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Headline link/summary/asset inline presentation examples?
I'm looking for good examples of these new inline display properties for image (or other) elements: Headline link, summary, asset presentation
Hi Jayson!
Here is a general overview in our online documentation.
I also put together a testing page with many examples of inline styles. There are some really cool ones... check out an inline mapped presentation, or the panorama collection. Neat stuff!
Note that the "full viewport" options, like full-bleed or parallax, only works on long-form presentation articles, because it needs a guarantee that the story area will be full-width of the page.
Here is an example of the same story in default article presentation (no long-form), so you can see the same articles in a normal asset situation. You can see that they also don't "stick out" from the column of the article.
Hurricane Tracker
Anybody have a suggestion for a good, free embeddable hurricane tracker map for use on our websites?
This one has potential, but it always defaults to the alphabetical first storm instead of the wider view or (currently) the second storm on the list: https://project.wnyc.org/hurricane-tracker/index.html
I miss the days when StormPulse was free...
I'm going with this one for now, but would still definitely be interested to hear what others are doing.
https://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=2f5a28f82f4d41ec8dbe6cf96375a970
Adding "saving disabled ... locked" messaging to blocks
We're having trouble recently with multiple editors being able to access the same block and are saving over each others' changes.
Can this type of "locked" asset messaging be added to blocks? "Saving disabled: this asset is locked by XXXXX"
1. What problem(s) does this idea solve? Editors not saving over each others' work when they both have the same block open.
2. Why do you need this idea implemented? Provide as many problems or use cases as possible. Editor adjusts order of stories in a block. Unknowingly another editor has the same block open and saves over the other's work.
3. How often would you use this feature? Daily
4. How many people in your organization would use this feature? Everyone
What happened to in-line photos in FLEX?
Zen has fairly decent in-line photo options. If I dragged a photo into the body of an article it would stay right where I put it as long as the presentation was "None." That was great because if the photo was for a specific section of the article it ensured that was where it displayed. The new "Long-form" and "Personality" presentations have abandoned that. FLEX has abandoned that altogether. So even in "None" it puts the images wherever it wants to in the body.
For example...
Here you have the Zen photo display. A lot of white space but at least I KNOW the photo will go with the content.
On the other hand...
This is FLEX. Is that photo of a scarf headband, a fake knot or a hidden knot? I can't tell.
So could we please have more options for displaying in-line photos? I want to switch our magazine to FLEX because the templates are far superior to Zen. But I I feel like we're taking a step backward when I can't display in-line photos that stay with their corresponding body copy. I'd love to be able to display in-line photos as full width photos so there isn't that white space seen in the top screenshot. But I prefer the white space over the random image placement.
Flex does full-width inline photos (which was a highly requested feature), instead of 300px like Zen.
The problem was that if you had a vertical image, being full-width ended up with REALLY BIG images that looked pretty crazy.
So now we do a check - if it is a vertical image (as you show here), it will float right. If it is horizontal, it will be full-width. Most of the time this works well since you're just trying to put the image near the copy, and it looks better since it is not super huge.
In your case I would recommend cropping the image to be slightly horizontal (literally one pixel more width than height) and it will be full-width in the article as you intend.
(We do have a feature request in to add some tools to inline photos to give them some options... like half-width, float left, float right, etc. So you can choose more of the display. We are hoping it will be on the docket for next year but I don't have an ETA yet.)
Setting up tracking for FB Instant and Google AMP in GA
Hi y'all, we're on board with TownNews' preferred Google Analytics setup now (woo hoo!) ... Now that's done, we'd like to setup a way to track analytics for Facebook Instant articles and Google AMP pages. Because the URLs generated for those pages aren't always on a site's domain, how do you accomplish this in GA?
Hey Kevin!
We're actually in the process of experimenting with this so we can document it with our full GTM launch.
Because Google AMP requires its own GTM container, you can just tell that container to create an AMP dimension for each page view.
For FBIA, you should be able to track tncms.page.platform = 'facebook instant articles'.
Like I said, this is still in test mode, but let me know if you need more explanation or help setting this up.
Feature Request - link Marketplace pins to Google Map directions
We would like to have all of our site Marketplace directories to link to Google Map directions. Right now when you click on a Business pin on the Google Map embed, it only displays the address. We would like to request that the address link to Google Maps directions.
Post and Courier example:
http://www.postandcourier.com/marketplace/?action=srch&limit=10&sort=geodist&keyword=pets
Thanks, Laura!
