my.hsj.org updates

From the User Guide: How to add a photo, music file or video to your site

2011-01-11T12:45:00.001-05:00

Adding photos, videos or audio files to an article

ANY media item associated with an article is entered through the media gallery. We support images, audio and video.

The media item will appear with the article when it displays.

You can add as many as you like.

With the exception of the item with the lowest Media Rank number, they will appear at the bottom of the story.

Images are automatically downsized if they are larger than 500 pixels wide OR 400 pixels deep.

To upload a media item:

o Filename (Required): Click Select and then find the media item you want to upload. Choose it.

TIP: The media with the lowest number will appear in the “premiere” location. When media rank is equal, the media uploaded first will be shown.

That item is also what will appear on the rotating images on the front page.

o Credit (Optional) Type the credit for the media item. (Optional)

o Caption (Optional): Type the caption for the media item.

o Media Rank (Required): Type the Media Rank for the media item. This is a number that determines in what order the media item will be displayed within an article. The lower the number, the higher up in the article it will appear. The item with the lowest Media Rank number will be displayed in the “premiere position” at the top of the article. In the case of images it is also the image that will appear on the rotating front page display on the front page. When Media Rank values are equal, it will display the first item that was uploaded.

o Side (Required): When the media is displayed on both the article listing pages (front page, At-A-Glance page, etc.) and the article page the image or video should display on this side. If you let the system decide, it will display based on the template.

Click Upload New File. It uploads.

Image formats accepted: jpg, gif, bmp, png

Video formats accepted: mpg, mpeg, avi, asf, flv, mov, mp4

Audio formats accepted: mp3

Administering media after you have uploaded it

When you submit media, you will see it displayed on the same administration screen as when you edit it.

To delete a media item in Gallery View mode, you would click the x. In Single View mode, you would click Delete.

To edit an item, you would click the pencil in Gallery View mode. In Single View mode, you would click Edit.

When editing a media item:

· You can update the credit or caption information.

· You can change the Media Rank. This is a number that determines in what order the media item will be displayed within an article. The lower the number, the higher up in the article it will appear. The item with the lowest Media Rank number will be displayed in the “premiere position” at the top of the article. In the case of images it is also the image that will appear on the rotating front page display on the front page. When Media Rank values are equal, it will display the first item that was uploaded.

· You can change the side your media appears on (as outlined above).

TIP: Video takes a lot of processing and time to convert. Count on it taking AT LEAST 10 minutes per video to convert your file. It might take longer.

Please be patient.

From the User Guide: How to create an article

2011-01-11T12:43:00.000-05:00

Creating an article

Click on Add Article from the Dashboard.

You will be presented with a form with several fields on it. Here is what the fields mean:

o Article Edition (Required): This is the edition that this article will be associated with.

o Rotating headlines? (Optional): This is pre-checked. If you uncheck this then images posted with this story WILL NOT appear in the rotating images on your front page.

o Standalone video? (Optional): This reformats the output of this article to be video-centric with a little screen instead of article content. The on-screen instructions outline how to work it.

o For your blog? (Optional): If the blog option is enabled for this user, this will show up and classify this as a blog entry. Blogging is covered elsewhere in this guide.

o Categories (Required): These categorize the story. You change and add these elsewhere in the system. You must pick one, but you can choose more than one.

TIP: If you get a message saying Category required and you don’t see any choices to do that, then you’ll have to go create at least one category.

Go to the Dashboard and click under Newspaper Sections.

o Author (Optional): The writer of the article.

o Headline (Required): The headline of the article

o Article Summary (Optional): This is what users see on the front page; it's the blurb summarizing the story. If you put in nothing here, the system will grab whatever is on the top of the story. Sometimes that leads to strange results.

o Article (Optional): This is where you put the article.

The basic text box option will show you a naked text box (not unlike the Article Summary box).
The Rich Text Editor offers you multiple ways to manipulate text, place links, place images, etc. It’s similar to Word.

TIP: If you get weird computer language text appearing in your stories (or in your summaries), the basic text box is your friend.

Click on it and you should be able to see EXACTLY what you posted into the Rich Text Editor. Often, it’s very different from what you thought you posted.

o Icon (Optional): The story icon that appears above the headline (examples include Online Exclusive and Feature). The process for creating your own icon is outlined under Icon Administration.

TIP: Display of the At-a-Glance page is NOT affected by sort order. The At-a-Glance page lists stories from most recent to least.

Sort Order (Optional): Number showing the rank of the article within its category. The lower the number, the higher it appears on the page. For example, an article with a 10 rank will appear above an article with a 20 rank. This ranking does not apply to the At-a-Glance page, which is sorted based on the last-updated date. If you do nothing, 0 will be inserted.
Save: Save and go back to the article list.
Save and Proceed to Media Gallery: If you wish to add any images, audio or video files, click this.
Cancel: Cancel what you've just entered and go back to the article list.
Delete: Similar to the above, but can be used if an article has already been created and you want to get rid of it.

Under the article is an “audit trail” of this article. It will show you:

The time and date of what it’s reporting
Who created the article
Who last edited the article
Any profanity reports associated with the article, what they are and where they appear.

From the User Guide: How to create or edit and edition

2011-01-11T12:42:00.000-05:00

Posting content

Posting content to the site is done, briefly, by opening both your Web browser and your page layout or content-editing program at the same time and then copying and pasting text from one to the other.

We do not recommend writing articles directly on our Web page. You will lose everything you wrote if anything goes wrong.

Creating a new edition

Click on Add Edition. You are presented with a form with several fields.

Newspaper: You can't change the site name.
Edition Name (Required): You can use a variety of approaches, such as: 2010-11 School Year, Valentine’s Day; Volume XXI; Number 8 or December 2010. Once you choose a style, stick with it to maintain consistency. This name will

TIP: Editions appear when the date is today’s date OR before today’s date.

Post-dated editions will not appear until that date.

If you only have deleted OR post-dated editions, the system will say you haven’t posted anything.

be displayed on all pages of the site where that edition displays.

