317 CHAPTER Using the News Feeds Component IN THIS CHAPTER Introducing the News Feeds Manager Understanding News Feed parameters Managing feeds and categories T he News Feeds component is an RSS aggregation tool. The compo- nent allows you to add syndicated RSS and Atom feeds (referred to in Joomla! by the generic name “news feeds”) to your site and to group them into categories. You can then display the content on your pages by cre- ating menu items that link to the component’s output. The News Feeds component provides all the parameters needed to manage the aggregation of multiple feeds and, to a lesser extent, the individual feed items. You can control the number of items gathered and the frequency of the updates. The feed items gathered by the News Feeds component can then be channeled into the site to display in a variety of manners. Although, as I discuss elsewhere in this book, you can use other ways to bring syndicated content into your site, the News Feeds component makes it easy to manage and display a large number of feeds and to create groups of feed items that update automatically on your site. Introducing the News Feeds Manager To get started adding news feeds to your site, you need to access the News Feeds Manager, which is the interface to the component. Go to the Components menu and select the News Feeds option. The News Feeds Manager interface loads in your browser. Figure 14.1 shows the News Feeds Manager as it appears with the Joomla! sample data installed. Part III: Working with Components, Modules, and Plugins 318 FIGURE 14.1 The News Feeds Manager. Note On the Components menu, the option labeled News Feeds leads to the same screen as the News Feeds sub- menu option labeled Feeds. Despite having different names, these two navigation choices lead to the same page — the News Feeds Manager. The toolbar at the top of the News Feeds Manager provides quick access to the following functions: l Publish: Select one or more news feeds from the list, and then click this icon to publish them. l Unpublish: Select one or more news feeds from the list, and then click this icon to unpublish them. l Delete: Select one or more news feeds from the list, and then click this icon to delete the news feeds. l Edit: Select a news feed from the list, and then click this icon to edit the news feed’s details. l New: Click to add a new news feed. Chapter 14: Using the News Feeds Component 319 l Parameters: Click this to view the parameters available for this component. l Help: Click to access the online Help files related to the active screen. Two text links are located below the toolbar. The link labeled News Feeds shows you the News Feeds Manager. The Categories link takes you to the News Feeds Category Manager, which is dis- cussed in following text. Below the two links and above the list of news feeds are three sorting and searching tools to help you manage long lists of News Feeds. Try the following: l Filter field on the left works like a search box. Type a word or phrase into the field and then click Go. The page reloads and displays the results of the search. To clear the screen and return to a full listing, click the Reset button. l Select a Category filter on the right side allows you to display only those news feeds that have been assigned to a specific category. To reset this filter, change the combo box back to the default setting. l Select State filter on the far right allows you to filter and display the news feeds accord- ing to whether they are published or unpublished. The Select State filter provides an easy way to identity all news feeds that are currently active on the site. To reset this filter, change the combo box back to the default setting. Tip The Select a Category filter and the Select State filter can be combined to further refine the view of the list of news feeds. The main content area of the screen contains a list of all the news feeds in your News Feeds com- ponent. The columns provided are: l # : An indexing number assigned by Joomla! This number cannot be changed. l Checkbox (no label): Click in a checkbox to select a news feed; this is needed if you want to use several of the toolbar options, referenced previously. l News Feed Name: This field displays the full name of the news feed. Click on the name to edit the news feed’s details. l Published: A green checkmark in this column indicates that the news feed is published. The field shows a red X if the news feed is not published. Administrators can toggle between the two settings by clicking on the icon. l Order: The numbers in this field affect the ordering of the news feeds on this list. Change the numbers and click the Save icon at the top of the column to reorder the news feeds. l Category: The name of the category to which the news feed has been assigned. You can click on the category name to open the Category Editing dialogue. I cover how to edit cat- egories in the next section. Part III: Working with Components, Modules, and Plugins 320 l # Articles: How many items have been gathered from this feed and are available for dis- play. l Cache Time: How long the contents of the news feed are kept locally before the list is refreshed. l ID: The system-generated user ID number. At the bottom of the screen, below the content area, is the Display # option. Change the value in the combo box control to alter the number of news feeds that are displayed on the page. The default value can be altered by changing the List Length option on the Global Configuration Manager. Caution At the very bottom of the page, underneath the Display # option, Joomla! provides an indication of whether the cache directory is writeable. This information is provided for your reference. If the cache is not writeable, the News Feeds component will not work properly, because it will be unable to cache feed output. If this indi- cator shows the directory is unwriteable, you need to adjust the privileges on the indicated directory. Understanding News Feed Parameters Global options for the News Feeds component can be configured by means of the Parameters options. The parameters are viewed and modified by clicking the Parameters icon on the News Feeds Manager toolbar. Clicking the icon causes a lightbox to be superimposed on top of the page. Inside the lightbox are the parameters available to this component. The News Feeds Manager includes the following parameters: l Table Headings: The settings chosen here are only visible on pages where the