'Latest News' tile/portlet

Owned by Tim Jones
Last updated: Apr 29, 2021 by Jay El-Kadhi
5 min read

You will need this information when you have added a Latest News tile, and wish to populate it for the first time, or edit it.

What is the Latest news tile/portlet?

The latest news tile/portlet allows you to create a section on a cover page (tile) or webpage (portlet) to automatically show all of the latest news in a feed. You can also filter the content of the tile to a specific category.

Adding content in the Latest News tile/portlet:

  1. Whilst the Latest news tile, and News portlet perform in a similar way, the route for adding content to each is different:

    1. Latest news tile

      1. In the Compose view, you will see that your Latest News tile will already be showing some of the news articles that are published on your website (unless you have not created any yet!). To populate the Latest News tile, you will need to hover over the tile until you see the blue Edit button in the top left, and then click on it.

    2. News portlet;

      1. Click on your name in the top right of the edit bar to access the drop-down menu, ensuring that you are on the page you wish to host the News portlet.

      2. Select Manage portlets from the dropdown menu.

      3. From the portlets drop down menu, click on News

  2. The headed sections in the News portlet, and latest news tile edit interface will be:

  3. Content

    1. Tile Title
      1. This is for the title of your news tile, you may wish to change the title for the default Whats new
    2. Number of news items to show
      1. This field is where you can define how many news items filter into the tile. The news items will be in chronological order, and there for will show the latest X number of profiles that you define. Please note, this will change the height of the containing column.
  4. Fields (this is a headed section on the tile interface only, and is included in the content headed section when implementing a portlet);

    1. Title mode

      1. This gives the user some control over how the title of the latest news tile/portlet is displayed.

    2. Fields
      1. This field will allow you to define and control which news items are shown in the News tile/portlet. If you do not move any of the categories to the box on the right, the tile/portlet will show all of the latest news items tagged with any category. If you want to show news tagged by a specific set of categories, select them and use the arrows to move them between the boxes. The categories in the box on the right are the ones that will display in the news feed.
    3. Show lead images
      1. If the checkbox is selected, the lead images of the news items will show. If it is unchecked, the images will not show.

    4. Lead images position

      1. This allows the user to determine where the lead image will be placed in the latest news tile/portlet.

    5. Lead images ratio

      1. This determines the scale of the lead image in the latest news tile.

    6. Show lead images captions?

      1. If this box is checked, the captions attached to the lead image will be displayed in the latest news tile.

  5. Filters;

    1. Path

      1. This allows the user to select a path to look for latest news. By default, posts are taken from the current section only. Enter / for site-wide searching.

    2. Depth

      1. Enter how many levels in the structure should be included in the searching. Leave empty for no limit.

    3. Types

      1. This is a field that allows you to change the value in the drop down menu, to only pull News in that are tagged with a type form the taxonomy.

    4. Categories

      1. This field will allow you to define and control which event items are shown in the News tile/portlet. If you do not move any of the categories to the box on the right, the tile/portlet will show all of the latest news items tagged with any category. If you want to show News tagged by a specific set of categories, select them and use the arrows to move them between the boxes. The categories in the box on the right are the ones that will display in the News feed.

  6. Button;

    1. Internal link

      1. If you wish to have a button, which leads to an internal destination within the site, this is determined here.

    2. External link

      1. If you wish to have a button, which leads to an external destination outside of the site, this is determined here.

    3. Open external link in new tab?

      1. If checked, the external link button will open in a new tab.

    4. Button text

      1. This is the text that will appear on the button. If you do not provide text, default text will be shown e.g. Find out more.

    5. Button alignment

      1. This determines where the button will sit in relation to the ‘latest news tile/portlet.’

    6. Button type

      1. This determines the visual style of the button deployed in the ‘latest news tile/portlet.’

  7. Style

    1. Box border

      1. This feature allows the user to deploy a border of their choice on either or both sides of the ‘latest news tile/portlet.’

    2. Box type

      1. This feature allows the user to deploy a highlighted background to the ‘latest news tile/portlet.’

  8. When using a portlet, there is an additional headed section in the News edit interface:

  9. Advanced;

    1. Show only for sub-items

      1. Check this box if you would like to add the portlet at a section level, and define that it shows only on all the items in the section, rather than on the section as well. Editing content in the latest news tile/portlet:

Editing content in the latest news tile/portlet:

  1. When editing the ‘latest news tile;

    1. Go to the Compose view of the Cover page, navigate to the latest news tile/portlet, and hover your cursor over it, the blue Edit button will appear in the top left, click this and edit any of the fields you would like to.

  2. When editing the ‘News’ portlet;

    1. Click on your name in the top right of the edit bar to access the drop-down menu, ensuring that you are on the correct page, which hosts the portlets in question.

    2. Select ‘Manage portlets’ from the dropdown menu.

    3. Click onto the portlet you wish to and edit any of the fields you would like to.

Removing the latest news tile:

  1. If you wish to remove the latest news tile, navigate to the Layout view of the cover page, and click x in the top left of the tile/portlet. When deleting a tile, the tile/portlet you are selecting has a red border.

Removing the News portlet:

  1. If you wish to remove the latest news portlet, click on your name in the top right of the edit bar to access the drop-down menu, ensuring that you are on the correct page, which hosts the portlets in question.

  2. Select ‘Manage portlets’ from the dropdown menu

  3. Click on the X button, next to the portlet you wish to delete.