Edition Date (Required): Next, enter the edition date. You can use the little calendar if you like, which will put the date in the form that the system requires. This date will be displayed in the site information box. If the date is in the future, the system will not display the edition or its contents.
PDF File (Optional): This asks you to upload PDFs. If you already have a print edition and know how to create a PDF, you can post them here. You can upload multiple PDFs per edition if you wish. We do not support creation of PDFs and cannot help you in this area. The large Add and Delete buttons refer to this PDF.
Is Deleted: If this is checked then this edition will not appear publically, but you will be able to see it in your admin area.

Click on Update.

TIP: The system is based on an edition/ article model.

When a new edition is created, it sends the old one to the archives.

TIP: If you want to, you could use the same edition all year and have material appear, blog-like from most recent to least. For example, the 2010-11 Edition.

Editing an edition

Click on Edit Edition.

You are presented with a menu screen showing all the available editions. You see:

o Edition name

o Number of articles in the edition. (This value can be clicked to take you to the article Edit Article page.)

o Edition Date

o Name of PDF file associated with edition (if any)

o Date edition was created

Here is what the icons to their left mean:

o The x will delete an edition.

o The pencil takes you to the Edit Edition screen – which is identical to the Create Edition screen. You may change the values here if you wish.

From the User Guide: How to load an image/banner that personalizes the publication

2011-01-11T12:40:00.001-05:00

Logo image

You have the ability to change the flag or header of your paper.

The first thing you will need to do is create or take an image – JPEG, GIF or PNG file – that is 668 pixels across and 150 pixels high at 72 dpi.

Next, click on Update… and the following will display.

· This screen forces the headers to appear the same size, which is important to the layout of the site.

· You can move the box around to help you get the crop right. There are two slider bars on the left to help you:

TIP: Logos need to be 668 pixels across and 150 pixels high.

If they aren't that size, the system will force them to be that size. You may not like the result.

o Resize image, which makes the image larger or smaller.

o Zoom view, which changes the size of the box.

· Once you get the crop you want, click Finish and the system will grab the image and place it in the box on the Newspaper Information screen.

TIP: If, when you go to post the image here you don’t see an option to upload, Javascript may be blocked on your computer. You may need to contact your IT person to get that fixed.

· Once the image is added, a Remove button appears below it. Click that to get rid of the flag image and restore the words.

· To store it and have it appear, click Update at the bottom

From the User Guide: How to turn that long URL address into a shorter, catchier one that will make it easier for the school community to remember

2011-01-11T12:35:00.004-05:00

How to get a short Web address

Relative Short Name

You don't like the URL you have …

http://my.hsj.org/Schools/Newspaper/tabid/100/view/frontpage/newspaperid/xxxxx/Default.aspx

… and you want a new one.

Do this

TIP: Type one word into the Relative Short Name field. Your Web address will then be http://my.hsj.org/word

· From the Dashboard, click on Edit Newspaper Information.

· Under Relative Short Name, type a word in the field. It doesn't matter if it's capitalized or not. This word should represent your school in the Web address.

· Now your URL will be:

http://my.hsj.org/thatword

· Hit Update

· Now you should go brand that URL everywhere. The library. The bulletin board. The flag of your printed paper. On letterhead. On business cards. Everywhere. And build your media empire!

Keep in mind that the Web address you write – http://my.hsj.org/word – will CHANGE into the long URL in the middle of this process. This is just redirecting the site, NOT renaming it.

Relative Short URL

IF YOU ARE HAPPY WITH THE AT-A-GLANCE PAGE BEING YOUR HOME PAGE ON THE SITE, DO NOT ENTER ANYTHING IN THIS FIELD. LEAVE IT COMPLETELY BLANK.

Sometimes people don't like the At-a-Glance page being their home page. It lists things in date order instead of the Sort Order at the bottom of the article-entry page. They want it to point to their front page instead.

Do this:

· Follow the procedures for Relative Short Name and get shorter Web address.

· Choose a page to redirect to instead of the At-a-Glance page, say the front page, and copy that Web address. The page should be on my.hsj.org. An example would be:

http://my.hsj.org/Schools/Newspaper/tabid/100/view/frontpage/newspaperid/614/categoryid/3584/editionid/29580/Default.aspx

TIP: Put the web address you’d like to redirect to in the Relative Short URL field. Include the http://

· Enter that URL into the Relative Short URL field, INCLUDING THE HTTP:// AT THE BEGINNING.

· DO NOT EVER REDIRECT TO YOUR AT-A-GLANCE PAGE. It will break you site.

· Delete the editionid and the number following it. In the above example…

http://my.hsj.org/Schools/Newspaper/tabid/100/view/frontpage/newspaperid/614/categoryid/3584/~~editionid/29580~~/Default.aspx

so you’re left with…

http://my.hsj.org/Schools/Newspaper/tabid/100/view/frontpage/newspaperid/614/categoryid/3584/Default.aspx

If you DON’T do this, then people will ALWAYS go to that edition’s front page even if you create and place a new edition and new content. No one will ever see it.

· Hit Update

· Now when people browse to the Relative Short Name Web address you created they will be redirected to this page instead of the At-a-Glance page.

Video issue resolved

2011-01-11T12:35:00.002-05:00

An issue that affected large video files not uploading has been resolved.

Local advertising

2010-12-01T12:21:00.001-05:00

You can now place local ads on my.hsj.org. YOU negotiate the ad and the rates, YOU create or take advertiser-supplied ads and YOU control when and where they appear. Local advertising is administered through the widget system. On the Dashboard, click on Add [Widgets that will be prominent on your site] and you can place an ad. Details are spelled out in the User Guide.

User guide updated

2010-12-01T12:20:00.000-05:00

Updated User Guide. Dated Dec. 1, it provides step-by-step instructions on both site basics and the many new options that are available. When you log in to the site, it can always be found on the Dashboard, but you can also download it here: http://my.hsj.org/my.hsj.org-TeacherGuide.pd

New design pushed

2010-09-28T18:26:00.002-04:00

We have now pushed Pontchartrain design for school sites (again, it has space for outside widgets). We expect to push two more before we are through.

