LCA WebsiteMaintenance and Reporting

Version 13

Mandy Shaw, 25 April 2018

Version 6: additional detail re use of uploadPDF and uploadpicture, added additional slide at end

Version 7: minor change to last slide

Version 8: additional text editing advice on slide 13

Version 9: reflect password protection of upload utilities (slides 14/15)

Version 10: simplified photo upload instructions (slide 15), clarify difference between ‘single’ and ‘multiple’ blog posts (slides 4, 6), clarify webmaster role (last slide)

Version 11/12: rewrite to reflect emailing-in method of content maintenance

Version 13: reflect new Traffic and Parking page

All Articles are published and edited via a Google blog, typically by emailing the content to a special email address and then setting a ‘Label’ to identify the website page on which the article should appear (and also whether or not it should be ‘highlighted’, i.e. listed on the home page).Photos/captions are added in a similar manner.

There are also chunks of ‘Permanent Text’ which can be edited via the blog (examples: Beat Surgery dates, the list of Committee members).

All this is free of charge.We can nominate whoever we wish to be an editor (‘author’).

25/04/2018 2

To view and edit Articles, Photos, and Permanent Text, visit http://www.blogger.com.You will need to sign in to Google, and to accept the author invitation previously emailed.You will also need to be made an ‘Admin’ user if you are to be able to edit other people’s posts.

The Label (here, LocalEvents) controls:1.Which website page the item should go on, and whereabouts it should appear on that page;2.Whether or not an item is ‘highlighted’ (i.e. coloured white and pointed to from home page).An Article can contain

formatting, links to PDFs, external links, and images.A Photo just has a short caption.Much the easiest way to add an Article or Photo is to email its text in to the blog (see next few slides).Publishing to the website, ‘highlighting’/ ‘unhighlighting’, and archiving of Articles are all done just by changing the Label.

Label: LocalEventsPublished on: 1.1.18

25/04/2018 3

25/04/2018 4

Step 1: Create and send email(pasted from Word; forwarded;or typed from scratch) tomandy.shaw.lcapost@blogger.com

Do not try to send a Word document as an attachment, it will not work

Email subject will become article title

Include as much formatting as youlike, plus images and links as needed

Images should be as highresolution as possible; they will beshrunk for display, but the user canclick on them to see a bigger version

Formatting will be made ‘websitefriendly’ automatically

Step 2: Find the new blog post in the list and click it to Edit

Step 3: Set the Labeland press Update

Step 4: Check the content on the website(you can repeat Steps 2 and 3 as needed)

Also: if article about an Event, set PublicationDate to match Event date for clarity

Quick Reference:

Creating an Article

Also: edit the text if you need to

25/04/2018 5

Step 3: Edit the text as requiredand press Update

Quick Reference: Editing

Permanent Text

Step 1: Filter the list of blog posts

Step 2: Click the blog post to Edit

Step 4: Check the content on the website

25/04/2018 6

Quick Reference: Adding a Photo

Step 9: Delete originally emailed blog post

Step 8: Finally, paste similarly into other‘Photo’ blog post(s) as required

Step 7: Check the content on the website

Step 1: Create and send email (pasted fromWord; forwarded; or typed from scratch) tomandy.shaw.lcapost@blogger.com

Email subject will be ignored

Provide a caption (below the image, andwithout carriage returns), and add a lineindicating ‘Click on the image to see alarger version’. Both will be displayed insmall italics

Image should be as high resolution aspossible; it will be shrunk for display, but theuser can click on it to see a bigger version

Step 2: Find the new blog post in the list and click it to Edit

Step 3: Do any necessary textediting

Step 4: Click in the edit area, hit CTRL+A to select it all, hit CTRL+C to copy to clipboard

Now press Close to return toblog post list

Step 5: Find PhotoGallerypost and click to edit

Step 6: Click on the top existing imageand then hit the left cursor key. Thispositions your cursor right at the start

Now paste in the new image andtext, then hit Update to publish

25/04/2018 7

Go to http://www.lansdown-crescent.org.uk/protected/uploadPDF.php. This page is password protected: userid is lcawebsite, password has been circulated to editors.

Hit ‘Choose file’ and select the PDF file you want.

Now hit ‘Upload PDF’.

When a link ‘Click to view on website’ appears, click it, then copy the resulting web address to your clipboard to paste into the blog post under preparation.

Please don’t use this mechanism to upload anything not in PDF format, to avoid our being responsible for (or blamed for) distributing viruses and/or malware.

In particular, please do not upload Word documents direct: save them as PDFs before uploading.

This link may also be useful: https://www.lansdown-crescent.org.uk/PDF/?C=M;O=D (this lists uploaded PDFs, most recent first).

Quick Reference: Uploading a PDF

AssociationSummary

PoliceHeading

PlanningHeading

FinialsSummary

AreaHeading

HomePhoto

25/04/2018 8

Blue boxes represent

Permanent Text – you

should always edit the existing one rather than creating a new one

Grey boxes represent

Photo Galleries,

which should be edited to add photos. See previous slide for more on this.

