Add an article

Lesson time: 30 minutes 

Lesson objectives:

In this lesson you will be able to create and edit articles using the Add Content feature on the Web CMS Dashboard.

Introduction

A website is made up of a collection of webpages which provides information about an organisaiton. For example, a UCT website would have an About page,   or pages about projects, degrees, courses on offer, services available, contact details and more.  

A page generally contains text, images and in some instances, video and/or audio files. Webpages can either be static, meaning that the content remains the same (e.g., Contact Us or About pages), or dynamic, where content are regularly updated. 

The UCT Web CMS uses various content types to populate webpages. The Articles content type is used for  current or time-sensitive content such as news or press releases that are relevant to the UCT community, faculty or department. Articles can be added via the Add Content option, which is available from the Web CMS Dashboard.  

Characteristics of an article

  • Each article can have a maximum of four authors (e.g., writer, photographer, videographer, director).  
  • Articles can be scheduled.

How to add an article

  1. Log on to the Web CMS Dashboard and select the site you will be updating. Always ensure it is the Current site. 
  2. Click the Content tab > Add content dropdown menu > Add Article. 
    • Enter the following information in the Title and setup tab
      • Headline: this is the title of the article and appears in front of the banner image. It is also used for metadata, URL structure and Web CMS listing. 
      • Add an author: select an existing or new author for the article.
        • Add a new author – use this option to add an author who has never been added to the UCT Web CMS before. 
          • Author picture: upload a picture of the author.
          • Title: select an applicable title, or other to specify a different title.
          • First name
          • Initials
          • Last name: this is a required field.
          • Bio: add information about the author.
        • Click Create Author to complete this process. Click Add new author to add additional authors and complete the required fields.
        • Click Add existing author:  this option allows you to add an existing author listed on the UCT Web CMS
          • Author: enter the author’s name, and select their details from the dropdown suggestions.
        • Click Add author to complete this process. Click Add existing author to add more author(s) and complete the required fields. 
      • Select the applicable Category from the dropdown list that the page belongs to. This option classifies your content as well as groups it for the A-Z lists. 
      • Tags: these keywords,  separated by a comma,  are used to describe and improve findability of your content. They are also taxonomy reference fields to group content from different categories. Multi-word phrases can be enclosed in inverted commas for precision (e.g., “teaching and learning”). 
      • CTA (Call-to-action) button text: this appears as link text on the button when the article is displayed in Carousel View Mode. 
      • CTA (Call-to-action) URL: this is a link to the article. If you’re linking to a content on the same website, start typing a content title and select the option from the dropdown suggestions.  
  3. Complete the following actions in the left side panel: 
    • Click Copy and components. 
      • Summary: A short blurb (240 characters max) about the article to entice the reader to continue reading. It appears below the headline on the Carousel and Card view modes. 
      • Body: This is the main article, which is displayed in a WYSIWYG editor, that allows for  basic formatting, styling and media embedding. 
      • Click Image. 
        • Select image: upload applicable images  from your computer or  use those available in the Web CMS media library.
      • Click Aside. 
        • Activate Display “Related news”: the right side column is displayed and lists related news on the full-page version of the current article. 
        • Click Search. Enter additional keywords for more relevant, granular and improved search results for this article.  
  4. On the right side panel:
    • Create new revision:
    • Revision log message: log recent updates made to this content.
    • Current state: shows the current state of the content.
    • Change to: change the content state to either draft, published or unpublished. 
    • Delete: remove content. 
    • Meta tags: added by default and should be sufficient for most pages. These can, however, be customised per node and overwrite default settings. All provided tags are used as this content’s descriptors by various search engines, social media platforms and content sharing services that it was shared to. 
    • Node lock: when activated those in lower roles are unable to update or edit content. Archive: activating this feature prevents the article from being displayed on other content’s Related news, Similar content. etc. 
    • URL alias: automatically generated, but can be replaced with the current node’s title under the Domain-specific path text field.  
    • Authoring information: automatically populated with the authenticated author’s staff number, and authoring date and time. 
    • Promotion options 
      • Promoted to front page: This is not currently in use, although it is a default Drupal feature. 
      • Sticky at top of lists: when enabled, content is placed at the top of lists or wherever it appears. This order takes precedence over other sorting options such as alphabet or date.
    • UCT sitemap: adds this node to the sitemap's navigation when enabled.