Go crazy, kids.

Video FAQ

2010-09-27T09:24:00.003-04:00

Frequently asked questions about video.

What formats can I upload?

If a file ends in any of the following extenders, we support it.
.mpg, .mpeg, .avi, .wmv, .asf, .flv, .mov, .mp4

MPEG, AVI, Windows Media, Flash Video, Quicktime, MP4

Why doesn't my video display?

First, be patient. We upload the video in batches so it is less of a burden on our servers. So you may have to wait up to 5 minutes for it to even make it to the server we store it on. This is AFTER you have uploaded it.

Video just times out before I have a chance to finish uploading it. Is there a size limit on uploads?

There is a limit, but it's 50 Mb, so that's probably not the issue. Most videos are nowhere near that size.

Generally, we have found that you have a certain amount of time to upload a file before the connection between your computer and ours is severed. We don't sever it, but it gets cut nonetheless. We have seen this time range from 80 seconds to 120 seconds.

How to deal with this:

Test the files. Start small and work your way up. 2 minutes, 4 minutes, 6 minutes, etc. You will soon learn your local limits.
Use an efficient format. AVI is an inefficient format. It creates large files. Convert to something other than AVI.
Size it right. WE ARE GOING TO CONVERT IT no matter what. We convert it to FLV video about 320 pixels wide. For every pixel over 320 pixels wide (depth doesn't matter as long as it's standard video), the size of the file goes up exponentially, not 1-to-1. So if you convert it or shoot it close to 320, you'll be better off (always shoot ABOVE 320, not below).

FLV video

2010-09-27T09:20:00.001-04:00

We had an issue with uploads of FLV video. You could upload it successfully -- even play it -- for a short time. Then it disappeared.

We have fixed that issue and if you would like to upload FLV, you can.

New layouts

2010-09-27T09:19:00.002-04:00

Please take note of the two new layouts we have pushed out.

1. Okeechobee.
2. Salt Lake

(Naturally we kept with the lake theme.)

We expect to roll out three more in the coming weeks.

Student logins can again post content

2010-09-07T12:33:00.003-04:00

On Saturday, we pushed out some additional changes to the site. Once this occurred, it became impossible for student logins to post content.

We have identified the problem -- a coding logic error -- and fixed it.

Student logins can now once again post content.

We apologize for the disruption.

Short name extravaganza

2010-08-24T11:41:00.003-04:00

We have made a major improvement to the short name system.

Previously we had a system that made your URL
http://my.hsj.org/va/reston/hsjhigh

We now have a system that allows
http://my.hsj.org/hsjhigh

So whatever you type in the short name needs to be unique (the system won't allow it if it's not).

Schools that have been with my.hsj.org a long time may still use the old URLs. If you find changing it doesn't work for you, please contact Craig and he'll fix it (we have an older system in place for these).

There WAS an issue with these systems earlier, but we believe we have resolved it.

Craig has updated the relative short URLs

2010-02-17T17:04:00.001-05:00

In case your site WASN'T working earlier and it is now, it was probably me: I updated the relative short URLs that will cause trouble just now.

Some articles "orphaned"

2010-01-13T11:48:00.005-05:00

Due to a mistake we made in the most recent update (mid-December) we allowed editions to be deleted when they still had articles in them. (The application should ignore your request when you try this.)

As a result, a certain number of articles were "orphaned" and will never display again.

This issue will manifest itself in two ways:

* The editions won't appear in your archive of editions. Either on your front page or on your Edit Edition page.

* When looking at past stories (on the edit story list that shows approved/unapproved) you'll click on the approved articles and encounter an error every time.

This is a hassle all around, but if you find yourself missing these stories, please do the following:

* Click on the articles in question in your approved list and mark down the number after "ArticleID/xxxxxx/Default.aspx" in the URL (Web address).

* Collect these article IDs into one e-mail.

* Decide WHAT EDITION YOU WOULD LIKE THESE ARTICLES TO BELONG TO. I DO NOT NEED THE NAME OF THE EDITION, I NEED THE EDITIONID.

* Do this by clicking on Edit Editions on the Dashboard, choosing the edition you want and clicking the pencil next to it. In the URL you will see "editionid/xxxxx/Default.aspx" where xxxx is a number

* E-mail support@asne.org with the articleID, editionID if there are several different kinds. Or if they're all going into the same new edition (for example) you can just say change all these to editionid xxxx and then list the article IDs.

Update to edition behavior

2010-01-13T11:35:00.002-05:00

Some of you have noticed a change to the edition behavior and asked me about it. We changed the behavior in mid-December.

The way it shows itself is when the system says you have no content to display but YOU KNOW that you do.

Previously, editions were governed by two main factors: date and active/inactive.

We eliminated the active/inactive piece of information because it was causing confusion. It may reappear in the future as a display/don't display option, but it's gone for now. As always, the site is a work in progress.

In its place display of editions is governed wholly by the edition date.

Here's where it confuses people:

If you create a January edition with the edition date 1/1/10 and then create a February edition with the edition date 1/10/10, the FEBRUARY edition will be displayed on the front page.

Why?

Because it's in the past (a requirement) AND its edition date is the most recent.

How would you fix this?

One way would be to future date February's edition to 2/1/10. Another would be to change January to 1/11/10.

Craig has updated the relative short URLs

2010-01-12T09:44:00.000-05:00

In case your site WASN'T working earlier and it is now, it was probably me: I updated the relative short URLs that will cause trouble just now.

Craig changes relative short URLs sometimes

2009-11-24T10:01:00.003-05:00

Hello:

I go in to the database occasionally and fix the relative short URLs if they are wrong. So if you notice a change like the following, it was probably me.