Home Page Labels

NewsHeading

This list is created automatically, you need take no action

Traffic

AssociationSummary

AssociationDetail

AssociationPhoto

25/04/2018 9

About the Association Page Labels

NewsHighlight (listed

automatically on home page)

NewsNonHighlight

NewsPhoto

Noticeboard

AssociationEvents (listed

automatically on home page)

LocalEvents (listed

automatically on home page)

25/04/2018 10

All green boxes represent Articles

News and Noticeboard Page Labels

BeatSurgeries (listed

automatically on home page)

NeighbourhoodWatch

PolicePhoto

PoliceHighlight (listed

automatically on home page)

PoliceNonHighlight

PoliceHeading

25/04/2018 11

Police and Neighbourhood Watch Page Labels

MembersHeading

MembersHighlight (listed

automatically on home page)

MembersPhoto

MembersNonHighlight

MembersDetail

25/04/2018 12

Members’ Information Page Labels

PlanningHeading

PlanningHighlight (listed

automatically on home page)

PlanningPhoto

PlanningNonHighlight

HopeHouse

HopeHouseHighlight (listed

automatically on home page)

HopeHouseNonHighlight

25/04/2018 13

Planning and Development Page Labels

FinialsSummary

FinialsDetail

FinialsPhoto

25/04/2018 14

Lansdown Crescent Finials Page Labels

LocalHistory

LocalHistoryHighlight *

AreaPhoto

LocalHistoryNonHighlight

AreaHeading

AreaHighlight *

AreaNonHighlight

Sheep

SheepHighlight *

SheepNonHighlight

25/04/2018 15

About the Area Page Labels

Labels marked * are listed automatically on home page

TrafficPhoto

Traffic

TrafficHighlight (listed

automatically on home page)

TrafficNonHighlight

25/04/2018 16

Traffic and Parking Page Labels

Committee

Notifications

CommitteePhoto

25/04/2018 17

Committee Page Labels

PressReleases

MembersArchive

PhotoGallery

NewsArchive

PoliceArchive

AssociationEventsArchive

PlanningArchive

LocalEventsArchive

SheepArchive

TrafficArchive

LocalHistoryArchive

AreaArchive

All photos should be added to the PhotoGallery before being copied into any other required location’s Photo blog post.

25/04/2018 18FoBRAArchive

Gallery and Information Archive Page Labels

Sending change notificationsOnly items shown on the home page (‘highlighted’) should be emailed out/tweeted.Visit https://www.lansdown-crescent.org.uk/highlight-blog.php and copy/paste the relevant entry into your email.The entry should also be tweeted using hashtag ‘#lansdowncrescentnews’ – see existing tweets for examples.

25/04/2018 19

LCA Website Reports

Click on this link to view the reports.

To change the date range shown, click on the date at top right and select the required range, then hit Apply. The selected range will then apply to all 5 pages of reports.

25/04/2018 20

25/04/2018 21

A source shown as ‘direct’ almost certainly indicates a click on an emailed link

25/04/2018 22

25/04/2018 23

25/04/2018 24

25/04/2018 25

Webmaster Role

The website has an associated Blogger blog, http://lansdown-crescent.blogspot.co.uk/, which stores the vast majority of content; maintenance is a matter of creating and editing blog posts via Blogger as described on the previous slides. This is now done by the ‘Content Team’, Rachael, Steph, and Robin. Note that the blog is intended only for editing.

The role of the webmaster on a day to day basis is limited to a little sub-editing, plus providing technical support to the Content Team as necessary, although this latter aspect is reducing quickly as they become more familiar with the task. On a less frequent basis the webmaster will set up email forwarding for new committee members, and will be responsible for administering and backing up our website content store, plus reporting any website problems to Zen (our Internet Service Provider), who are usually extremely responsive.

Technicalities:Website provider: www.zen.co.uk.Account and direct debit (currently £5.99 monthly plus small annual domain charge) need to be transferred to LCA direct control; this can be arranged once new webmaster appointed.Any non-Blogger changes (v infrequent) will require upload via FTP (the new webmaster will be provided with the necessary details).Reports use Google Analytics, shown via Google Data Studio.Our Zen hosting is a ‘Bronze’ package (Linux/cpanel). The website is implemented in PHP, using Magpie and Feed2JS to load the Blogger content. All software used is free of charge.

To add a link via Blogger, select the text to be clicked and hit the ‘Link’ button.

To add an image via Blogger, make sure your cursor is where you want the image, and then hit the picture icon just to the right of the ‘Link’ button.You can then upload any image and select it for inclusion.

To add your contact information, copy and paste it from the blog entry with label ‘Committee’.

If you get a pink message displayed when you press Publish or Update, find ‘Dismiss’ in it, click on this, and press Publish/Update again.

When checking that your post appears correctly on the LCA website, you may need to refresh the website page in your browser.You may also need to wait up to an hour for the change to be reflected on the website.

25/04/2018 26

Notes

How blog posts are displayed on the website

The formatting has been simplified, and any image will be shown at a maximum size of 240x400. The full size image is always available by clicking on the one shown.

The date of publication will be added automatically to the displayed title, if it is not already there. (If the publication date is the 1st of any month, the date automatically shown will only include the month and year.)

If you forget to provide a title, the first few words of the text will be shown instead, until you edit the post in Blogger to add a post title.

Clicking on a link will always open a new browser tab.