Web Postings
In NetForum Postings are a unique form of content disconnected from the presentation. With Postings you can create presentation templates and populate them dynamically with Posting content. The most characteristic use of postings is for the management and display of press releases, however, and entire site of static content can be presented in a handful of dynamic templates. A posting is simply a record in a data table. A single posting record has many fields to attribute values. There are also two unique cross reference tables to group and classify postings. Queries can be written to present a single posting or a list filtered by any one of the data column values.
Built in to the postings application is a workflow approval process. There are roles for Writer, Approver and Publisher that can be uniquely assigned to individuals or all to one. The application can be set up to send notifications to users in the approval process when action needs to be taken.
Workflow and User Privileges
The workflow process in NetForum CMS subjects Web content creation and publishing to an established approval process. Documents may be published to a designated site upon full approval. This process comprises of the following steps
- Users in the appropriate groups access a content "approval" area
- Such users can:
- "Sign-off" on content by adding an approval date and signature
- Publish Content and
- Deploy content from staging to production environments (or sites)
- Once approved, the document is locked and may only be edited after the administrator or approver "unlocks" it.
The following privileges are part of the Baseline NetForum setup:
- netFORUMCMSWriter
- netFORUMCMSApprover
- netFORUMCMSPublisher
The following table shows the capabilities associated with these groups.
| Group | Privileges | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View | Create/Edit | Approve | Publish | Notification | |
| netFORUMCMSWriter | X | X | |||
| netFORUMCMSApprover | X | X | X | Receives notification when content is Created or Edited | |
| netFORUMCMSPublisher | X | X | X | X | Receives notification when content is created, edited or approved |
Set up user privileges
- In NetForum navigate to Admin > User
- Select the user form the list. If the user is not in the list you must use the Add User wizard.
- Make sure the user's email address is entered in the email field.
- Expand the Groups child-form by clicking the down arrows to see if the privilege has not already been granted. If not:
- Click the plus sign at the right end of the Groups title bar.
- Select netforumCMSWriter and save.
- Repeat step 6 for netforumCMSApprover and netforumCMSPublisher or for whatever privileges are appropriate.
- Go back to the Admin Overview page.
- Click Populate Group Privileges
- Select the user you have just granted privileges from the drop-down and click the Continue button. This process takes several moments. Click the Close Window button when process is complete.
- Under the Admin Overview menu is the Clear Cache function. Click that and click the OK button on the resulting page.
- Reset your session by clicking the NetForum logo plate in the top-left corner of the screen.
Posting Content Creation and Deployment Process
The following steps are taken to author and publish a Posting record.
1. Assign Users to Appropriate Groups
Ensure your Users are in the right Groups as described above. Otherwise, certain features will not be available. You'll need to do this from the User page in the Admin module.
2. Create desired categories and groups
Categories and groups are the primary means to organize Postings. You can create queries to list Postings of a particular category or group or combination of the two. Categories and Groups are menu items in the CMS module. You can add, edit or see a list of existing items from this menu. Anyone with NetForum CMS privileges can perform this function.
3. Enter content into Posting record (content writer)
Several fields are provided in the Posting record. This form was designed in the model of a news article. You do not have to use the form that way if you choose. Some of the fields such as Website, Category and Description have distinct purposes, but the other fields can be used however you want. For example, the Order field is actually a Subtitle field in the database. If you do not have an author for your content, you can use the Author field for something else. Creating a Posting record is done by a user with netFORUMCMSWriter privileges.
4. Approve Posting content (content approver)
Technically speaking, Posting content does not need to be approved to display online. This is strictly a business decision of your workflow and specifically determined in your template query. In other words, you can display only "approved" Postings in your article list, or by any filter appropriate.
Once a Posting has been created several "child forms" appear in its profile. Open the Approval childform, and click the pencil icon on the Approval record.
Enter an Approval Date in the date field.
Once a Posting has been approved the content cannot be edited unless it is subsequently unapproved. This is accomplished by removing the approval date.
5. Set publish date (content publisher)
Just as with approval, a Posting does not necessarily need to be "published." This would only be a rule based on the business model of your work flow and how your template is set up.
To publish a Posting, edit the Publishing Information record in the corresponding childform.
Enter a date in the Publish On field.
6. Deploy Posting
The deployment function presumes you are developing your content in a test environment and then wish to publish the content to a live site. This is done using the Deploy Tool. The Deploy Tool moves the Posting content and related Categories and Groups to the destination server/database. It will create a new record or update an existing item at the destination.
Once a Posting has been approved, the Deploy Web Posting icon becomes visible and the Posting can be deployed.
Clicking this button will open the Deploy Posting window. Enter the destination server and login information and click the Connect button.
Once a connection is made an additional form appears at the bottom of the window allowing you to enter the destination specifics.
See the section on Deployment for further explanation of this function.