PT Blog Getting Started Guide

Getting Started Guide

This getting started guide will walk through the steps to create your first blog, submit a blog post, and submit comments.

Create Blog

Creating the blog will setup the framework for your blog posts to be created. At the blog level, you'll define the name of the blog, select the subsite for the blog post pages, page template for the blog post pages, set the active flag, and set the flag to require comments approval.

1. Navigate to the "Blogs Manager" page that was created during the installation steps.
2. Select the "Add New Blog" and the form will open.
3. Enter the name for the blog.
4. Select the subsite for the blog post pages to be created within.
5. Select the page template for the blog post pages to be created from. This is the Blog Post template that created during the installation process.
6. Select the "Yes" value from the drop-down for the Active field.
7. Check the box for comments to require approval. This will require that comments for the blog must be manually approved before being displayed on the blog post details page.
8. Submit the form.

Now the blog is setup. The blog manager page will refresh and you'll see the blog record in the datasheet.

Blog Posts

Now that the blog is setup and configured, you'll be ready to start posting. The Blog Dashboard is the central location for adding/updating/deleting blogs posts and editing/deleting post comments.

1. On the "Blogs Manager" page, select the "Dashboard" link.
2. This opens the "Blog Dashboard" for the configured blog. Within the "Blog Dashboard" you can edit the blog configuration to modify the subsite, template, and name for the blog (all the fields that were setup in the previous step).
3. Select the "New Post" button to open the form to enter the blog post data.
   1. Title field is the title for the blog and as the page name within the URL.
   2. Content field is the formatted text block for the blog post. This is where the post text is managed.
   3. Slug field is the brief description for the post. This will be used in the blog listing page to provide the reader with a description for the contents of the post.
   4. Date Posted field will set the post date for displaying and creating the subsite path for the month and year within the blog subsite. For example, if you enter a date posted of 1/1/2012, the subsite path for the post will be "/2012/" within the blog subsite.
   5. Allow Comments field allows the author to turn on/off comments per blog post. In the Blog Manager, we setup the the blog to require comments to have approval, now we are setting if we want to allow comments to the post.
   6. Tags field is a comma separated list of the keywords for the blog post. When the blog post page is created, this field will populate the keywords metadata for the page.
4. For our example here, create a new blog post and allow comments.

Now we have a blog post created. Within the Blog Dashboard you can edit and delete all the posts for the blog. When you select the "View" link for the blog post, a new page will open that is the blog post full page. This is where users can read the post and post comments. Notice on the blog post page the subsite path and page name and the fields in the blog post they are connected with.

Comments

Go to the blog post that created in the last step. You'll see the comments form at the bottom of the blog post. If the comments are not allowed for the blog post, then this form will not appear.

Add a comment to the blog post. The response message will state that the comments require approval before displaying on the blog post page. This is because we have set the comments to require approvals in the blog configuration. If comment approvals were not required, the comment would immediately post to the page.

Return to the blogs manager page and select the "Dashboard" link for the blog post. Open the "Comments" tab in the blog dashboard. You'll see the comment listed in the datasheet. Edit the comment to view the comment text. In the edit form, their is a checkbox field for "Approved". Check this box to approve the comment and display on the blog post detail page. Remember, this field is only active if the blog configuration is set for comments to require approval. Once completed save the form and refresh the blog post page, now the comment will be displayed.