Web Publishing News

A few Commonspot blog updates

bwashburn@scu.edu (Brian Washburn) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:21:00 PST

The interface to the Commonspot Blog Manager has been updated, allowing for more space to display the text editor. The editor's toolbar includes a few more options (indent/outdent/table), and the summary text field will display the character count when entering text.

Twitter widget now supports hashtags

bwashburn@scu.edu (Brian Washburn) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:19:41 PST

The Twitter widget can now be used to display content based on a search keyword or hashtag, along with Twitter profile content.

Embedding a form created in Google Docs

bwashburn@scu.edu (Brian Washburn) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 13:40:06 PST

A new element has been added that will allow you to embed a form created in Google Docs within a Commonspot page. The element requires a form ID, which is provided by Google in the embed HTML code, and has optional height and width configuration settings. Look for the "Google Docs Form" element in the Content Well element gallery category.

SCU Experience Videos

bwashburn@scu.edu (Brian Washburn) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 13:35:30 PST

The videos displayed in the SCU home page "SCU Experience" presentation are available to use individually within a Commonspot page. Use the form on this page to preview videos and copy the video URL. Then add the Media Player element to a page, and set it to use the URL for the selected video.

Linking to the SCU Phonebook

bwashburn@scu.edu (Brian Washburn) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 17:00:52 PST

As an alternative to using 'mailto' links for individuals, you can direct readers to the directory page for anyone in the SCU Phonebook just by adding the person's name to the Phonebook URL:

example: phonebook.scu.edu/firstname+lastname

This will also work for department names, as in this example:

phonebook.scu.edu/media+services

Video and Audio player updated

bwashburn@scu.edu (Brian Washburn) — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 17:11:00 PST

The Media Player element has been updated to support additional audio and video file formats, and now includes an option to display the player using HTML5 in systems without support for Flash.

Email option

bwashburn@scu.edu (Brian Washburn) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 11:25:01 PST

The "email this page" widget, found in the Page Tools element gallery category, has been updated to use the email function supported by ShareThis. No change is needed if you're already using this element in your site's template or pages.

Blog Post Link Style

bwashburn@scu.edu (Brian Washburn) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:35:55 PST

The blog display element includes a new configuration option allowing you to present more descriptive links to blog posts. This can aid in search engine indexing of page content. To enable this setting, look for the Blog Post Link Style options in the blog element's Configuration panel.

Disqus comment system

bwashburn@scu.edu (Brian Washburn) — Mon, 23 May 2011 15:14:00 PST

You can now use Disqus as an alternate to the built-in blog comment system. Disqus includes some additional features that you may find useful. To switch to Disqus comments, create a Disqus account and enter your account name in your blog's settings form.

Blog system comments form

bwashburn@scu.edu (Brian Washburn) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 13:31:15 PST

The form used for comments in the Commonspot blog element has been revised to more effectively limit html and http references. In some cases, the comment form has been mis-used to embed spam links in a blog page.

CMS virtualization today

bwashburn@scu.edu (Brian Washburn) — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:15:00 PST

The last remaining system to be migrated to the virtual environment was the Commonspot authoring server. That's now completed, and authoring and replication have been re-enabled.

WWW database server issue

bwashburn@scu.edu (Brian Washburn) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 10:57:00 PST

Early this morning, and again between 10 and 10:45 am, we were having trouble with the database server used by Commonspot. That appears to be resolved now, but the system administrators are closely monitoring the server.

QR Code Generator

bwashburn@scu.edu (Brian Washburn) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:29:33 PST

We've added a QR code utility to the Mobile Project site - this can be used to create a QR code image for a mobile site URL. It can actually be used to create an image for any URL hosted on scu.edu, but it's most useful as an easy way for mobile device users to be directed to a specific Web site address.

Web server migration completed

bwashburn@scu.edu (Brian Washburn) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 11:18:03 PST

The three www servers have been migrated to the virtual environment - on Tuesday, 3/1 the remaining two systems were moved successfully. The systems have been operating without error since Tuesday, and we'll continue to monitor their performance closely. The cms server still remains to be moved, and that is tentatively planned for early morning, March 16, or possibly March 22nd.

Web server moves rescheduled

bwashburn@scu.edu (Brian Washburn) — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 15:10:30 PST

As mentioned in this week's Site Administrator meeting, we're planning to migrate the remaining www servers to the virtual environment. This had been planned for Tuesday, Feb. 22nd, but has been rescheduled for early morning on March 1st.

Scheduled Elements

bwashburn@scu.edu (Brian Washburn) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 13:41:00 PST

A new tutorial page has been added that describes how to use the Schedule/Personalize element. This is useful for managing content that should be displayed based on specific conditions, such as the day, date, or time of day, page category, or subsite location.

Facebook Like Box available

bwashburn@scu.edu (Brian Washburn) — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:53:09 PST

A Commonspot element is now available to add a Facebook Like Box to a page. The Llke Box requires the URL for a Facebook page, and includes the "like" button, a list of posts to your FB page, and profile images for fans of your page. You'll find this new element in the Page Tools element gallery category.

Blog system updates

bwashburn@scu.edu (Brian Washburn) — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 11:21:02 PST

The blog settings and post forms include a few new fields. You can now set an image path for the blog int the Settings form. The image will be included in the blog's RSS feed and can optionally be displayed in the right column in the blog display. The settings form also includes a field for a Feedburner feed name. Configuring a feed name here allows you to select the Feedburner subscription form to be displayed in the right column of a blog display page.

The blog post form now includes a field for a category name. This will supplement tags as a way of describing and organizing blog posts.

These changes are described further in the Blog Manager help page.

Flickr slideshow element now supports Lightbox

bwashburn@scu.edu (Brian Washburn) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:25:00 PST

An additional display mode is now available in the Flickr Slideshow element - you can switch from the standard embedded Flash player to a Lightbox viewer. See the tutorial page for examples.

Social Media Options

bwashburn@scu.edu (Brian Washburn) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:49:00 PST

A page has been added to the Web Publishing site where we've assembled the various elements available to Commonspot sites for social media integration, including Facebook 'like' and 'share' buttons, the 'ShareThis' widget, and a Twitter Profile widget.