If you had something like http://my.hsj.org/Schools/Newspaper/tabid/100/view/frontpage/newspaperid/856/categoryid/2540/editionid/26419/Default.aspx then I have gone in and deleted the bolded part so it will work. If that isn't done, people will always be redirected to a particular edition, which is not what you want.
If you had something like http://my.hsj.org/va/reston/asne in the relative short URL, I deleted it because the computer will keep going in loop and it will never work.
If you had something like http://my.hsj.org/Schools/Newspaper/tabid/100/view/frontpage/newspaperid/856/Default.aspx in the relative short URL, I deleted it because the computer will keep going in loop and it will never work.
If you had something like http://thenationaledition.com then I deleted it because we don't allow you to redirect off the site.

Your stories in National Editions past

2009-11-03T17:08:00.002-05:00

This is a new feature we added recently to the Dashboard: A list of all the stories from your students that have ever appeared in the National Edition.

This is useful if you have forgotten or missed an edition and it's getting to be award time at your school. This and that handy-dandy certificate right above it (just add calligraphy!) and you've got yourself a little journalism award ceremony!

I have edited the short URLs again

2009-11-03T17:04:00.000-05:00

I have removed the editionid/xxxxx part of any relative short URLs that were in the system. This should make the link work for you if it wasn't before.

I have also removed some OTHER sites that were in there. You MAY NOT redirect off our site in this manner. I will delete these.

Do not use Chrome

2009-11-03T16:49:00.001-05:00

Chrome encounters trouble on parts of our site. We recommend that you not use it.

Do not use Safari

2009-11-03T16:48:00.000-05:00

Safari has trouble on our site. We recommend not using it.

I've done a little editing on the short URLs and such

2009-10-19T11:35:00.001-04:00

I have removed the editionid/xxxxx part of any relative short urls that were in the system. This should make the link work for you if it wasn't before.

I have also removed some OTHER sites that were in there. You MAY NOT redirect off our site in this manner. I will delete these.

A word about the short URL process

2009-10-19T11:29:00.003-04:00

Your current URL looks like this...

http://my.hsj.org/Schools/Newspaper/tabid/100/view/frontpage/newspaperid/856/Default.aspx

... and you want it to look like this...

http://my.hsj.org/va/reston/nationaledition

OK. All you have to do is go to the Newspaper Information link on the Dashboard.

Under Relative Short Name: type a word. A single word. In the example above, I would have typed nationaledition.

Hit update, you're done.

BUT... if you DON'T want the at-a-glance page to be your home page, then...

Go to your home page. Click on the link of the section you want the home page to be. Look at the top Web address in your browser. It's something like.

http://my.hsj.org/Schools/Newspaper/tabid/100/view/frontpage/newspaperid/856/categoryid/2541/editionid/25631/Default.aspx

... but WAIT. Because life is imperfect, you must do a small little thing. Go in to the top Web address box and GET RID OF the "editionid/25631/" in this example, leaving you with ...

http://my.hsj.org/Schools/Newspaper/tabid/100/view/frontpage/newspaperid/856/categoryid/2541/Default.aspx

Now copy and paste THAT into the relative short URL field. And hit update.

Now, when you type your short URL, the site will go to that section.

Crazy long lists now gone

2009-10-06T12:23:00.003-04:00

As I explained in another post, as part of the push last week, we started putting the lists of your PDFs, archived editions, and other items in the navigation column for SEO (search engine optimization) reasons.

This made for some crazy long lists for some people.

We have now squished them into a little space that says See/Hide that allows the user to choose to see this material or not.

Thanks for your feedback in this area. It really helped.

Oops, I forgot the most important thing

2009-10-02T16:23:00.001-04:00

The coolest thing in the new push and I forgot about it.

We now allow you to post background images of your choice!

Look on the Newspaper Info page on the Dashboard and you will see this under the logo upload. It works the same way -- you have to give us an image that matches our specs -- or we will force it. But it will then repeat as the background image behind your site.

Try it. It's really neat.

New push this week

2009-10-02T15:08:00.002-04:00

On Thursday, we pushed an update of the site online.

We changed or updated:

* The way video is stored
* The way your archives, PDFs, school information and staff pages displayed

And we made several internal changes.

As a result of this, we made PDFs, archives and some other things disappear briefly.

Some people are unhappy with aspects of this change, so I wanted to explain why we did it and what we are doing to improve it.

Search engine optimization is a buzzword that means making a site better able to be searched by Google, Yahoo and the like. In our case, optimized the site to bring as much to the front page as possible to improve our standings in the search engines. Experience tells us that what we did improves things. The higher we appear in search results, the more traffic we get.

At least one person has told me about her unhappiness with the result. So I am discussing with my developers ways to mitigate this and not make it so intrusive. We hope to have it in place for the next push.

If you are experiencing other unpleasant experiences on the site, please let me know about them -- at support@asne.org.

Google Chrome and my.hsj.org

2009-09-21T16:37:00.002-04:00

Some people are experiencing an issue where $0s are inserted all over the place.

We have narrowed this a little bit.

We believe it happens with people who use Google Chrome as a browser. It MAY also have something to do with copying and pasting from Google Docs, but we have not tested this yet.

The developers who did the article part of our site acknowledge a problem with Chrome and say they will be fixing it in the next release, but have given no date as to when that will be. Our developers used their code (the whole site has instances like this).

Unfortunately, this means that in the meantime, we recommend not using:

* Chrome (because of this issue)
* Safari (because of display issues and issues uploading content)

We will update this when we know more.

How's the weather?

2009-09-17T22:12:00.003-04:00

The weather is tied to your ZIP code. If that is wrong, then we need to fix it. For our international customers this could prove problematic.

Look at your school information page and you will see the ZIP we have for you. E-MAIL support@asne.org if it's wrong.

$0, how I loathe you

2009-09-17T14:57:00.004-04:00

A lot of people are seeing $0 in their story text. We know this.

We also know what piece of software is causing this.

What we don't know is what the circumstances are that lead to this.

If you are experiencing this, would you please take a moment and comment (click the little x comments link below this) to with:

* The computer you're on (Windows/Mac)
* The browser you're using (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, etc.)
* The version of that browser (8, 5.1, etc.)
* What program you are copying and pasting from (Word, for example)

I've posted content, but site says I haven't

2009-08-28T16:29:00.000-04:00

The site displays the "Sorry, this school hasn't posted any content yet. Check back soon" message when it thinks it has nothing to display.