I'll submit this as a feature request and update here as this gets closer to a release.
Hi Ellen,
Website is not included for basic info, however, Business Directory listings contain the appropriate website fields. In the example you've added, Abel-Keppy Animal Hospital business listing would need their website field filled out.
Questions about upcoming webinar on Article Designer tools (June 8, 2017 at 10:30 am)
Cherry already posted a reminder about this webinar! Thanks Cherry!
I had a few questions for you community folks...
1. Do you have any specific questions regarding these tools that you'd like me to cover?
Right now I will give an overview of how they work, and then some best practices to create nice looking content.
We will also have Elizabeth Stephens (famous member who frequents this board, in fact) give some sage advice from a journalism / newsroom perspective.
Then I'll show a few examples of what you can do.
2. Speaking of which... if anyone has examples of great uses of the Article Designer tools, or even your favorite parts of what you've seen so far - let me know. I'd love to highlight some customer work in this webinar!
Forms need a subtotal page before submitting
I'm setting up a form that will have multiple items available for purchase. BLOX forms don't come with a subtotal page before submitting. You fill out the form and submit it all on the same page. Typically e-commerce is handled by filling out a form and going to another page that shows the subtotal before submitting. Can that be done in BLOX?
Feature Request: Ability to upload a single PDF that contains multiple pages.
I enjoy the Live E-Editions, but when it comes to magazines, I am often given a single PDF that I then have to extract before uploading it to BLOX.
Anyone got a good magazine or weekly design implemented in Flex?
Like the title says, I'm looking for examples of good design.
We've brought our entertainment and niche magazine publications off Wordpress and into Blox, and I hate, hate, hate the designs.
Does anyone out there have an example of well designed mag/niche/weekly publication sites or sections that are using Flex?
I'm beating my head up against the wall trying to find something that doesn't look like just another section of the newspaper site.
Thanks!
create newsletter
I am trying to set-up a newsletter that I can send out to all of our subscribers. How do I do this? Do I need to purchase some additional service? Is it even possible to do this through TownNews?
Thank you for your help!
Hi Cole!
I assume you mean an email newsletter?
Yes, we have a product for email newsletters. It is actually really nice - it is nicely integrated with our system so that you use special email-specific blocks to design your own mobile-friendly email newsletter from the ground up. (We also have lots of sample starter newsletters you can copy!)
End users can log into our existing User Dashboard and manager their lists from there.
And, when someone signs up for a user account on the system, it allows them to check off the email newsletters they want at the same time.
Also, there is an integration with our e-Edition product so that when the e-Edition goes up online each day, it can send an email to specific email users letting them know.
For more information, click here:
I will ask your sales rep to contact you to provide more details. Thanks! =)
Webinar | Introducing the revamped Article Designer for BLOX CMS
Watch it now! At our June webinar, we showed you how the newly updated Article Designer for BLOX CMS can help you unleash your creativity and boost reader engagement.
New features include:
Dazzle readers with fresh photo options: parallax, full-width, panorama and more.
Set the alignment and width of inline story elements for elegant, magazine-like layouts.
Drag-and-drop related content like pull quotes and fact boxes into the body of your stories.
Tailor the look of inline story elements with a simple right-click.
Feature request: Clicking on photos in a mosaic presentation shouldn't load a new URL
The new ability to embed a collection with the mosaic presentation is great, except users can't just expand a picture without going to a separate URL. If the photos simply expanded when clicked, just like the images do at the top of stories, readers wouldn't have to load a new URL or leave their spot in a story.
It's a jolt in the experience when the page moves to a new URL. It forces users to hit "Back" to finish reading the story, and is disruptive as-is. Mimicking the features the photos display at the top of the page would fix this.
Hi Meagan!
Thanks for this! To be honest, this was my oversight when building the mosaic. When we first created it, the images didn't link anywhere at all. So I just asked that they go through to the image page so I could see them better. But, I should have asked for our image overlay behavior. It is better user experience, it has potential ad spots, and it more consistent. Better all around!
I will put in a change request. Thanks for the feedback!
Feature request based on new BLOX article designer release!
So, of course I have a feature request already re: thew new BLOX release, lol.
We love dragging related stories into body text. But we actually prefer an article asset's 'summary' presentation rather than the 'default' presentation for sibling assets.
Feature request: Ability to designate which presentation you want to be your default.
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