The configuration page can be used to change a variety of options that control how your news content is displayed on the website, including changing URL formats, date formats and what information is shown next to news articles by default.
Configuration Options
URL Configuration
If you're website has .aspx at the end of all URLs, ensure the new URL you choose also has .aspx at the end.
- Breadcrumb Text
When viewing a news category or article, the breadcrumbs will be shown at the top of the page and it tells you where in the website structure you are. For example, if you view an article called "Christmas Catalogue" in the "Christmas" category, the breadcrumbs might look like: News > Christmas > Christmas Catalogue
This option lets you choose the wording of the initial "News" entry that you see at the start of the above example. News is generally acceptable and is used by default, however this can be changed to Blog, or any other value you wish.
- View All News Path
This is the URL of the built-in news page, /news/default.aspx by default. You can use this URL, change the value and use that URL, or you can use Web Pages and use News placeholders to create your own News page.
- Category Path
When you click on the link for a news category you will be taken to a URL determined by this configuration value. The {category-path} entry is the name of the category being viewed and must be inserted in the URL path, and when the link is generated it will be replaced with the category name.
For example, if the category is Christmas and you set the Category Path to "/blog/{category-path}/default.aspx", then when viewing the Christmas category the URL would be: /blog/christmas/default.aspx
- Article Path
The article path is similar to the Category Path, except it is used when generating the URL for viewing articles and you have more placeholder options (below).
- {article-name} - This is replaced by the name of the article upon URL generation.
- {category-path} - This is replaced by the name of the article's category upon URL generation.
- Date Fields - The fields below are replaced by either the year, month or day from the article published date upon URL generation. Use these if you would like date information in your URLs, or if you have conflicting URLs that need additional information to make them unique.
- {year} - 2015 if the article was published on 24/05/2015.
- {month} - 05 if the article was published on 24/05/2015.
- {day} - 24 if the article was published on 24/05/2015.
- Archive Year/Month Path
When viewing a particular month of archived articles, this configuration value determines how the URL is generated. The placeholders are {year} and {month}, described above.
- Archive Year Path
When viewing a particular year of archived articles, this configuration value determines how the URL is generated. The only placeholder is {year}, described above.
Article Display
- Date Format
Here you select how news related dates are displayed. Select from one of the defaults, or you can build your own date format using the following fields. We'll use Tuesday 5th July 2009 as the example date:
- d = 5
- dd = 05
- ddd = Tue
- dddd = Tuesday
- M = 7
- MM = 07
- MMMM = July
- y = 9
- yy = 09
- yyyy = 2009
- Thumbnail Recommended Size
These fields are set by your website designers so you know which size the thumbnail images should be, this value appears when adding news articles.
- Default Listing Display Settings
These settings affect the content shown on the built-in news page only (see above, View All News Path).
When the list of articles is generated there are many different fields to hide or show, and you can choose how many articles to show and in what order.
- Articles to Display: Enter the number of articles that should be shown per page.
- Sort By: Select the order the articles should be sorted by.
- Headline: This is the name of the article.
- Published Date: This is date chosen for the Published Date field when adding the news article.
- Author: This will display a link to the author so users can see other articles by this author, as well as other information about the author.
- Short Description: This will display the short description for the article.
- Image: This will display the thumbnail for the article. The featured and master images can also be shown, but if you're unfamiliar with these options just stick with thumbnail.
- Read More Link: A link to the full article.
- Comment Count: This will say how many comments are on the article, clicking the link will take the user to the comments.
- Tag Links: This will display the list of tags associated with the article.
- Category Link: This will display a link to the category associated with the article.
- Top/Bottom Pager: These options will include paging at the top and/or bottom of the article list. If you have more articles than you are displaying per page, and you would like those articles to be accessible, at least one page must be enabled.
- RSS Feed: Checking this will include a link to the RSS Feed for the news content.
- Comment Count Format
These settings affect the content shown on the built-in news page only (see above, View All News Path).
Here you can set the format of the text which appears to state how many comments currently exist for each article. In the Multiple Comments fields, the {0} is a placeholder for the actual number of comments present on this article.
- RSS Settings
These settings affect the content shown on the built-in news page only (see above, View All News Path).
When the RSS Feed is enabled for your built-in news page (see above, View All News Path), this is the Title and Description of the RSS Feed generated for that news content.
Search Property
Open Graph (OG) fields affect how this page appears when shared on social media. For example, if someone shares a page from your site and you have completed the OG fields, then when the shared page appears on Facebook, for example, the Title, Description and Image shown there will match what is entered into the OG Title, Description and Image fields in Mintox for that content.
Sometimes though, there isn't always OG data available or applicable to the content being added. In these cases, it's a good idea to add information regarding your website instead so users viewing the post on social media can easily see where that post comes from and what your website is about.
By completing the default fields below, if you add content to your website and you leave the OG fields blank for any reason, then that item will automatically use the OG values entered into the Default fields below.
- Default Open Graph Title
- Default Open Graph Description
- Default Open Graph Image
Styles
- Editor Styles
Originally, the editors in Mintox didn't have the same styles as front-end content. The Editor Styles fields have since been added so your website designers can insert the styles that were used on the front-end of your website, so when you enter content it closely resembles how it will look on the front-end of your website.
This field should be left alone unless you know what you are doing.