Blog channels

Blog channels are locations in your digital workplace where you create and store blog articles. These articles are often long-form, rich-text articles about news, updates, and announcements. Your digital workplace can have many blog channels, each focusing on a specific niche topic or targeting a particular type of user. While on a blog channel, users can view a feed of published articles and follow the channel to receive email updates about new content.

Users will only see articles that they have at least Read access to.

Sections in this article: 

Considerations

  • Initial access rules: When creating a blog channel, it will inherit any cascading, anonymous, and author access rules from the page or space above it. However, if you create this channel at the root of your digital workplace, it will be given the same cascading-specific access rules as your digital workplace's current homepage.
    At the same time, the channel's anonymous access rule will receive a value of No Access, while the author access rule will receive a value of Full Access. Since the specific access rules are placed on the channel, not inherited, they persist even if you move the channel to a different location. To change the access rules on a channel, select Actions followed by Access to navigate to its Access page.
  • Aggregating multiple blog channels: The blog articles widget displays a feed of blog articles from multiple blog channels in one central location. For more information, see Blog Articles widget.
  • RSS feed: Blog channels with anonymous access turned on have an RSS feed. You can find a link to the feed's URL at the very bottom of a blog channel.
  • Channel URL: When you first create a blog channel, its URL will match the title you've given it. To change the URL of an existing blog channel, see Changing a channel's URL.

Layout

A blog channel showing a feed of articles.

Blog channels consist of the following components:

Component Description
1. Channel header

The channel header is shown below your workplace's navigation bar and above the channel's content. It contains the following features:

  • Breadcrumbs: Select to go to a location.
  • Channel title: If turned on and configured for the channel, a color bar showing the channel's color next to the channel's title and article titles on the channel.
  • Actions: Visible to those with at least Edit access to the channel. Select for additional options.
2. Channel feed

The blog channel feed occupies most of the space on a blog channel. This feed initially shows a preview of the 10 most recently published articles. However, you can view the following 10 most recent articles by selecting << Older articles below the feed.

The feed shows these properties of an article:

  • Author profile image: Hover over for their profile card.
  • Publish date: This shows the date and time when the article was published.
  • Title: Select to go to the article.
  • Actions: Visible to those with at least Edit access to the article. Select for additional options.
  • By: This shows who published the article. Select to go to the author's profile page.
  • Archived: Visible if the article is archived.
  • Comments: Visible when there are comments on the article. This shows the number of comments. Select to go to the comments section of the article.
  • Summary: This shows the summary section of an article.
  • Body: This shows the feature image or the first image in an article and approximately the first 500 characters.
  • Read More: Select to go to the article.
  • Like: Select to like the article. Select the number of likes to view who has liked the article.
3. Side panel

The side panel of a blog channel provides metadata about the channel and additional actions for users based on their access. Features include:

  • + Add an article: Visible to those with at least Write access to the channel. Select to begin creating a new article on the channel.
  • Add an article dropdown: If Email Content is turned on for the channel, this option is visible to users with at least Write access to the channel. Selecting this brings up a menu with the following options: 
    • Post via email: Select to open up an email in your system's default email application. The To field of the email is pre-populated with the channel's email address. 
    • Download Contact Card: Select to download the VCF file for the channel. 
  • Search box: If turned on, search for content on only the current channel.
  • Information panel: This section contains the following information and actions:
    • Follow: Select to subscribe/unsubscribe from email notifications about new articles.
    • Channel stats: This shows the count of views, articles, and followers on the channel. Select Follower to view a list of all followers.
    • Channel summary: This shows the configured summary for the channel.
    • Recent contributors: This shows a list of recent content authors. You can hover over the profile picture to view a user's profile card or message them. Select the author's name to go to their profile. A user whose content has been deleted will stay on the list of recent contributors until their content is purged from the trash can. 
    • Recent Comments: This shows a list of articles with recent comments. Select the article title to read the article.
    • Archives: Select a date to filter the feed to show only articles from that period.
    • Manage: Visible to those with at least Write access to the channel. Select to go to the Manage page.

4. Channel trailer bar

The channel trailer bar is shown below the contents of the channel and above the workplace's footer. Features include:

  • View count: Shows the number of views on the current location.
  • Follow: Select to subscribe/unsubscribe from email notifications about new articles being added to the current location and set the frequency of these notifications.
  • Share: Visible if the channel allows anonymous access. Select to share a link to the current location to social media sites. To configure which social media sites can be selected, go to the Social Media Sites page of the Control Panel.
  • Email Link: Select to draft an email that contains a link to the current location. 
  • Broadcast: If turned on in the workplace, select to broadcast a link to this location to selected workplace groups. See Broadcast.
  • Feedback: If turned on in the workplace, select to send a feedback message to workplace administrators. See Feedback.
  • RSS: Visible if the channel allows anonymous access. Select to go to the RSS feed for the channel.
Blog channel components

Create blog channels

The workflow for creating a blog channel depends on what type of administrator you are.