It will do this if you:

* Have no active editions
* Have only future editions
* Have no active stories

A lot of people approve stuff and then don't see it show up. Try this first:

* Go to the Dashboard.

* Click on Edit Edition on the left

* Click on the pencil next to the edition in question

* Make sure that the date is not in the future.

* Make sure that active is yes.

* Click update

* Go look at your page again.

It SHOULD have updated itself.

My design changes aren't taking

2009-08-28T16:08:00.000-04:00

In order for design changes to be reflected on your site, you must have one active edition and a story (even a token story).

Watch us on Twitter

2009-08-13T16:41:00.000-04:00

Our Twitter name is youthjournalism. http://twitter.com/youthjournalism

National Edition 2009-10

2009-08-13T16:40:00.003-04:00

The next National Edition will launch on Monday, Aug. 24.

You want a shorter URL

2009-08-13T16:09:00.003-04:00

You don't like the URL you have (http://my.hsj.org/Schools/Newspaper/tabid/100/view/frontpage/newspaperid/xxxxx/Default.aspx) and you want a new one.

Do the following:

1. Log in under the teacher login.

2. Click on Newspaper Information in the Dashboard.

3. In the middle of the page, there is a field called Relative Short Name. Type one word in this field. It doesn't matter if it's capitalized or not. This word should represent your school.

4. Now your URL will be: http://my.hsj.org/stateabbreviation/cityname/thatword. Or something like http://my.hsj.org/va/reston/asne

5. Now you must go brand that URL everywhere. The library. The bulletin board. The flag of your printed paper. On letterhead. Everywhere. And build your media empire!

P.S. If Relative Short Name is for the URL, what is Relative Short URL for? I'm glad you asked. Sometimes advisers don't like the At-A-Glance page being their home page. It lists things in date order not in story priority order (that number at the bottom of the article-entry page). So what one would do in that instance is enter a URL in that field that they want the Relative Short Name to redirect to. Instead of the At-A-Glance page, they have it redirect to their front page (which is a different URL). PLEASE REMEMBER TO INSERT THE HTTP:// before your URL in this field.

IF YOU ARE HAPPY WITH THE AT-A-GLANCE PAGE BEING YOUR HOME PAGE ON THE SITE, DO NOT CHANGE THIS.

Many many changes in store for 2009-10

2009-08-13T15:33:00.002-04:00

There have been many changes made to the site since June. We will be releasing a new version of the user guide going forward, but a short overview is:

Editions

Backdated has now been eliminated. Editions are now either active or inactive. The date MUST BE BEFORE TODAY OR TODAY in order for an active edition to appear.
An edition can now have more than one PDF associated with it. For the love of all that is good, please keep these under 5 Mb -- preferably 1 Mb. No one has that much time.

Articles

You cannot leave the title field blank now. Doing so used to make articles unclickable on the admin screen.

Appearance

Lots of changes here. We have separated the appearance and newspaper information screens.
We have introduced what is known as an AJAX application for the appearance page. This allows you to see the changes in real time. It's really cool.
We now have five page designs -- up from two before. They are named after the Great Lakes -- HOMES -- Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior. They all look slightly different.
We have introduced colors to various parts of the screen.
We have introduced different motifs for you to use.
We will be adding additional features going forward in this area.

Public pages

The weather now appears on the front page of your site. This is based on your ZIP code. You can see what we have for you on the School Information page; let us know if it's wrong. Also, you can turn off the weather (and various other features) on that page.
Pages now look really different. In addition to the changes outlined above, you have:

changes to the list view (list or card view)
changes to the icon sizes (they should now be no deeper than 22 pixels deep)
Full Story icons appear different (and change color when you hover over them)
headlines themselves are ALL CAPS now.

We now allow feeds to be read on the site. If you have RSS feeds (say from this blog or another one outside our site -- remember, we have regulated blogs, too, and they work just like stories -- you can have them available on your site by clicking on Add [RSS feeds that will be prominent on your site] from the dashboard.

Site reports return

2009-05-28T09:09:00.006-04:00

Site reports are back. On the bottom right of the dashboard, you will see this...

When you click through, you will now see a variation of this this...

... which is different from the user guide and from what you saw before.

We now let you list:

Unique article/blog hits this month
Unique article/blog hits this year
Unique article/blog hits since (your site) started

The user guide must now be revised.

A unique hit is a hit within a 30-minute timeframe from a particular computer IP address. After 30 minutes, if it visits the same page, it is counted again.

The site report system we were using had millions of records in it, which is what made it slow and unreliable. We have revised it so it stores MUCH less information, but still delivers the relevant statistics. This should make it a lot more reliable.

Thank you for your patience.

Video issues resolved?

2009-05-27T10:08:00.002-04:00

Starting May 3, our video provider started having issues with timeouts when uploading video. In practical terms, this meant that a lot of videos didn't upload correctly.

We didn't notice this until May 26.

The provider now says it has corrected the issue.

If you have had video issues this month, please try uploading them again and let me know if you continue to have trouble getting them to show up.

Site statistics down

2009-05-13T17:40:00.000-04:00

Site statistics are down again so we have removed them from the dashboard for the time being.

What happens is that when you click on the site statistic link it waits 30-35 seconds and then gives you a time-out error.

We are investing time and money into reworking how this whole system works so that it is robust enough to handle your queries and will return it when it is working correctly.

I'll announce it on here when we do

Thank you for your patience.

User guide for teachers updated

2009-05-13T17:36:00.003-04:00

I have today posted the newest version of the user guide.

It goes over:

Media rank
Blog posts
Short URLs and redirects
Renaming of various links

I also rewrote some of the existing material to make more sense based on the calls and e-mails we get.

Find it here: http://my.hsj.org/my.hsj.org-TeacherGuide.pdf

Article summaries not showing up

2009-04-06T12:21:00.004-04:00

In some instances you will update your article summaries and they won't change or appear -- ever.

