Blogs

The steps below describe how to set up and begin managing a blog.

1. Go to Site Architecture > Module Designer and create a new module designer record by clicking the "New" button.

2. Insert "Blogs" into the "Name" field, and choose the "Topics" module from the "module drop-down". Click "Save."

3. The system will generate the module and kick you back to the module designer record that you created. Click "Save" again.

4. Go to Site Architecture > Navigation and create a new page by clicking the "New" button.

5. Insert "Blogs" in the "Title" and "Browser Title" fields. In the "Page Type" option selector, choose "Module".

6. A module drop-down menu will appear. Choose "Blogs" from that module drop-down menu.

7. On the "Visible" option, click "No". On the "Include in Site Search" option, click "No." You'll likely want to change these values after getting your blog set up, but for the time being it's best to keep the page out of the public eye. Click "Save".

8. Once you have your blogs module set up in the console, you can now begin inserting members, bloggers and topics. If the new blogger does not yet have a member profile, you must create one. Go to Members, and click "New".

9. Insert the appropriate username and password for the new blogger, and be sure to tie this user to the "Blogger" role. They should not have console access, so make sure that you choose only the "Blogger" role, nothing in "Console Navigation" and you check only the left-hand check boxes in the "Accessible Audiences" multi-select. Click "Save". Repeat as necessary for the number of bloggers you need to add.

Note: If the user who is a blogger already exists as a member or administrator, please be sure to edit his or her member or administrator record by tagging them to the "Blogger" role.

10. Once your blogger member profiles are set up, you can begin creating bloggers in the Blogs > Bloggers module by clicking the "New" button. Be sure to fill out the Blogger form as completely as possible, most importantly tagging the appropriate member profile to the blogger you're creating in the Bloggers > User Account field. Be sure to cliock "Save". Repeat as necessary.

11. After you've set up your bloggers, you can then begin adding blog topics to the Blogs > Topics module by clicking the "New" button. The "Title" field is the title of you blog. The "Body Copy" is the full text of your blog post. You can add "Citation/Byline" info, as necessary, upload attachments, but most importantly please ensure that you tag the topic to the appropriate blogger in the Topics > Blogger field. Remember to click "Save". Repeat as necessary.

12. Once you've completed a number of Topics entries, you can check your work at http://yourdomainhere.com/main/blogs.aspx .

13. To allow a blogger to log in and edit his or her blog items, the url will be: http://yourdomainhere.com/main/blogs.aspx?form=y .

14. To edit the design or content of the blogs module, you can utilize scripting and html to change the module designer created in step 2. For information on scripting and module design records can be found in these help files: Scripting and Module Designer.

Adding Comments

If you wish to set up a comments module configuration for a blog, go to Comments > Configuration in the web site console and click the "New" button.

The system will spin up a new configuration record. You can implement the features you wish to display on your comments area within the Form and Thread tabs in the Configuration module. For more on these, please turn to the Comments help file.

Once the configuration is complete, click the "Save" record. The system will generate a cp:script in the Configuration > Default (tab) > CpScript field. Copy that script and paste it on a Notepad document for future use.

Next, within the Site Architecture > Module Designer module, locate the Blogs module designer that will be used to display the blog records. Click into that record.

Click the Topic Details tab, and locate the Footer Content field. Paste the cp:script copied to the Notepad document into the Footer Content field. Then click "Save".

The comments configuration you created is now part of the blogs view.

Form Field Types Reference

Centralpoint Forms support 13 different field types. Here's a quick reference for the most commonly used types:

Module Field Types: Standard vs XQuery

Understanding which fields are standard (direct SQL columns) versus XQuery fields (stored in Attributes XML) is critical for module development.

Core Standard Fields (Always Available)

These fields exist in ALL Centralpoint modules:

• Title, DataId, IsEnabled, Priority
• StartDate, EndDate (publish dates)
• CreatedBy, ModifiedBy, CreatedDate, ModifiedDate
• Summary, Keywords
• Taxonomy, Audiences, Roles

GenericEnhanced Standard Fields

• TextBox1-5 (single-line text)
• RTFEditor1-3 (rich text)
• FileUpload1-5 (file paths)
• YesNo1-10 (boolean 0/1)