Workplace administrators can create a blog channel by following these steps:

  1. Select  Control Panel.
  2. Under Presentation, select Site Manager.
  3. Select + Add and then Blog.
  4. Complete the following fields:
    • Title: Enter a name for the channel.
    • Description: Enter a summary that describes the channel.
    • Location: Select where to create the channel. The search box above the selection list returns up to 100 results. Only pages and spaces to which you have at least Read access are visible.
    • Hide from navigation: (Optional) Select to hide the channel from navigation menus.
  5. Select Add to create the channel.

Space administrators can create a blog channel by following these steps: 

  1. Navigate to the space.
  2. On the space's navigation bar, select  Administration.
  3. Under Presentation, select Navigation.
  4. Select Add and then Blog.
  5. Complete the following fields:
    • Title: Enter a name for the channel.
    • Description: Enter a summary that describes the channel.
    • Location: Select where to create the channel. The search box above the selection list returns up to 100 results. Only pages and spaces to which you have at least Read access are visible.
    • Hide from navigation: (Optional) Select to hide the channel from navigation menus.
  6. Select Add to create the channel.

Regardless of the method used to create the channel, you should configure the channel once created. 

Manage blog channels

Configure blog channels

To configure a blog channel, go to the channel and select  Actions. From the Actions menu, use these options to configure the channel:

  • Edit: Modify the channel's title, summary (shown in the channel's information panel), and custom content for the channel (shown above the channel's article feed). If your digital workplace supports multiple languages, use the language tabs and translation button to ensure that any text you enter is readable in all your supported languages. 
  • Advanced: Modify the page title, enhance how external search engines index a page (if your digital workplace is public), and add custom JavaScript code and CSS to the channel's page. For more information, see Advanced page.
  • Access: Modify how users and groups interact with the channel and its contents. For more information, see Access rules.
  • Subscriptions: Modify which groups are subscribed to the channel and at what frequency they will receive notifications. In addition, control whether auto-following occurs. For more information, see Subscriptions.
  • Channel Template: Use the editor to enter text, headings, and other content to pre-populate all articles created on the channel. When a user begins creating a new article, the template contents appear in the user's editor. For more information, see Channel templates.
  • Settings: Modify the following settings for a blog channel:
    • Email Content: Select whether users can email articles to the channel and what email address the channel uses. For more information about emailing content into a channel, see Add content via email
    • Labels: Select whether labeling articles is mandatory. If mandatory, users must apply at least one label to an article before publishing it. For more information, see Labels.
    • Comments: Select whether commenting is turned off for newly created articles. When turned on, this does not turn commenting off for existing content or prevent authors from turning it on for specific articles. For more information, see Comments.
    • Anonymous Commenting: If your workplace has public registration and anonymous commenting turned on, select whether anonymous users can comment on articles and whether the article's author must approve their comment before displaying it to others. For more information, see Enabling anonymous commenting.
    • Notification Settings: Toggle whether the body of blog articles posted on this channel are included in subscription notifications. When this option is selected, notifications will only include the article's title, summary, and a link to the content. Authors may override this setting when drafting their content using a similar setting available for the article. Only new articles will inherit the new setting when toggling this setting on an existing blog channel. For more information, see Disabling blog body content in email notifications.
    • Moderation: Select whether the assigned moderators must approve articles and comments before being posted. For more information, see Moderation.
    • Archiving: Select an archiving policy for articles on the channel. For more information, see Archiving
    • Pinning Content: Select whether authors can pin articles on the channel and the pin's expiration period. For more information, see Pinning content.
    • Read Tracking: Select whether newly created articles have read tracking turned on and customize the text of this button. When turned on, this does not add read tracking on existing articles or prevent authors from turning read tracking off on specific articles. For more information, see Read tracking.
    • Search Box: Select whether the channel and articles have a search box in the channel's side panel. This search includes only articles on the same channel. For more information, see Search.
    • Networked Enterprise: If the channel is in the hub workplace of your networked enterprise, select whether authors can share their articles to spoke workplaces. For more information, see Sharing Hub Blog Channel content to one or more Spokes.
    • Channel Color: Select a color to associate with the channel. This color appears as an accent on the channel and article names and helps differentiate the channel in widgets that aggregate content from many channels. For more information, see Channel colors.

Audit blog channels

To better understand how users are interacting with the channel, go to the channel and select  Actions. From the actions menu, explore each of these options:

  • Activity: View what actions (e.g., views, edits, etc.) users have been performing on the channel and when they did them. This page only tracks activity on the channel itself and does not include activity on articles that are on the channel. For more information, see Activity page.
  • Manage: View the status (e.g., draft, published, unpublished, and in review) of articles on the channel. For more information, see Manage - Action button.

For more in-depth auditing, see Data feeds or the Insights program.

Move blog channels

The workflow for moving a channel depends on what type of administrator you are.

Workplace administrators should refer to Site Manager.

Space administrators should refer to Navigation page.

Delete blog channels

While on the channel, select  Actions followed by Delete to send the channel and its content to the Trash Can. For more information, see Trash Can.

Create blog articles

For information about adding content to a blog channel, see Blog articles