Local advertising

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

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

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

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:

1. Test the files. Start small and work your way up. 2 minutes, 4 minutes, 6 minutes, etc. You will soon learn your local limits.
   
2. Use an efficient format. AVI is an inefficient format. It creates large files. Convert to something other than AVI.
3. 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

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

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

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

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

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"

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

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

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.