Newsagent/Newsletter Editor

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

The Newsletter Editor is accessed by clicking on the "Newsletter Editor" button on the toolbar. This button will only appear if you have access to the editor - if you can not see it, you do not have access.

Newsletter Editor

Clicking the Newsletter Editor button brings up the newsletter editor page. The diagram below shows an annotated screenshot of the Newsletter Editor window highlighting its major elements:

• The left side of the page contains the newsletters list, with the currently selected newsletter highlighted.
• Below the newsletter list is the Contributors list.
• The remainder of the page contains the newsletter itself.
  • Above the newsletter there are a number of control buttons (and potentially date selection and status information)
  • The newsletter is displayed as a series of sections, each followed by a list of the articles that have been added to that section.

Newsletters list

The newsletters list contains the list of newsletters you have permission to see. If a newsletter you think you should be able to see does not appear in your list, please create a ticket to request access to the newsletter or request that it be set up.

To switch to a different newsletter, click on the name of the desired newsletter in the list. The newsletter display will update to reflect the new selection.

Newsletter contributors

Every user with permission to contribute articles to the selected newsletter will appear in the 'Contributors' list at the left of the page below the newsletter list. Each row in the list shows a contributor's name and an indicator of whether that user has finished contributing articles to the current newsletter.

Each user, when viewing the newsletter editor page, will see a checkbox next to their own name. By ticking this checkbox they can indicate to the other contributors that they are done and ready to have their articles included in the next issue of the newsletter. Users may tick or untick their box at any time as needed.

When a newsletter manager attempts to publish a newsletter, they will be given a warning message if any of the contributors have not yet ticked their readiness checkbox. The manager may opt to ignore this warning and continue with publication regardless.

As the readiness checkboxes indicate that a user is done with contributions for a specific issue of the selected newsletter, they will be cleared back to unticked status after a newsletter is published.

Newsletter controls

Above the list of sections there will be a number of control buttons, and potentially a date selector and pieces of status information. All users with access to the newsletter editor will be able to see and use the preview button:

• Clicking the preview button will open a new page containing a preview of the content of the newsletter as it would appear if published in its current state. Newsletters can be previewed even if any of the required sections are not filled (see below for more on this). If the newsletter has any unfilled required sections, warning messages will be shown at the end of these sections explaining that the newsletter can not be published until they are filled.

Next to the preview button is the Publish button. This will show a variety of icons depending on the user's ability to publish the newsletter and the state of the newsletter:

• indicates that you do not have permission to publish the newsletter.
• indicates that, while you do have permission to publish the newsletter, publication has been disabled because one or more of the sections of the newsletter do not contain the required number of articles.
• indicates that you have permission to publish the newsletter. Clicking on this button will generate the newsletter using the current articles

When viewing a newsletter that has been set up to do automatic release, a date picker will be shown to the right of the preview and publish buttons. Clicking on the date picker allows you to select an issue to view: the calendar shows which days the newsletter will be published on, and when one is selected it will show you the issue of the newsletter that will be released on that day based on the current contents of the system.

Newsletter layout

Below the newsletter controls you will see a list of the sections defined for the selected newsletter, ordered as they will appear in the newsletter. Within each section is a list of the articles that will appear in that section when the newsletter is published.

This list is not necessarily static: if you have permission to modify the layout of articles within one or more sections of the newsletter, you can drag and drop articles around within the newsletter, dragging them around within sections to reorder the articles in the section, or even dragging articles from one section to another:

• Move your mouse over an article. If you have permission to move articles, your mouse cursor will change to a 'move' cursor as shown here:
  
• Press and hold the left mouse button. At this point, the locations you can drag the article around within are highlighted:
  
• While keeping the left mouse button held down, move the mouse to drag the article around. A 'ghost' version of the article will appear below the article as you move it to indicate where it will go when you drop it:
  
• Once the article is in the location you want it to be, release the left mouse button to drop it. A 'working' spinner and a status message will appear next to the control buttons, informing you that the article order is being saved. Avoid closing the page, or previewing or publishing the article, until the status display shows "Article order saved", or your changes will not be reflected in the newsletter.

Required sections

Newsagent allows sections of a newsletter to be configured to require a minimum number of articles to be present in the section. All sections of a newsletter that have defined article count requirements must contain at least that number of articles before the newsletter can be published - if any sections do not meet their article count requirements, publication of the newsletter will be blocked.

In the newsletter editor, any sections that require a number of articles to be present will include a message after the section title telling you how many articles are present in the section, and how many are required.

In this image, the "News from Head of School" section has an article count requirement. The first digit in the parenthesis is the number of articles in the section, while the '/1 required' indicates that the section needs to contain at least one article. As the section contains 1 article the requirement has been met and this section will not block publication. Note that newsagent will not limit the number of articles in the section - it may contain one article, or it make contain a dozen, but as long as it contains 1 or more the requirement will have been met.

Here the "News and Announcements" section requires a minimum of two articles as indicated by the '/2 required' in the parenthesis. The section's article count is only 1 in this case, and as a result the article count requirement has not been met. In order to make it clear that the section has not met the count requirement, the section icon has been changed to a warning icon, and the requirement indicator text is coloured red.