What are they? Topics are simply categories for the news items. They allow you to separate news items into various subject areas, just as newspapers do. For instance on my site, I have one topic for new equipment and another for safety and recalls (among several others). By clicking on Topics on the main menu, your site members can view all postings for any particular topic. On mine, were someone to click on Safety, they would be able to see all news items about recalls and other safety issues To see another example, go to USA Today or pick up one of their newspapers. The listings News, Money, Sports, Life Tech and Weather could all be considered topics. -
Topic name: This is the name of the topic as used in the database. The name is limited to a maximum of 20 consecutive characters with no spaces allowed, as in "safety". It is not displayed to visitors. -
Topic text: This is the description of the topic, with a maximum of 40 characters as in "Recalls and other safety issues".This is what your site visitors will see. -
Topic image: This is the name and extension of the graphic image to be used to for a topic. It is probably best to use the same image name as the topic name, adding the appropriate extension name (.gif, .jpg,. or .png). The shape may be either square or rectangular and there is is no size limitation, though it is best to keep them small enough to load rapidly and not take up too much space on your site. The files must be placed in the images/topics directory. If you have enabled the themes specific feature, the topic images must be placed in images/topics/yourthemename for each theme you have on your site.
Topic name
Topic short text
Topic long text
Topic image parent Topic IMPORTANT NOTE: If you delete a topic, all news stories and comments under the topic will be deleted as well. However, the topic icon will not be deleted from images/topics - that must be done manually. Note: News topics may have sub levels added by using the categories feature accessed from Add Story, For instance, one might use MDPro as a topic. Under that topic, one might have categories such as Blocks, Documentation, Modules and Themes. Also see Categories. |