What is happening is that when an article is saved WITHOUT an article summary initially, the system is inserting the top of the article text in its place. But when you go back to add the summary it doesn't update. You can only set it once.

We are aware of this issue and it is on our list to fix.

~~In the meantime, always save something in the summary field -- if only to come back later and change it.~~ Apparently, that was wrong and does not fix it. This is on the list to fix.

E-mail addresses on student accounts

2009-03-31T15:56:00.007-04:00

When you set up a student account, the e-mail address is used so the system can e-mail the user their user name and password.

Some people put nonsense in there. Others put the same e-mail address they use themselves: j.teacher@schools.k12.blah.us, for example.

These are both bad policies.

The e-mail address is optional, so if you're not going to put a real address in there, you should just omit it. When you put in false addresses, we get bounces here when your user requests their user name and password (plus, they never get the information, anyway). Worse, if you use YOUR e-mail address for all of them, you will be unable to retrieve your login information because the system won't know which one is you.

Bottom line: If you're not going to put real information in that box, omit it.

Media Index explanation

2009-03-30T17:44:00.001-04:00

What is the media index?

You will see this if you try to add images or other media to articles at the bottom of the page. Media index is our computer-jargony way of saying media sort order.

All you need to do is assign it a number. The lower the number, the higher it will appear in your article media listing.

We will be changing the name in our next push.

Site statistics back up

2009-03-30T10:28:00.001-04:00

The site statistics are back up.

We accomplished this by rebooting the database server that underlies the entire system. We don't like to do this because it completely disrupts the site -- so we did it at midnight on Sunday, normally a pretty low-traffic time.

We are now investigating why this happened and will work to prevent it.

But it's nice to know that if it DOES happen again we know one way to fix it.

Thank you for your patience.

ASNE pushes version 2.2.1

2009-03-27T17:00:00.004-04:00

We pushed a new version of the site on Wednesday night.

You will find a few things different.

* URLs can change. You can set your Web addresses within our site. On the Appearance page, the Relative Short Name is the part that appears after http://my.hsj.org/state/city/(here).

* You don't HAVE to use the at-a-glance page as your home page. On that same Appearance page -- just below -- is a place for you to put the Web address you want people to go to when they type your short Web address. Keep in mind NOT to set it to a specific edition (Use something like http://my.hsj.org/Schools/Newspaper/tabid/100/view/frontpage/newspaperid/1661/categoryid/15771/Default.aspx).

* Colors. We have introduced 10 new color schemes to the site.

* RSS feeds. These are now improved and have mobile versions.

* Media rank order. Seemingly arcane, this tool gives you exact control over what order your media appears with an article. We will enhance this capability over time.

* MP4 support. We now support uploading of MP4s as article media.

* Rename navigation functions. Don't like the name of the Contact link on the navigation bar? You can change it now. On the Appearance page it and the others can now be updated.

* E-mail this story. The e-mail-this-article functionality has been improved.

* Issue with non-at-a-glance view fixed. An issue with the regular sections of the site (your front page, for example) was causing these pages to list articles in the order they were submitted rather than the sort order. This has been fixed.

Photos: JPEG, GIF and PNG only

2009-03-24T11:09:00.002-04:00

We support the uploading of JPEG, GIF and PNG files to our site. We don't support TIFFs.

Why?

Because those three are able to be viewed by Web browsers and TIFF images aren't (at least not without special software most people don't have).

As a special bonus those files also tend to be much smaller than TIFF files.

To deal with this, you should open the file in a program like Photoshop and do a Save As... to one of the formats we allow.

Site statistics down

2009-03-23T17:05:00.004-04:00

The site statistics have been down since at least Friday. What happens is that you click on them and the system times out before delivering them to you (about 30-35 seconds of churning).

We are aware of this issue and my developers have been working on it all day -- recoding the way the page works, examining the data underlying the reports, etc.

We have not solved the issue yet, but I believe we will. Thank you for your patience.

Until we do, we have removed the link from the Dashboard.

Stories don't appear. Why?

2009-03-12T12:03:00.003-04:00

Your stories aren't appearing. You don't know why.

Try these things first.

1. Make are the stories are approved. When listing the stories by clicking on Edit Edition and clicking on the numbers OR when clicking on the x stories in queue on the dashboard, you will see the INACTIVE stories by default. Select the ones you want to appear and click on Approve.

2. Make sure the edition is active. From the Dashboard, click on Edit Edition. Click the pencil next to the edition you want to appear. At the bottom of that next screen, make sure it says Active and Backdated = No.

3. Make sure content is in the stories. The Article Summary box is for the blurb that appears on the front page and on section fronts. It's not for the whole story -- only 200 or so characters from it are every displayed. The Article box is for the article itself. If the summary box is blank, the system will grab the first 200 or so characters from the top of the article box to display on the front page and section fronts.

I forgot my staff logins/passwords

2009-03-10T16:01:00.002-04:00

If you forget your staff passwords and need to reset them, you have two choices.

1. You can reset the passwords manually using the Edit User pages.

2. You can go to the record in question, save their e-mail somewhere, then set the e-mail of that user to your own e-mail, log off and then ask the system to send the user name and password to you on the login screen. Then log back in and reset the e-mail to what it was before. The system will e-mail the password to you.

Don't put the ' character in photo file names

2009-02-26T16:28:00.001-05:00

This has been causing photos not to display in the system. We're working on it, but at this moment, it is causing problems. so... john'sphoto.jpg is a photo name you should avoid for the time being.

Audio not uploading properly

2009-02-20T16:03:00.002-05:00

In the article entry page, there is a way to enter audio files. These are to be used for podcasts, but many people have been uploading regular files associated with their stories. When the files don't appear, it confuses them.

Be aware that you should only post related media -- stuff you want to appear with articles -- on the save and add media page and not here.

We will be changing the way this works in the future to make it more intuitive.

