Content Module versus news Module

Regular Joined: Oct 11, 2007 Posts: 86

Hi

I have always used the news module to post stories.

Was taking a look at the "Content" Module.

Correct me if I am wrong but the Content Module is for Articles submitted by the website staff - whereas the News Module is for users to submit articles. (Hence the reason there is no submit Content link for site members)

What is the correct way to use the content module from an information flow standpoint?

Are the 2 modules designed to be active at the same time?

When adding a new category to the content module do most people add an icon to the description? So there is a visual cue like the topic icons used in the news module?

Thanks in advance

Kyle

Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2008 8:56 pm

Website staff can write news articles too... there is a New Story link for that.

Content is generally for static content pages, not relevant to organize by date.
News is generally for news articles, those posted with some relevance to the date it is posted.

They are both separate systems, you can decide to use one or both.

Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2008 9:32 pm

Thanks . .. That clears it up for me. .. .

Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 5:51 pm

Also, in addition to what Evaders said, if you look in the content module you have the ability to have headers and footers and to have multiple page articles that are more elaborate than what you would normally post in news. Also to insert page breaks. I don't think many people take advantage of the content module fully but with the wysiwyg editor coming into its maturity I can see where it could become sort of a low maintenance Wiki. That's certainly overstating it but you can do some pretty sophisticated (for *nuke) stuff there.

Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 7:24 pm

The content module does look cool

I plan to utilize both modules in the new site I am building.

Thanks Mucho

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 6:47 am

I use the Content module all the time. I have a couple of local non-profits that like to post and share meeting minutes with members. This is a really good use for the Content module as you can give a regular member access to admin the Content without giving them access to the entire site.

One group not only wanted a Minutes module, but also a Documents module. I would have made two Content categories, except one is for members and one is for All Visitors. A really good upgrade to this module would be to allow Content categories to be assigned to Groups. ie: minutes for members and documents for all visitors.

What I did was make a clone of the Content module and it's two database tables. I renamed it Documents, and edited all the files to point to the new document tables.

Now I can have a module for Minutes and one for Documents. But would have been way easier had I been able to assign Groups to categories.

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 8:11 am

Just to share ideas ... I use our Forums for minutes. When we have a Board meeting of our bike club we post the draft minutes in a private forum that's restricted to Board members. That way the Board can review and approve the minutes, then they get posted publicly. At least in theory it works that way. Our secretary can never remember her password or figure out how to sign in ... sigh, that's reality.

But yeah the content module can be used very productively like you indicate. And you can do similar things in blocks administration by creating a html based block. That has the advantage that you can position it anywhere on your page but it doesn't have the built in options for formatting that the content module does.

Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 8:46 am

fkelly, I use the forums for exactly the same thing. I am going to convert over my church's website soon to use RN 2.3.0 with the attachment mod and will start uploading the signed/approved minutes that way. Can't wait! Smile