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Answered

Start Date/Time (no older then 60 days)

Craig V 10 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Christine Masters 10 years ago 1
I want to set a query rule on a editorial block to only show assets that are no older then 60 days using Start date/time. Is this possible?
Answer
Christine Masters 10 years ago
Hi Craig!

Yes, there are a few ways to do this.

First, you can set the archive time on those blocks for 60 days from the start time. The archive time doesn't really do anything unless you use that rule in a block, so it won't have negative impact elsewhere on your site. So if you add the archive rule to your blocks, the items that are archived will not show.

Second, and probably easier in your situation, you can add a rule of:

> Start date/time > No earlier than > 60 days ago (type that in)

That will make sure that articles with a start date earlier than 60 days ago will not show.

Let me know if this works for you! I tested it on my site and that seems to be the right configuration.
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Completed

First Thursday Webinar

anonymous 10 years ago updated by Christine Masters 10 years ago 2
At this month's FREE webinar, we'll discuss exciting new features, updates and revenue generating tips. Topics will include:

  • Improve your workflow with our all-new inline notes
  • Configuring broadcast settings to comply with Facebook updates
  • New run-of-site exclusions in BLOX Ad Manager
  • Tip of the month: Native advertising with BLOX CMS
Sign up today!


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Answered

asset search for invalid section tags

Mike Stickler 11 years ago updated by Christine Masters 10 years ago 2
If you want to search for articles in a specific section it's fairly easy. Put a check next to the section in the drop down and hit search. In addition to this there is an "uncategorized" box that can be checked to bring up instances where there is not section tag.

However we occasionally run into human error issues where something might end up in the section tag field that is not a valid section. For example if no web category is selected in our pagination system then articles will be imported with a section_tag of none. TN gave me a shortcut to search for these (enter tag_section:(none) in the search text), however I'd like to see an "invalid" section search similar to the uncategorized one. The results from this search would return any asset with a section tag that is not currently a valid section tag for the site.
Answer
Christine Masters 10 years ago
1. In BLOX itself, there isn't a way to select a section that doesn't exist, so that shouldn't be an issue for sites creating content inside the BLOX hosted system, or our front-end editorial system, BLOX Total CMS. Since they are essentially the same system, they work in unison in this way.

2. For other front-end editorial systems, you'd have to talk to that vendor about not allowing invalid sections to be chosen for an article. It sounds like the sections should be a choice out of a selection of sections rather than something the user is asked to type in, anyway.

3. As far as auto-creating sections when a new one is found, I would think that it could lead to a lot of accidental sections that are misspellings or incorrect variations of existing sections. They would then not have ads assigned or could mess up page statistics. In BLOX, we like to think of the sections as more well-defined. Keywords, on the other than, are more organic and could vary in this way.

4. As far as searching for "invalid" sections, that is very difficult for us to do. We would have to perform an inverse search on every section tag that is possible from the database, and our developers felt there was no reasonable way to do that.

Hope this helps! Thanks!
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Answered

Automatic AP Video matching - HELP!

Lindy Bazner 10 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Christine Masters 10 years ago 3
Now that AP Video matching is working, we are in a fix...

Shouldn't AP Video matching only work with AP syndicated articles that are given an 'AP' flag? We are seeing them show up for our local stories as well.

So, that being asked; is there a way to disable 'matching' for certain stories? Can you add a Custom Property in an article asset (like video_matching=false) to disable the automatic addition of the AP video player in that article?

We encountered something yesterday that a local story is getting random videos that have NOTHING to do with the topic; plus that can get hairy if there is inappropriate video/B-roll advertising that plays before a story depending on its topic.


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Under review

Content Importer set article presentation mode

Jason Schaefer 10 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Christine Masters 10 years ago 1
In the content importer it would be nice to have an option in the other settings menu to set the presentation mode of articles that are being imported. We have bloggers only that use the content importer and currently we go back into the articles and change the presentation mode to personality. It would be nice if we could set the mode in the importer for this person and have it assign the presentation mode on import.
+1
Answered

Flex Templates--Will they use LESS or SASS, or both?

Robert Dundon 10 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Christine Masters 10 years ago 2
Hi There!

I and some other colleagues noted that the Flex templates will use Bootstrap , which can use LESS or SASS http://docs.townnews.com/kbpublisher/Flex-Overview_9180.html#Bootstrap.

Has TN already chosen one or the other for use? Or will there be an option?

Thanks!


Answer
Christine Masters 10 years ago
We aren't using SASS or LESS right now with Flex, but we do have some really interesting tricks we've employed. For one, we have some sections of CSS which are now included in page - which means that you can run UTL in that CSS.

This allows you to do things like conditionals which check the section and then implement CSS if it matches. Or, using a variable color defined in your page customization as the background for a custom block or custom design.

This should be used sparingly, of course, because you don't want 10,000 lines of CSS on your front page.