feeds are displayed in category view. This control relates to the display characteristics of the table holding the lists of feeds. Select Yes if you want the columns of the table to include descriptive headings. l Name Column: The settings chosen here are only visible on pages where the feeds are displayed in category view. This control relates to the display characteristics of the table holding the lists of feeds. Select Yes if you want to display a column showing the feed’s Name in the table. l # Articles Column: The settings chosen here are only be visible on pages where the feeds are displayed in category view. This control relates to the display characteristics of the table holding the lists of feeds. Select Yes if you want to display in the table a column showing the number of articles in the feed. Chapter 14: Using the News Feeds Component 321 l Link Column: The settings chosen here are only visible on pages where the feeds are dis- played in category view. This control relates to the display characteristics of the table holding the lists of feeds. Select Yes if you want to display a column showing a link to the source of the feed in the table. l Category Description: The settings chosen here are only visible on pages where the feeds are displayed in category view. Select yes if you want to display on the page listing the feeds the category description. The category description is set by the administrator when a News Feed Category is created. l # Category Items: The settings chosen here are only visible on pages where the feeds are displayed in category view. Select Yes if you want to display on the page listing the feeds the number of News Feeds in each News Feed category. l Feed Image: Select Yes if you want to display the feeds that the Feed Image provided by the source of the feed on the page listing. l Feed Description: Select Yes if you want to display on the page listing the feeds the Feed Description set by the source of the feed. l Item Description: Select Yes if you want to display on the page listing the feeds a short description of the item. The description is taken from the first few words of the item. Note that this parameter works in conjunction with the Word Count control below, which dic- tates the length of the description displayed. l Word Count: An integer value that determines the size of the Item description, in words. Set the value of this field to zero to display the entire feed item. After you have set the parameters you desire, click the Save button at the top right to save your changes or click Cancel to close the Parameters window without saving the changes. Managing Feeds and Categories Categories are created by the administrator for the purpose of grouping news feeds. Every news feed must be assigned to a category. Note Before you can add your first news feed you must have at least one category in the system. To view the categories available in your system, click on the categories link at the top of the News Feeds Manager. The News Feeds Category Manager loads in your browser, as shown in Figure 14.2. Part III: Working with Components, Modules, and Plugins 322 FIGURE 14.2 The News Feeds Category Manager. The toolbar at the top of the News Feeds Category Manager provides quick access to the following functions: l Publish: Select one or more categories from the list and then click this icon to publish them. l Unpublish: Select one or more categories from the list and then click this icon to unpub- lish them. l Delete: Select one or more categories from the list and then click this icon to delete the category(s). l Edit: Select a category from the list and then click this icon to edit the category’s details. l New: Click to create a new category. l Help: Click to access the online Help files related to the active screen. Two text links are below the toolbar. The Feeds link shows you the News Feeds Manager, dis- cussed earlier in this chapter. The Categories link displays the News Feeds Category Manager. Chapter 14: Using the News Feeds Component 323 Below the two text links and above the list of categories are two sorting and searching tools to help you manage long lists of categories: l The Filter field on the left works like a search box. Type a word or phrase into the field and then click Go. The page reloads and displays the results of the search. To clear the screen and return to a full listing, click the Reset button. l The Select State filter on the far right allows you to filter and display the categories according to whether they are published or unpublished. This provides an easy way to identity all categories that are currently active on the site. To reset this filter, change the combo box back to the default setting. (- select state - ) The main content area of the screen contains a list of all the News Feeds categories. The columns provided are: l #: This field is an indexing number set automatically by Joomla! You cannot alter this field. l Checkbox (no label): Click in a checkbox to select a category. The checkbox is needed if you want to use several of the toolbar options, referenced previously. l Title: This field displays the full name of the category. Click on the name to edit the cate- gory’s details. l Published: A green checkmark in this column indicates that the category is published. The field will show a red X if the category is not published. Administrators can toggle between the two settings by clicking on the icon shown. l Order: The numbers in this field affect the ordering of the categories on this list. Change the numbers and click the Save icon at the top of the column to reorder the categories. l Access Level: Indicates the access levels assigned to the category. You can toggle between the options Public, Registered, and Special by clicking on the words. l ID: The system-generated user ID number. Finally, at the bottom of the screen, below the content area, is the Display # option. Change the value in the combo box control to alter the number of categories that are displayed on the page. The default value can be altered by changing the List Length option on the Global Configuration Manager. Creating a new category Before you can add news feeds to your system, you must create at least one category. Categories are created from within the News Feed Category Manager, by clicking the New icon on the toolbar. Category data is entered into the New News Feed Category dialogue, shown in Figure 14.3 Part III: Working with