Comment system improved

2009-02-20T15:56:00.003-05:00

Users have been seeing other newspapers'/schools' comments in their comments queue. We pushed an update this last night that should take care of this. If you see it again, please contact support@asne.org

Intermittant video issues

2009-02-20T11:27:00.002-05:00

We have continued to have some recurring video upload issues. We use a third-party provider for these and although they are responsive, sometimes these problems recur. We're exploring this with them.

First, we are going to increase the wait period we ask you to wait until your video is ready. Sometimes five minutes isn't enough. Make it 10.

Next, if your video doesn't upload, there's a possibility -- especially if it's an AVI file -- that we have a problem with it overall, not just sometimes. If you have an alternative to AVI, try that first.

If you try these things and fail, when you e-mail support@asne.org, please include the URL (Web address) of the article that contains the offending video. That helps us a lot.

If these problems continue to occur, we will change providers, but we're going to stick with them at least until the summer.

It still displays the default look. Why?

2009-02-20T11:21:00.004-05:00

In order for your themes to show, you must have some active content to display. Even if that means creating a token edition and story.

Trouble saving photos

2009-02-18T10:58:00.000-05:00

Sometimes the system won't accept photos that you have uploaded.

The first thing you should check is the actual name of the photo file. Make sure that it:

* Has no weird characters in it (&/#@, etc.)
* Doesn't have spaces in it (this is generally NOT a problem, but no use taking chances)
* Has .jpg, .gif or .png at the end. Those are the photo types we support.

Sometimes, though, this is because the photos are somehow saved incorrectly, but the service is sometimes at fault, as well.

When this happens, you should first delete the existing photo.

Next, you should try uploading it again (there may have been a glitch at the moment you uploaded the first one).

If that fails, first delete the photo that just failed then try going to the original photo and resaving it, changing something slight about it as you save it. For example, you might change the photo quality from 6 to 5 in Photoshop. Also, make sure that the photo is being saved as RGB rather than CMYK. The key is to make the file different enough so that you're saving something new and not trying the same thing over again.

This often will fix the problem.

Flag images and resizing them

2009-02-17T10:42:00.002-05:00

The flag image size is 668 pixels wide x 150 pixels deep. Your image will need to be that size in order to work.

The system will upsize anything you give it to fill the space. For example, if you upload something that is 339 x 75, it will double it (and probably make it blurry). Likewise, if it is 1336 x 300, it will halve it.

If your image is not a proportion of the size specified, it will crop it to fit. To prevent this, in Photoshop or the equivalent program, you'll need to alter the image so that when it does crop, it will crop white space (or at least part of the image you don't care about) OR so that you can make it a variation of that proportion so it fits exactly.

One example I recently came across was 320 pixels wide by 49 pixels deep. In this example, you would need to make the image deeper -- to about 72 pixels -- before starting.

Large uploads

2009-02-12T16:38:00.003-05:00

We were having an issue with large uploads this week -- PDFs and video. We have changed the "time-out" period that our server waits until quitting on you, which should resolve some of this.

Keep in mind that even if you are on a fast connection, your UPLOAD speed may not be as speedy as you think; often it's a fraction of the download speed. If you try to upload a 50Mb video file and you can only upload at 100Kb/s, it's going to take you a loooong time to upload that file -- up to 51 minutes.

If you don't succeed in the school environment, you might try it at home.

That said, here are some thoughts on how to make the file sizes smaller should this happen to you.

For PDFs, you should try to reduce file size. In Indesign, when you export to PDF, Web quality is one of the options and you should use it. Web PDFs are different from print PDFs -- images are smaller.

For video, every 1x1 pixel you go up in screen size, the amount of storage you require goes up exponentially. This means that smaller screen sizes usually translate into smaller files. Also, AVI files tend to be much larger than their cousins WMV and MOV; if it's an option to save in the other formats, try that. We're going to downsize them to our dimensions and convert them to Flash Video (FLV), anyway.

Video fixed

2009-02-09T11:23:00.001-05:00

We believe an issue we were having with video not uploading is now fixed. If you uploaded video in the last week, please try it again. Let us know if it fails.

You can subcribe to this RSS feed

2009-02-06T16:53:00.005-05:00

So let's say you like this blog and want to see any updates to the my.hsj.org site as I update them here. All you have to do is tell your RSS feed reader to use http://myhsj.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default as the page to subscribe to and every time I update you should see it there. Not working? Look at this link.

New user guide for teachers and students

2009-02-06T15:28:00.002-05:00

I forgot to mention this in my mass e-mail, but the user guide for both students and teachers has been updated. Be sure to check it out.

Period and commas return! Hooray!

2009-02-06T12:47:00.002-05:00

An issue with the 2.1 push on Feb. 2 was that in index pages (the at-a-glance page and section fronts) was that periods and commas disappeared in the story summaries. Thankfully, this has been restored.

Share widget

2009-02-04T18:44:00.001-05:00

Early in the development process, we introduced a share widget so you could share your articles and content on Facebook, MySpace, etc.

Search restored

2009-02-04T18:42:00.004-05:00

In the Feb. 2 push, the search functionality was restored. It had been removed during the performance issues of December. We saw that the changes made to improve performance allowed it to return.

We hope to improve search over time.

Performance improved

2009-02-04T18:42:00.002-05:00

In December (early in this round of changes), performance issues were addressed. The way the site serves content was changed fundamentally.

Standalone video option created

2009-02-04T18:39:00.002-05:00

In the Feb. 2 updated, we introduced a new article model: a standalone video.

This is intended for broadcast programs or stories where the video is the primary content.

Here's how to use it.

* Create an article.

* Place it in an edition and add categories as you would other articles.

* Check the standalone video option. It will say this: "When you choose this option, video will be the primary display. You will upload it after you click on 'Save and proceed to media gallery' below. The article field will be used as the caption. The credit and caption fields on the media gallery page ARE NOT USED. You should not upload any additional media."

The instructions are pretty self-explanatory.

The standalone video will appear in the index pages and its own article page.

E-mail this article page issues

2009-02-04T18:37:00.005-05:00

When you e-mailed an article, it would send the wrong URL to the recipient.