But it does allow for some programmatic changes, and it gets rid of a separate site CSS http call.
+3
Under review

[Request] Add 'Custom Properties' to Batch Edit > Miscellaneous in Editorial Assets

Jeff Sebestyen 10 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Christine Masters 10 years ago 1
For example, If I have over a dozen stories I need in front of the paywall (e.g. Subscription_Bypass), I can accomplish this in one task.  
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Completed

Did you miss TownNews.com's customer webinar?

anonymous 10 years ago updated by Christine Masters 10 years ago 1
At this month's webinar, we discussed ways to ensure that your BLOX CMS site and content are search-optimized. Watch it today!

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Answered

Any one use FIDO?

TomS 10 years ago in BLOX Total CMS updated by Christine Masters 10 years ago 2
This only started when we switched to TCMS so I was wondering if other designers/layout in the community are using the MEI plugin FIDO? We are experiencing a lot of InDesign crashes when updating ads with this plugin. Both InDesign and FIDO are current and compatible. I've been told by TownNews that we are the only company using FIDO. Are any designers in the community using it and experiencing crashes? If not what is your workflow or programs used. 

We use the MEI program AdForce to dummy and lay ads on our InDesign template. We split the document into individual pages for the copy editors. When we get the pages back we use FIDO to update ads on the page that were missing or updated during the day. Then export our pages to pre-press and the web. The only solution we've tried is deleting the Ad Layer and re-lay the ads on the individual page before exporting. This takes longer and introduces a place for human error of importing the wrong page of ads. 

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Answered

inline notes

Jennifer Perkins 10 years ago in BLOX Total CMS updated by Christine Masters 10 years ago 1
Are Inline Notes also coming to TCMS?
Answer
Christine Masters 10 years ago
Hi Jennifer!

Yes, definitely! Our TotalCMS platform is on a different update schedule so will be a few months behind the "hosted" software. Also, individual newspaper sites choose when to do the updates to their local site, so that could vary the timeline as well.

But, it is definitely on the way! :)
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Completed

The October edition of the TownNews.com Bulletin is out!

Aaron Gillette (Marketing Director, TownNews) 10 years ago updated by Christine Masters 10 years ago 4
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In this month's issue:

  • Group publishers: Stop worrying and learn to love sharing content
  • Content exchanges are an idea whose time has come
  • Image proxy enables efficient, on-demand image previews
  • Webinar video: What's new in October

READ IT NOW!

Not signed up? No problem! To receive the monthly TownNews.com Bulletin and other news and alerts from TownNews.com, click here and enter your email address in the "Stay Connected" sidebar.
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Answered

Using a Job to Create Table Assets: Is it Possible?

Robert Dundon 10 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Christine Masters 10 years ago 2
Quick question:

Could the CSV job (or another job type http://docs.townnews.com/kbpublisher/Job-Overview_5506.html) be used to import files as table assets?

Thanks!
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Answered

Examples of Timeline Collections

Kevin M. Cox 10 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Christine Masters 10 years ago 3
I just wanted to see if anyone had some samples of Timeline Collections they'd like to share.

I'd enjoy seeing how other papers have utilized this functionality and any thoughts or comments you have about this presentation mode.

Thanks!
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Answered

how to add colmns to minilist asset

Adam 10 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Christine Masters 10 years ago 1
hello i was wondering if there is a custom property that will allow the minilist asset have two columns instead of just one big long one?
Answer
Christine Masters 10 years ago
Hi there!

The block itself does not have the ability to split into two columns. But, if you had two or three regions that were side by side, you could put multiple minilist blocks in them and it would have a similar effect.

It is possible to add custom regions to front and index pages by using include points and then styling the regions appropriately. If you need help with this, please submit a ticket to our Customer Support telling them what you're trying to do. :)
+3
Completed

Recommendation for Mobile/Touch5 article pages (related content)

Mike DellaVecchia 11 years ago in BLOX CMS updated by Christine Masters 10 years ago 9

The biggest complaint we get from mobile users on a regular basis is that they can't seem to find related content on mobile article pages.  The "Related" menu option in the footer doesn't immediately jump out at them and it goes largely unnoticed. 

I've included a screenshot of what I think would be a great alternative.  Buttons beneath the article photo in the aside column for each piece of related content would seem to work well and allow users to quickly spot and click on related content like videos, audio, etc.  The great part is that you are already doing something similar with business listings in the mobile marketplace (which is where I stole the idea/code in the screenshot).  It would be great if these buttons could stay at the top of the article when the viewport changes for phone display.

Please let me know if you have any questions.  I'm looking forward to using this feedback tool on the regular!


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Answer
Christine Masters 11 years ago

The bottom bar showing the related items is largely a remnant of the old "app"-style design, where the bar stayed on your screen and was much more visible.


Now that people have mostly switched to a more web-like style, it is a good idea to change this.


We will add this to an upcoming release. It may not look exactly like this, but we will do something similar. =)


Thanks!