Thiết kế web với joomla 1.6(5).x part 16 doc

Part II: Working with Content and Users 144 FIGURE 7.3 The result of creating a Single Feed Layout Menu Item Type to display the content of the Joomla! Announcements newsfeed. Cross-Reference Turn to Chapter 17 to find out more about the Feed Display module. Managing Content from the Front End While the vast majority of site administrators manage their site content exclusively through the administration interface, Joomla! does provide the option to manage content from the front end. The technique has limitations, but it is a useful option that some will find attractive. In the follow- ing sections I discuss the pros and cons and how this option can be structured effectively. Understanding advantages and limitations One of the more under-used and under-documented features of Joomla! is the front-end content management functionality. The system is set up by default to allow certain classes of users to be able to submit, edit, and publish content from the front end of the web site. This functionality is Chapter 7: Employing Advanced Content Management Techniques 145 intended to give administrators the option to open the site up for community contribution without having to give users access to the admin system of your Web site. With proper planning, you can make this functionality useful and practical; however this feature is neither obvious nor intuitive and it does require a bit of explanation. To use front-end content management, you need to configure the site properly and publish the right tools for the users (see Figure 7.4). You also need to pay particular attention to creating the proper user accounts to create a practical workflow. The various user categories carry different privileges and you must decide what is optimal for your site. Front-end content management has several significant limitations: l It is not possible to create or manage sections, categories, or menu items from the front end. l Authors cannot edit their own articles prior to publication of the article. l You must consider carefully the suitability of the site template. While the back end is tai- lored to handling the content-editing window and the WYSIWYG editor, front-end con- tent management has to be done inside a site template. l The system lacks a proper alert system to automatically notify higher-level users when content has been added to the system or is waiting to be edited or published. Tip You may want to consider installing a clean and fast template with a wide content area on your site. You can then assign that template specifically to the Submit an Article Menu Item. Doing this gives your content con- tributors a suitable workspace. Note, however, that this technique provides a suitable interface for article cre- ation, but it does not help you with editing content from the front end; published articles use the template to which the articles are assigned. See Chapter 20 for a discussion of installing and assigning templates. Though submitting content from the front end is useful for providing your site visitors with a way to contribute to your site, as a site administrator you are unlikely to want to manage your content from the front end. Front-end content management is generally slower and more difficult than working from within the admin system because the admin system content management interface provides more tools and a greater range of options. For the same reason, the users that you assign to edit the articles may prefer to work through the admin system. You can decide whether your site security concerns outweigh the practical advantages of granting back-end access. Enabling user-created content The first step to setting up front-end content management is to create users with the necessary privileges. To contribute or edit content on the front end, a user must have privileges higher than a Registered User (Author status or higher). The Special access level is specifically designed to help set up front-end content management. Part II: Working with Content and Users 146 FIGURE 7.4 The front-end Submit an Article page, shown here as it is seen by a user with Author level privileges. Chapter 7: Employing Advanced Content Management Techniques 147 You also want to make sure that all the necessary tools your contributors need are set to the appro- priate access level. The access level named Special is intended to help enable front-end content management. Only users assigned to the Author group or higher are able to view items that have been set to Special; therefore you will want to set the access levels of the menu items intended for your content contributors to Special in order to limit their access. The article submission form is the key to content creation. By default, the system has included in the User menu a menu item named Submit an Article; this is the article submission form. Clicking on the Submit an Article link takes the user to a page containing a blank article form, thereby allowing the user to create a new article and assign it to a section and category. Editing is enabled by default; whenever a user with appropriate access levels is logged in, an edit icon appears on each article, as shown in Figure 7.5. Clicking on the editing icon opens an editing dialogue inside the current template, thereby allowing the user to make and save their changes. Tip If you do not want to use the default User menu, you will need to provide some other way for users to access the content submission form. There is a dedicated Menu Item Type that provides this functionality: Article Submission Layout. FIGURE 7.5 The Article Editing icon, as seen by an authenticated front-end user with sufficient access privileges. Editing icon Part II: Working with Content and Users 148 Cross-Reference Managing menus and creating new menu items is covered in Chapter 8. Workflow options The three user groups focused on front-end content management are Authors, Editors, and Publishers. Each of the three has different capabilities and privileges. Having an awareness of the varying roles enables you to create a usable and practical workflow for your site’s front-end content management. Authors Of all the user groups that are useful for front-end content management, Authors enjoy the fewest privileges and the most restrictions. Authors can perform a limited set of front-end content man- agement tasks. They can: l Create new articles. l Assign the article to a section and category. l Schedule the an article (though it will not publish until approved by someone with at least Publisher access). l Assign the article to the front page. l Create article metadata. l Change the section or category assignment of their own published articles. l Edit their own published articles. Authors cannot publish their articles, nor can they edit the work of others. Also, unlike Editors and Publishers, Authors cannot edit unpublished articles — not even their own. Figure 7.6 shows an unpublished article ready to be edited or published. Caution As Authors lack the ability to edit unpublished articles, once an Author clicks the Save button on their article, they lose the ability to