Components, Modules, and Plugins 324 FIGURE 14.3 The New News Feed Category dialogue. The toolbar at the top of the New News Feed Category dialogue provides quick access to the fol- lowing functions: l Save: Click this icon to save your work, create a new category, and exit the New News Feed Category dialogue. l Apply: Click to save your work and create a new category without exiting from the New News Feed Category dialogue. This option lets you save without exiting the screen and it is useful in case you are interrupted or you otherwise want to save yet keep working on this screen. l Cancel: This option cancels the task and exits the New News Feed Category dialogue. l Help: This option displays the Help files related to the active screen. The workspace in this dialogue is broken into two sections, Details and Description. The Details section contains the following fields: l Title: Type a title for the News Feed Category into this field. This field is the only required field. Chapter 14: Using the News Feeds Component 325 l Alias: The alias is an internal label for the category. The alias is also used in the creation of a search engine friendly path for the category. This field only accepts small case letters, with no spaces. Note that if you leave this blank, the system will automatically use the value you entered into the Title field. l Published: A green checkmark indicates the category is published. A red X means it is not published. You can click on the icon to toggle the state. l Section: This field is not applicable to the News Feed category, and as a result the system displays only n/a. l Category Order: This field cannot be controlled when a new category is created. New cat- egories always default to last on the list. The order can be changed from the News Feed Category Manager or by editing the category. l Access Level: Sets the access level restrictions for the category and its contents. The options Registered, Public, or Special appear in this column. You can click the names to toggle the level. If no value is chosen, the system defaults to Public. l Image: Provides the option to display a small image next to the category name on pages listing the categories. This is optional. The Image Position control is related to this option. Note that the image you want to select must be located in the folder images/stories. l Image Position: Controls placement of the image relative to the category name. The choices are limited to Left or Right. Left is selected by default. Note that this control is only applicable if an image is selected from the Image control. The Description field at the bottom of the screen provides you with a place to add a description of the category. The description appears on pages where the categories are listed. The text box allows you to use images and formatting for the description. The Image button at the bottom of the Description field gives you easy access to controls for inserting an image into the description. To create a new category, follow these steps: 1. Log in to the admin system on your site. 2. Access the News Feeds Category Manager. To do so, go to the Components menu and choose the Categories option from the submenu under the heading News Feeds. The News Feeds Category Manager loads in your browser. 3. Click the New icon on the toolbar at the top of the News Feeds Category Manager. The New News Feeds Category dialogue opens. Refer to Figure 14.3. 4. In the Title field, type a name for this category. This is the only required field. 5. Add additional information or optional settings as you see fit. 6. Click the Save icon on the toolbar at the top right to save your new News Feed Category. The dialogue closes and returns you to the News Feed Category Manager. Part III: Working with Components, Modules, and Plugins 326 Editing and deleting categories You can edit existing News Feed categories from the News Feed Category Manager. To edit a cate- gory, do either of the following l Click on the category name in the News Feed Category Manager. l Select the category on the list and then click the Edit icon on the News Feed Category Manager toolbar. Regardless of which method you use, the system opens the Edit Category dialogue. The Edit Category dialogue is identical to the New Category dialogue, with the same fields and requirements as discussed in the section above. To make changes to a category, simply alter the desired fields in the Edit Category dialogue and then click the Save or Apply icon on the toolbar. Any changes you have made are applied immediately. To delete one or more categories, follow these steps: 1. Open the News Feed Category Manager. 2. Select one or more categories. 3. Click the Delete icon. Caution Deleting a News Feed category is permanent and cannot be undone. Moreover, there is no confirmation dia- logue — clicking the Delete icon immediately deletes the category! However, a category cannot be deleted if there are News Feeds assigned to that category. If you want to delete the category, you need to first delete or reassign any news feeds assigned to that category. Adding a new feed To add a new news feed to your site, visit the News Feeds Manager and click the New icon on the toolbar. The New News Feed dialogue opens in your browser, as shown in Figure 14.4. The toolbar at the top of the New News Feed dialogue provides quick access to the following functions: l Save: Click this icon to save your work, add a new News Feed, and exit the New News Feed dialogue. l Apply: Click to save your work and add a new News Feed without exiting from the New News Feed dialogue. This option lets you save without exiting the screen, and it useful in case you are interrupted, or you otherwise want to save yet keep working on this screen. l Cancel: This option cancels the task and exits the New News Feed dialogue. l Help: This option displays the Help files related to the active screen. . browser. Figure 14 .1 shows the News Feeds Manager as it appears with the Joomla! sample data installed. Part III: Working with Components, Modules, and Plugins 318 FIGURE 14 .1 The News Feeds. This field is an indexing number set automatically by Joomla! You cannot alter this field. l Checkbox (no label): Click in a checkbox to select a category. The checkbox is needed if you want. Category Manager loads in your browser, as shown in Figure 14 .2. Part III: Working with Components, Modules, and Plugins 322 FIGURE 14 .2 The News Feeds Category Manager. The toolbar at the top