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{{:Newsagent/Infobox}}
{{:Newsagent/Infobox}}
Newsagent is an advanced publication, syndication, and distribution platform designed to allow users to create and distribute announcements, news, information, or newsletters. Newsagent provides a simple web-based interface that requires minimal training to use, and it has been used successfully within the Department of Computer Science since September 2013.


== Overview ==
Some of Newsagent's key features are:
Newsagent is fundamentally a news feed generation system. It was originally designed to allow members of staff and research group members to publish news stories that can be syndicated across a variety of locations and platforms including the new School of CS website. It has grown into a powerful news and information dissemination platform capable of generating a variety of feeds on demand, and distributing copies of articles to a range of recipients when required.


At the most basic level, the system expects users to create news articles and add those articles to named news feeds at one or more visibility levels. Created articles are stored in the system, and potentially sent to selected recipients via email, moodle, or other transports. Websites, RSS readers/aggregators, or other systems request the content of the feeds they are interested in, potentially filtering the articles returned based on their visibility, and present the content to their users as appropriate.{{Notice|Several Newsagent features are not compatible with Internet Explorer 8 or older versions of IE, and Newsagent is primarily tested to work with Chrome and Firefox. In order to use Newsagent from Internet Explorer, you '''must''' be using IE 9 or newer, preferably use IE 11. If you encounter any problems, please use the latest version of Chrome or Firefox.}}
* A web-based interface that allows authorised users to create articles, and place those articles into feeds or newsletters. Articles are formatted text, entered through a WYSIWYG editor, and they can be news stories, announcements, event reminders, or anything else you want to communicate!
 
* Articles are always added to one or more Newsagent feeds, and these feeds can be syndicated anywhere in the world. Anyone with an RSS reader can ask for the contents of any feed - or combination of feeds - and feeds can be embedded in web pages to provide automatically updated lists of stories (the Department of CS website uses this feature extensively to allow staff to publish news stories on the website without having to go through the CMS).
== From Megaphone to Newsagent ==
* The feed system includes a unique 'visibility level' mechanism that gives users a means of specifying where an article in a given feed may appear.
One thing that needs to be kept in mind while reading these pages is that Newsagent is not simply a replacement for Megaphone: the features provided by Megaphone - the ability to contact cohorts or groups of students via email, moodle, or other mechanisms - are now provided as part of a larger news, events, and information publishing system.
* Articles may be distributed to groups of individuals via email, posted to Twitter, or sent via other delivery mechanisms; the system is highly modular and extensible, so additional delivery mechanisms can be added at any time.
 
* Articles can have images associated with them. Users can be given permission to upload images to the server, or they can be constrained to select from a gallery of already available, previously uploaded images.
Megaphone's functionality is replicated as a 'Notification' mechanism in Newsagent: when creating articles, users with appropriate permissions may opt to send a copy of the article to groups of individuals via email, moodle, or other mechanisms. Note that this notification facility operates ''in addition to'' the normal feed publication mechanism: '''all''' articles are added to a feed as part of the publication process, regardless of whether any notifications are configured, and there is no way to simply use Newsagent to send messages without adding the message to a feed.
* Articles may be published immediately, or scheduled to be published at a user-specified time.
 
* Multiple users can collaborate to produce Newsletters. Each user can create articles and add them to the newsletter, and newsletter managers have full control over the layout of articles within a newsletter.
== The need for a new system ==
* Newsletters can either be published manually - Newsletter Managers press a button to publish the newsletter - or they can be set up to publish automatically.
As noted above, Newsagent was originally designed as a means of creating news articles that could be syndicated around the internet as needed. As it grew it became increasingly obvious that it was encroaching onto the functionality of Megaphone while offering far more scope. In addition, Megaphone was deeply integrated into legacy systems in the school: it was reliant on the School of CS username and email setup, generally had serious problems at the beginning of academic years, and still depended on several SoCS mailing lists to contact some groups (for example, all messages sent to postgraduates had to go through the (usually inaccurate) school phd and msc mailing lists). Newsagent addresses all of these problems and more, while providing many new features and allowing for more widespread access to historical data.
* A powerful and flexible permission system allows fine-grained control over the features any given user may use, and authentication can be done using central university accounts, internal accounts, a variety of other mechanisms, or a mix.
* An integrated "Tell Us" system allows ''anyone'' with a login to submit information about news, events, or announcements for review. This information is not published directly, but it can be used as the basis of new articles by editorial staff, allowing them to edit and publish the information in the feeds or newsletters they deem appropriate.
* An import mechanism is available, allowing Newsagent to automatically import and distribute articles from other systems.
* Articles, along with their edit histories, are stored permanently for future reference and auditing.


{{:Newsagent/Navbox}}
{{:Newsagent/Navbox}}
[[Category:Software|Newsagent]]
[[Category:Software|Newsagent]]
[[Category:Newsagent|{{SUBPAGENAME}}]]

Latest revision as of 11:44, 12 April 2021

Newsagent
Newsagent Logo.png
Author Chris Page
Contact Support
Repository github
Issue tracker github
OS Neutral (web based)
Will not work with IE8 or older
URL Newsagent
Navigation

Newsagent is an advanced publication, syndication, and distribution platform designed to allow users to create and distribute announcements, news, information, or newsletters. Newsagent provides a simple web-based interface that requires minimal training to use, and it has been used successfully within the Department of Computer Science since September 2013.

Some of Newsagent's key features are:

  • A web-based interface that allows authorised users to create articles, and place those articles into feeds or newsletters. Articles are formatted text, entered through a WYSIWYG editor, and they can be news stories, announcements, event reminders, or anything else you want to communicate!
  • Articles are always added to one or more Newsagent feeds, and these feeds can be syndicated anywhere in the world. Anyone with an RSS reader can ask for the contents of any feed - or combination of feeds - and feeds can be embedded in web pages to provide automatically updated lists of stories (the Department of CS website uses this feature extensively to allow staff to publish news stories on the website without having to go through the CMS).
  • The feed system includes a unique 'visibility level' mechanism that gives users a means of specifying where an article in a given feed may appear.
  • Articles may be distributed to groups of individuals via email, posted to Twitter, or sent via other delivery mechanisms; the system is highly modular and extensible, so additional delivery mechanisms can be added at any time.
  • Articles can have images associated with them. Users can be given permission to upload images to the server, or they can be constrained to select from a gallery of already available, previously uploaded images.
  • Articles may be published immediately, or scheduled to be published at a user-specified time.
  • Multiple users can collaborate to produce Newsletters. Each user can create articles and add them to the newsletter, and newsletter managers have full control over the layout of articles within a newsletter.
  • Newsletters can either be published manually - Newsletter Managers press a button to publish the newsletter - or they can be set up to publish automatically.
  • A powerful and flexible permission system allows fine-grained control over the features any given user may use, and authentication can be done using central university accounts, internal accounts, a variety of other mechanisms, or a mix.
  • An integrated "Tell Us" system allows anyone with a login to submit information about news, events, or announcements for review. This information is not published directly, but it can be used as the basis of new articles by editorial staff, allowing them to edit and publish the information in the feeds or newsletters they deem appropriate.
  • An import mechanism is available, allowing Newsagent to automatically import and distribute articles from other systems.
  • Articles, along with their edit histories, are stored permanently for future reference and auditing.

 
Newsagent Documentation
General
Articles
Newsletters
Tell Us
Tech docs
Retrieved from "https://wiki.cs.manchester.ac.uk/index.php?title=Newsagent&oldid=6581"