Blog App

The Blog App adds a blog section to your site.

Enabling the Blog App

 

1. Click to expand Settings in the Control Panel

Enable Blog

2. Click on Enable Apps
3. Search for BLOG.
4. Check the box under Enable for BLOG.

Enable Blog app

5. Click Save configuration.
Return to Home Page

Blog Settings

 


Once you enable the Blog App you can change the settings associated with the Blog Comments. To change the settings:

1. Click on the Settings area in the Control Panel
2. Click on Blog Comments under App Settings

Blog Comments

3. Make changes to the settings

Blog Settings

4. Click the Save button

Creating a Disqus Account:

 


1. To create a Disqus account, use the URL below :
   https://disqus.com/profile/signup/intent/

2. Click on Get Started button.

Get Started

3. Then, click on "I Want to Install Disqus on my site" option.

Disqus

4. Fill in the form and click on the "Create Site" button. You will be prompted to select a Disqus plan for your website.

Create Site

5. Click on Install Disqus button on the left and select Drupal platform, then click on the Configure button.

Drupal Platform

6. Click on "Configure" button.

Configure Disqus

7. Click on Complete Setup.

Complete Setup

8. Click on "Configure your site's community settings"

Configure Settings

9. The website short name will be displayed, make a note of the short name and fill in the details of the form and click on Save button.

Short name

Adding Disqus Comments to your Website

 


1. Click on the Settings area in the Control Panel
2. Click on Blog Comments under App Settings

Blog Comments

2. Select the option "Disqus Comments" and enter the Disqus short name in the given tab.

Disqus Shortname

3. Click Save.

Note: Disqus Comments will work only in a Blog page

Adding the Blog to a Menu
 


If the Blog link does not appear in your menu, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the control panel and select Menus
  2. Once in the Menu area, Select Add New Link in the Primary (or any other) Menu 
  3. You'll be prompted to choose an Item Type. Please select URL
  4. Click Continue
  5. Now give the Menu Item a title like "Blog" and enter the word "blog" (lower case) in the URL field
  6. Click Finish at the bottom of the page
  7. The Blog link should now appear in the primary menu.

Creating Blog Entries


 

1. Click on ADD NEW > ADD BLOG

Add Blog

2. Fill out the blog entry form

Create Blog

3. When writing your blog, keep in mind that you can also attach files to you blog entries. For example, if you were writing some blog commentary on an article that is not published on the web, but you have the PDF file of the article, then you can attach the PDF file to the blog post.

Attach Media

4. Save & view results

Blog Entry

Revisions

 

The revisions feature will allow you to save past versions of content (posts) on your website.

Revisions tab

Importing a Blog


 

  1. Enable blog app.
  2. Click to expand Site Content in the control panel.
  3. Click to expand Import and select Blog.

Import Blog

4. You may only upload a file in a CSV format only. To make sure you are importing a file in the correct CSV file format, click the Download a template file to use as a guide.

NOTE: Importing more than 100 blog posts at one time is not permitted. If your CSV file is over 100 rows, you will receive an error. If your file has issues such as broken links, PDFs, etc. the file will still upload. You will be notified of any problems and can still view your post by going to content in the Control Panel and accessing the new post from there.

Blog CSV Template

5. Submit

6. Go to Content in the control panel and the first entries will be your newly imported blog posts.

Blog Entry

Your selected news stories will appear as their own separate blog posts.

Blog Posts

Blog Archive Widget

 

The blog archive widget titled, Blog posts by month appears to the left of your Blog landing page and displays the number of entries within the current and previous months in organized archive links. The widget will paginate after displaying five different months.

Blog Posts by Month

Removing the Blog Archive Widget

 

To remove the widget, simply hover over the widget, click the grey gear, and select Remove Widget.

Remove Blog Posts by Month

Viewing Blog entries

 

All of your blog entries can be viewed by clicking on "Blog" in the primary menu of your site. You can also view and manage blog entries by navigating to the Control Panel and clicking on the "Content" button. On the right column, under "Type" you will see a "Blog entry" link that will display a list of your blog entries.

Blog Entries

Public versus Private Blog

 

You may want your blog to be viewable only by a specific or trusted audience. The blog app gives you the ability to create a private blog where access to view the blog entries is restricted to the user that you invite. For more on inviting user to your web site, see Adding Members.

To modify the Public/Private setting, go to the Control Panel, click on Settings, then click on the Enable/Disable Apps button and a list of available apps will be displayed. You can edit the apps public/private status by selecting "Everyone" or "Site Members Only" from the corresponding drop-down menu.

Blog Access

Make sure to click Save at the bottom of the page.