We believe this is fixed in the Feb. 2 update.

Please let us know if it isn't.

National Edition logo

2009-02-04T18:37:00.001-05:00

Content appearing in National Editions created since Nov. 20 now have the National Edition logo again.

Profanity filter issues

2009-02-04T18:35:00.002-05:00

One of the two issues with the profanity filter has been addressed.

The profanity filter was including the word harass in its filter because the last few letters are a bad word. We have adjusted it to look for a leading space.

The e-mail alerts some people are getting are currently false alarms and can be safely ignored. If there is no flag, then it's OK.

Image widths

2009-02-04T18:34:00.001-05:00

It has been a while since we introduced it, but the thumbs on the index pages and the "premiere" images have both been adjusted.

The thumbs to show the whole image. The premiere images to display not more than 400 pixels wide, but less if the photo is narrower.

We are still working on caption issues here.

Polls

2009-02-04T18:30:00.002-05:00

We have studied putting up our own poll offering and found that it would be more effective for users to use a service that utilizes Javascript to post polls.

Services like PollDaddy are well suited for this.

To use it, do this...

* Sign up for PollDaddy. It's free.

* Create a poll using the questions you want and the stylings you want.

* Get the Javascript code.

* Create an article. Write any introduction you want. Click Basic Text Box. Click HTML (below the article entry box).

* Paste the PollDaddy code.

* Click back to Rich Text Editor and continue adding stuff.

When the article is previewed or displayed, you will see the poll. The only downside is that there can only be 100 responses on PollDaddy polls.

Article posting improvements

2009-02-04T18:27:00.002-05:00

We have worked hard to improve the article posting behavior of the site.

1. We have studied hard the Word paste functionality to make sure that a lot of the invisible garbage that Word brings in is not displayed.

2. It is possible to put HTML into the article if you wish. Click on basic text and then HTML. This is a good way to insert things like < embed > material or stuff like PollDaddy polls.

We are working on other improvements in this area.

Link to blog

2009-02-04T18:26:00.001-05:00

A link to this blog has now been placed on the Dashboard of the site. This is the first place we will post material important to users.

Two changes to comment admin interface

2009-02-04T18:25:00.003-05:00

Comments to articles have had two updates as of Feb. 2

1. It is now possible to look at all the information the commenter has posted before OKing the comment.

2. It is now possible to "unapprove" a comment after it has been approved. It is also possible to delete it.

Multiple media items can now be shown

2009-02-04T18:23:00.003-05:00

When there are more than two videos associated with an article, any after the second was unviewable.

We believe this is fixed as a result of the Feb. 2 update. Please let us know if it isn't.

Media can be deleted/edited

2009-02-04T18:22:00.003-05:00

A major accomplishment of the Feb. 2 update is allowing users to edit, delete and move media associated with articles. This wasn't possible before.

Students can edit stories

2009-02-04T18:19:00.002-05:00

The Feb. 2 push has addressed one of the biggest issues users have complained about: students editing content. This is now possible.

Any student can edit any other student's content.

If everyone is using separate logins the audit trail at the bottom of any story will let you know who was last to change any article. If you are using a common login for students, you will not get this information -- only the time it was changed.

Deleting yourself

2009-02-04T18:16:00.002-05:00

If you delete yourself by mistake, contact Craig Branson and he will fix your login.

What will happen, though, is that going forward you will need to use the My Account pulldown and click on My Profile to edit your material. You won't appear on the staff edit listing any more.

At-a-glance page doesn't act the way I expect

2009-02-04T18:13:00.003-05:00

As you probably know from reading the manual, the at-a-glance page is not subject to the story list order used in other sections of the site, but is supposed to rely solely on the date/time of the story itself.

Sometimes the at-a-glance page has not listed the most recently updated content, but instead has listed things randomly.

We believe we have this fixed in the Feb. 2 update. If you find examples of it not working, please let us know.

Punctuation missing on index pages

2009-02-04T18:12:00.001-05:00

As part of the Feb. 2 push, front pages and section fronts had commas and periods removed. This should be fixed by the end of the week.

Appearance expanded

2009-02-04T18:06:00.002-05:00

In the Feb. 2 update, we introduced two new appearance enhancements.

First, we introduced a new skin that puts the navigation on the right and the Google ads on the left.

Next, we added to the number of styles:

adventure
bears
broncos
bulldogs
clouds
college
cowboys
crayons
default
dragons
eagles
fall
mustangs
nature
paw
rams
soldiers
tiger
tiger2
vikings

We have plans for additional changes here, as well.

Google ads

2009-02-03T18:22:00.000-05:00

We will be selling online ads in the future as a side to our existing http://highschoolads.org site and augmenting them with your ads and Google ads in the hopes of generating revenue for you. Until then, though, it's only Google. If you participate in one you have to participate in the other.

If you would like us to turn off the ads, please let us know.

Content is missing

2009-02-03T18:18:00.000-05:00

First, look at this post. Next, make sure you check your administration pages to see that the content is actually missing. Check Approved vs. Unapproved, on the edition view. Finally, make sure that your content is not backdated.

Appearance

2009-02-03T18:10:00.000-05:00

As is outlined in the user guide, the site now has a lot of flexibility on appearance. This will increase going forward.

Old staff login doesn't work

2009-02-03T18:07:00.000-05:00

Staff and student login information is now combined, which allows each staffer to have a login. For this reason, we disabled the existing staff login and did not include existing staff information. Each will need to be entered again.

Short URLs (Web addresses)

2009-02-03T18:02:00.001-05:00

You SHOULD be assigned a short URL -- http://my.hsj.org/va/reston/asne rather than http://my.hsj.org/Schools/Newspaper/tabid/100/view/frontpage/newspaperid/856/Default.aspx, for example. If we have neglected to create a short URL for you please let us know.

We will need the http://my.hsj.org/Schools/Newspaper/tabid/100/view/frontpage/newspaperid/856/Default.aspx version.

The URLs we create will follow the pattern above: state, city/town name, school abbreviation.