'Blog' tile/portlet

Owned by Tim Jones
Last updated: May 06, 2021 by Jay El-Kadhi

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

What is the 'Blog' tile/portlet?

The blog tile/portlet allows you to create a section on a cover page or webpage to automatically show all or some of the blog posts on your website in a feed.

Adding content to the 'Blog' tile/portlet:

  1. Whilst the Blog tile, and Blog posts portlet perform in a similar way, the route for adding content to each is different:
    1. Blog tile;
      1. In the 'Compose' view, you will see that your blog tile/portlet will already be showing some of the blog articles that are published on your website (unless you have not created any yet!). To populate/edit the blog tile/portlet, you will need to hover over the tile/portlet until you see the blue 'Edit' button in the top left, and then click on it.
    2. Blog post 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 Blog post portlet.

      2. Select Manage portlets from the dropdown menu.

      3. From the portlets drop down menu, click on Blog posts

  2. The headed sections in the Blog tile, and Blog post portlet edit interface will be:
  3. Content;
    1. 'Tile/portlet Title'
      1. This is for the title of your blog tile/portlet, you may wish to change the title from the default 'Blog posts'.
    2. 'Number of blog posts to show'
      1. This field is where you can define how many blog items show in the tile/portlet. The blog items will be in chronological order, and therefore will show the latest X number of posts that you define. Please note, this will change the height of the containing tile/portlet/column.
  4. 'Fields' tab/Content tab for portlet (Please note that whilst the Fields tab exists only on the Blog tile, it contains the same properties as the Content tab in the Blog posts portlet);

    1. Title mode (tile only)

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

    2. Posts (portlet only)
      1. This is where you can search for items of content to add to the portlet.
    3. Fields
      1. This functionality allows the user to specify any other extra information about the content featured in the tile/portlet.
    4. 'Show lead images'
      1. If the checkbox is selected, the lead images of the blog items will show. If it is unchecked, the images will not show. 
    5. Lead images position 
      1. Use the dropdown menu to select the option that best suits how you would like to display the images with the content.

    6. Lead images ratio

      1. This determines the scale of the lead image in the tile/portlet 

    7. Show lead images captions?

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

  5. Filters; 
    1.  Path (tile only)

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

    2. Depth (tile only)

      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 Blog posts in that are tagged with a type form the taxonomy.

    4.  'Categories'
      1. This field will allow you to define and control which blog items are shown in the blog 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 blog items tagged with any category. If you want to show blog 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 blog feed.
    5. Date period
      1. This field allows you to control which blog posts are shown in the tile/portlet based on a specified time period in which they were published 
  6. Button
    1. Show more... link (portlet only)
      1. This functionality will link the button to the destination specified in the field. If linking to an external destination, remember to make sure that the link begins with 'http://'.
    2. 'Show more... internal link' (tile only)
      1. To search for an internal link, enter the name of the item of content in the search box and then click on the 'Search' button underneath. This will generate a list of matching results, click on the item of content that you wish to link to.

    3. 'Show more... external link' (tile only)

      1. This will replace an internal link selected above if an external link is entered. Remember to make sure that the link begins with 'http://'.

    4. Open external link in new tab?

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

    6. Button alignment

      1. This determines where the button will sit in relation to the tile/portlet.

    7. Button type

      1. This determines the visual style of the button deployed in the 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 tile/portlet.

    2. Box type

      1. This feature allows the user to deploy a highlighted background to the 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 Blog tile/portlet:

  1. When editing the Blog tile;

    1. Go to the 'Compose' view of the Cover page, navigate to the Blog tile, 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 Blog posts 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 Blog tile:

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

Removing the Blog portlet

  1. If you wish to remove the Blog posts 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.