Campsite 3.4
Article Types
Article Types specify the information that Campsite will require from the journalists adding a particular kind of article to your publication. For example, a feature story is likely to require more elements than a brief news item. By default, Campsite has one Article Type set up, which is News Article, but you can create as many as you need. To create or manage your Article Types, select Configure, then Article Types from the main navigation menu. This action opens the Article Types page.
Article Types consist of a sequence of fields, with each field holding a certain kind of data. Currently, there are six kinds of fields available:
- Single-line text: this type of field can contain a maximum of 265 characters, and does not support HTML tags. Its appearance and character set is entirely determined by the template in use
- Multi-line text with WYSIWYG: this type of field can be up to 16MB in size. The journalist can insert images, audio, video, links (external, internal or to attached files), and formatting tags. Subheads can be used for article pagination
- Date: this is a standard date field with a fixed syntax of YYYY-MM-DD (four year digits, two month digits, two day digits, separated by hyphens)
- Topic: this type of field can be used to categorize articles. Each topic field has a top level element, for example Entertainment / Review. When the journalist types the article into Campsite, this field will display a drop-down menu containing available subtopics of that top element, such as Movie Review or Theater Review
- Switch: allows you to add check boxes which activate particular features to the Edit Article page. For example, you might add a switch breaking_news, which would be used by your template to display the article in a special place on your site. (Campsite comes with two switches by default, Show article on front page and Show article on section page)
- Numeric: allows you to add numeric elements to your articles, such as longitude/latitude, temperature, or exchange rate
Campsite makes a distinction between the Template Name and Display Name for each Article Type and field. The Template Name is limited to letters, numbers, and underscores (no spaces) and is used internally by your Campsite template. The Display Name is the part that the journalist will see, and can be translated into other languages.
Adding a new Article Type
Click the Add new article type link at the top left of the Article Types page.
The Add new article type page will appear. The first step is to enter the Template Name of the Article Type you wish to create. In this example, we'll create an Article Type with the template name review_article - note that it has an underscore, instead of a space, between the words review and article.
After you click the Save button, you will be prompted to enter the Template Name of the first field in the new Article Type. Select one of the six field types available from the drop-down menu, for example Topic. For this particular field type, we'll also have to select a top level element, such as Entertainment / Review.
After clicking the Save button, the Article type fields page is shown. The Article Type that you are currently working on is shown in the breadcrumb trail beneath the main navigation menu.
Click on the Show display names link to add a Display Name for this new field. Select the language you require from the Add translation drop-down menu, and enter the display name for the new field in this language. Then click the blue Translate button.
The Article type fields page will now show the Display Name for the field, together with a language code (in brackets) to indicate its translation. Note that the Display Name can contain spaces, or be capitalized differently from the Template Name for the field.
Continue to add new fields to this Article Type, until you have all that you need. Then click the link Back to Article Types List, next to the blue arrowhead icon. This action will return you to the Article Types page.
Editing Article Types
You can add translated Display Names for your new Article Type after clicking on the Show display names link in the Article Types List.
Article Types are not set in stone; they can evolve as your publication evolves. For example, you can hide old Article Types that are no longer in use. Toggle whether a type is shown by clicking on the colored light icon in the Show/Hide column - green for shown, red for hidden. A pop-up dialog will ask you if you are sure about this action.
Hiding a type is less dangerous than deleting it; the latter action will remove the associated content from the server. The delete button is a white cross in a red square icon, over on the right side of the page. Use this button with caution!
As usual when carrying out an action that will have an impact on your publication, Campsite will ask you if you are sure.
In the Article Types List there is also a Comments enabled? column, which toggles readers comments on and off for a specific Article Type. For example, you might wish to disable reader comments for all entertainment reviews, but leave them enabled for news articles.
Article types can be renamed, simply by clicking on the Template Name in the Article Types page. Remember that if you change a Template Name, you cannot put spaces into it.
Editing Article Type Fields
On the Article Type Fields page, fields can be renamed, given Display Names, hidden or deleted, just like Article Types. When you have more than one Article Type field, you can re-arrange the order in which the fields show up on the Edit article page by clicking the blue up and down arrows.
To change a field type, for example, from Single-line Text to Multi-line Text with WYSIWYG, click on the corresponding link for that row in the Type column. The Reassign a field type page will open, on which you can select the new type from a drop-down menu. Then click the Save button to return to the Article type fields page.
After editing article type fields, you could create a new article to test that the updated fields are displayed as expected.
Merging Article Types
Campsite enables you to merge two different Article Types so that content in fields from one type (the Source Article Type) is migrated to another (the Destination Article Type). This is a useful process to go through after adding or editing an Article Type, so that all previously written copy matches the new Article Type fields.
On the Article Types page, click the Merge types link. This opens the Merge article type page. Select the source and destination Article Types you wish to merge from the drop-down menus.
Next, choose the fields of the source which you'd like to merge into fields of the destination.
The next screen displays the result of the potential merge. Any source fields which have not been mapped to destination fields are shown in a red font. You may need to create additional fields in the destination Article Type before attempting a merge.
You can cycle through all the articles which will be merged, and preview the changes. Optionally, check the box to Delete the source article type. When you're ready, click the Merge button.
If there are no articles left belonging to the Source Article Type, Campsite will display a warning message at the first step of the proposed merge.
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