Hello All,
The website tools that we are using (called Joomla) requires that users be given
"author" privileges in order to submit an article. To be given those privileges just PM me or Decadence or email me (dennisl *AT* connachtclan) and I will update your privilege level.
Once that is done, to submit an article to the Connacht Clan all you need to do is click on "Submit Article" under the "Clan News" menu once you are logged into the site (via the forum). You'll be taken to a page with an editor that works just like a text editor and you can write your article in that.
I have made a quick video about how to write an article and it is available at this location (call "CreateEditArticles"):
SKYDRIVE
In that video I also describe how to edit an existing article but that only applies to people with "editor" privileges, so will not apply to most members. Once it is submitted one of the admit will need to approve it and then it will appear on the main site.
GENERAL NOTES & TIPS:
- ARTICLE HEADLINE IMAGE SIZE:
The article-image size needs to be 486*200 if you are submitting a news article for the front page. Otherwise you can use what you want (for example if you are doing a travel article).
- ADDING IMAGES TO ARTICLE:
When adding an image to the article (NOT the main image, but supplementary ones), you MUST do the following when adding the image:
1) Click on the "Advanced Tab".
2) In the "Style" field enter "width:100%; max-width: 450px".
The max-width value can be whatever you like (but probably should be no larger than 700px). The width value means that if the display is smaller than the size of the image (450px in the example) then it will shrink to be the same width as the screen.
NOTES FOR THE APP (from Ummm):- Don't cut and paste articles that were added to the forum. This copies over a lot of rich text formatting and the generated HTML is awful, which significantly increases processing time - and downloading time too probably, which you won't notice on a desktop computer, but you might on a hand held device. If you are copying from a forum, copy the plain text to a notepad-like application and then copy that to the article tool & add back the formatting (like for bold text etc.)
- To copy and paste without formatting use the drop down menu beside the Paste tool and select "Paste as Text" otherwise it has to be via a Text Editor (Notepad etc) first i.e. copy from the forum into Notepad and then copy from Notepad into the Article and any formatting will be removed.
- Do not use "&".
Seriously, I have no idea why this is the case, but don't use it. E.g. write "British and Irish Cup" instead of British & Irish Cup. If there is a "&" character in the article the XML parser in the app stops working. It's a known bug but at the moment I've got a whole load of other issues I'm working on. If there's a link in the article with an &, replace it with %26.
SECTIONS AND CATEGORIES Travel Articles
There are a couple of areas where travel articles might be suitable for publishing.
If the article is providing information for other fans when visiting Galway then you should publish them under the section "Visitor Information" (same category).
If you are writing about travel arrangements for a PARTICULAR MATCH, then the section should be "Match Travel", and the category should be "Match Travel".
If you are writing about a location that is a rugby destination (e.g. Northampton) then the section is "Match Travel" but the category should be "City Guide".
Previews/Reviews
These are published under "News Content", and "Front Page News Stories". We may expand the category organisation in future to help us to keep better track of articles so please check this thread from time to time.
Topic Author
