a News Item Inactive, click on the green Activate button to the right of the News Name. The button will change to red Activate.
Approving a News Item
- How to approve a News Item, depends on which Powersites package you are using.
- There may be three levels of Approval before the Event Item appears on your live website.
- Activate.
- Activate, Submit.
- Activate, Submit, Approve.
- For more information on approval and permission settings Refer: Creating Roles and Permissions for users
Deleting a News Item
- To delete a News Item, click on the Delete button, located to the right of the News Name.
- A warning screen will appear, click OK to proceed with the deletion.
Notifying the Mobile App of News Items 
To notify your app users hit the NOTIFY APP button to send a push notification to the app about the news item.
Options to Display News Items on a Page
- Once you have active news and an active News page your news will be visible on your website. You can also add different News widgets (i.e. selected categories on selected pages).
Watch our tutorial video on the News Module