Blurbs are exactly what they sound like— chunks of content that don’t need the grandeur of a news story and aren’t date- or time-centric like events. What can you do with Blurbs?
Blurbs are open-ended, arbitrary blocks of HTML markup that can be used in a flexible manner. While many of the content types in LiveWhale address a very particular need (such as events), blurbs fills a gap where dynamic content is needed for other purposes.
A well thought out blurb-driven feature can add that extra richness and dynamism to an otherwise static site.
Note: Deleted blurb types will remain in the trash where they can be easily restored (up to one year, depending on your configuration).
You may also delete the item from the blurb edit screen:
Note: Deleted blurbs will remain in the trash where they can be easily restored (up to one year, depending on your configuration).
Archived blurbs are blurbs that are no longer current and should only be accessible through a past blurbs archive on your web site.
The manage archived blurbs screen will list all archived blurbs of the current type in your group. It contains many of the same management features as the manage blurbs page.
Today Facts are a special kind of blurb content in LiveWhale and LiveWhale Calendar that display interesting facts about today’s date on your calendar.
The default facts come from wikipedia, but this section can be customized to display important facts related to your campus.
They are shown using the {{today_facts}} variable in the sidebar on your calendar’s lw_cal_day template, but you can place them elsewhere by moving the {{today_facts}} variable.
In LiveWhale Calendar, admin users can find “Edit today facts” in the Toolbox.
In LiveWhale CMS, find the Blurb Type “Today Facts” in the Admin group.
LiveWhale will always load today’s fact by looking for the blurb title that matches today’s date (e.g.,”January 1”, “September 25”). This means if you want to add to your today facts, you don’t ever need to create a new blurb. Rather, find the title that matches the date you want to change, and click to edit.
If you want to hide the today facts for a particular day, you can set its Live/Hidden switcher to Hidden.
Option | Description |
---|---|
Title | Required: Enter the title of the blurb |
Star | If this content is especially important you can flag it as important, click the star in the section labeled “Star content” in order to highlight it. |
Share Content | By default,this content will be shareable. Click the globe labeled “Share content” to un-highlight it to make the content not shared. |
Post blurb as | Scroll back up and find the status menu at the top corner of the screen. Choose the status for this blurb. “Live” will publish the item immediately. “Hidden” will hide it from the web site until you are ready to publish it. |
Blurb body | Enter the main body text of the blurb |
Plot this blurb on a map | If your blurb has a location, you may plot it on a map. If your LiveWhale installation already has preset locations, you may begin typing into the space provided and locations will be suggested to you. If you cannot find an appropriate location, you may click “add a new Place”. When adding a new place, you must provide a title and address. |
Archive | Beneath the status menu is a second drop-down menu allowing you to flag the blurb as archived or give it an expiration date. If the blurb is not archived, select “not archived”. If it should be placed in the archive, select “archived”. Specify an expiration date to archive the blurb automatically, select “set to expire on…” and choose an expiration date and time. |
Delete | If you are editing an existing blurb, you will also see a “Delete” link next to the status, allowing you to delete this blurb. |
Restore from earlier version | If you are editing an existing blurb, you will also see a “Restore from earlier version” link above the status menu. Clicking this will allow you to select an earlier revision of the blurb, by date, and restore the content from that revision. |
Tag | Tag the blurb with any relevant tags. Tags help sort and classify blurbs so that they can be directed to the proper location on your web site. You can click in the field labeled “Tags” and type a keyword; tags will be suggested to you. If you are unsure what tags are available in your group, click “Show all tags” to display them all and select the relevant ones. |
Blurb date | Enter the date of this blurb item |
Suggest this blurb to the following group(s) | Suggest this content to other groups by selecting those groups under the section called “Suggest this item to the following groups”. |
Related content | Use the search box provided to attach any relevant related content to this blurb. What kinds of content can be added depends on what modules are installed on your system and what kinds of content are available. |