edit the article! This problem can be significant because it means that the Author must create the article and do any revisions on it before he clicks the Save button. When it is saved, it goes into the queue where it has to be approved by a higher level user. After the article is approved and published, the Author can edit it. Editors Editors are able to perform the following tasks: l Create new articles. l Assign the article to a Section and category. Chapter 7: Employing Advanced Content Management Techniques 149 l Schedule the article (though it will not publish until approved by someone with at least Publisher access). l Assign the article to the front page. l Create article metadata. l Change the section or category assignment of articles. l Edit any article, published or unpublished. The key difference between an Author and an Editor is that an Editor can make changes to any article, regardless of who wrote it or its publication state. FIGURE 7.6 The highlighted article at the top of this page shows an unpublished article, which can be edited by click- ing on the edit icon. Part II: Working with Content and Users 150 Publishers The Publisher user group is by far the most useful of the three dedicated front-end content man- agement user groups. Publishers can perform all the key functions necessary to create and publish content on a site: l Create new articles. l Assign the article to a section and category. l Schedule the article. l Assign the article to the front page. l Create article metadata. l Change the section or category assignment of articles. l Edit any article, published or unpublished. l Publish or unpublish an article. Although the Publisher user group has significant privileges, there are several key content manage- ment functions that they lack; Publishers cannot perform the following tasks: l Create new sections. l Create of new categories. l Copy, move, or delete sections or categories. l Create, modify, or delete sections of menus. l Create, modify, or delete menu items. All the tasks listed immediately above require back-end admin system access. Tip The Manager user group is another option to consider. Managers are the lowest level user granted back-end admin system access. The privileges they enjoy are not dramatically greater than those enjoyed by Publishers. Not only can they manage Sections Categories and menu Items, but they also have access to the more powerful and easy-to-use content management tools located in the admin system. As a result, you may want to consider granting one or more users Manager level access as an alternative to Publisher access. Chapter 7: Employing Advanced Content Management Techniques 151 If you decide that the three-tier front-end content management system is needed for your site, you may want to consider employing the following suggestion as a way to improve the workflow. As noted earlier, one of the limitations of the system is the lack of an automatic notification system. The more complex your front-end content management structure, the more important this limitation becomes. As Authors contribute articles, the Editors have to be notified, and then the Editors have to find the contributed articles and edit them. Once the articles are edited, the Editors need to notify the Publisher who again has to find the articles and publish them. An effective workaround for this problem is to create a dedicated section with two categories for the use of the front-end content team. Set up the following: 1. Create a new section, name it Submissions. 2. Set the access level for the section named Submissions to Special. 3. Create two new categories inside the new section. Name the categories To be Edited and To be Published. 4. Create a new menu item on the User menu. Select the Menu Item Type Category List Layout. Name the new item To be Edited, and select in the Basic Parameters the category To be Edited. 5. Create another new menu item on the User menu. Select the Menu Item Type Category List Layout. Name the new item To be Published, and select in the Basic Parameters the category To be Published. All the tools are in place; now you need to instruct your team to use them. l Instruct the Authors to assign all new articles to the category To be Edited. l Instruct the Editors to check the To be Edited menu item when they log in. After they com- plete their edits on the articles, the Editors must re-assign the articles to the category To be Published. l Instruct the Publishers to check the To be Published menu item when they log in. The Publishers can then assign the articles to the proper sections and categories and publish the articles. This approach has the added advantage of allowing you to set a specific template to the entire front-end content management workflow. As discussed earlier in this chapter, you may want to use a template that is tailored to front-end content management tasks. A wide template makes it easier to use the edit- ing window, and a clean template without unnecessary graphics or module assignments can also speed your work. One approach to improving workflow in Joomla! 1.5.x Part II: Working with Content and Users 152 Syndicating Your Articles You can syndicate the primary content from your Joomla! site through the use of RSS. The Syndication module enables this functionality. In the default configuration, there is one Syndication module enabled and published at the bottom left of the front page of the site, inside the Syndicate Module Position, as shown in Figure 7.7. FIGURE 7.7 The RSS syndication icon shown published on the Front Page of the default site. Users who click on the Syndication icon that appears on the page are taken to a page that contains the content, formatted for RSS. Users can copy this link and paste it into their favorite news reader (feed reader) application so stay abreast of changes to the front page of your site. Tip The default Joomla! Syndication module always shows the text Feed Entries next to the icon, even when you delete the module title from the module. To work around this bug, enter a space, surrounded by double quotes (“ “). Chapter 7: Employing Advanced Content Management Techniques 153 Summary In this chapter, we covered the various advanced tasks associated with managing the content on your site. You learned the following: l How to use the system’s content display modules l How to display modules inside of content items l How to bring external content into your site using wrappers and news feeds l How to set up and use front-end content management l How to enable RSS syndication of your content items . approach to improving workflow in Joomla! 1. 5 .x Part II: Working with Content and Users 15 2 Syndicating Your Articles You can syndicate the primary content from your Joomla! site through the use of. Part II: Working with Content and Users 14 4 FIGURE 7.3 The result of creating a Single Feed Layout Menu Item Type to display the content of the Joomla! Announcements. abreast of changes to the front page of your site. Tip The default Joomla! Syndication module always shows the text Feed Entries next to the icon, even when you delete the module title from the