Block Main NEws - No_image
Standard member
How to set image for blogs?
So on the front start page by default was a main news block that cycles thru recent news or blogs.There is an image on the right that always seems to display the image called no_image.png for each item cycled through.
I realized even though I had selected a nes category for a news item that image was not being displayed. However if I went into edit the news item and under the summary area if I selected a representative image that would then display instead of the "no_image" image. However that option does not exist under blogs. How can I set a representative image for blog posts (or even a default "blog" image for all blog posts instead of "no_image"?
I was searching through the block_main_news template but I can't make heads or tails of where I would set that somehow?
Site director
You are correct that the cms_blogs module doesn't let you choose an image. However, the cms_news module does, and you can add a blog post from there too.
The cms_blogs module is intended to be simple and cut down, so the solution really is to deny people access to it if it is going to be insufficient.
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Standard member
Site director
Each blog has a news category behind it, and that news category can be edited.
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- If not, please let us know how we can do better (please try and propose any bigger ideas in such a way that they are fundable and scalable).
- If so, please let others know about Composr whenever you see the opportunity or support me on Patreon.
- If my reply is too Vulcan or expressed too much in business-strategy terms, and not particularly personal, I apologise. As a company & project maintainer, time is very limited to me, so usually when I write a reply I try and make it generic advice to all readers. I'm also naturally a joined-up thinker, so I always express my thoughts in combined business and technical terms. I recognise not everyone likes that, don't let my Vulcan-thinking stop you enjoying Composr on fun personal projects.
- If my response can inspire a community tutorial, that's a great way of giving back to the project as a user.
Standard member
Even if it doesn't they would have to then edit under news to change the category.
Also I noticed when I posted the blog via profile it auto created the category "Admins Blog" so is there a way to set a default icon for blog posts by creating a news category called "blog" and steting the icon to that and would it then pick that up for other blog posters or will they all have auto created news categories "Posters Blog" as a separate news category?
The reason this seems a little important to me is I would like the site "News" system to be used as neutrally as possible and with as little "opinion" as possible and allow users to make "opinion" pieces via blogs rather than news. If that makes sense? I am also a little concerned that if each user gets a personal news category called "users blog" that eventually I'll have way too many news categories to sort thru when posting regular news. If my site has a thousand users with a blog each and I want to post news to my dozen news categories will I have to scroll through 1012 categories to find my news category? Or is it a per user view thing meaning the person posting the news will have a choice of "news" categories and only their personal Blog category?
Site director
So if I deny access to CMS blog does the remove the profile tab option of posting a blog?
No. Actually you should go to Structure > Redirects and set up a redirect.
Even if it doesn't they would have to then edit under news to change the category.
If you deny access to add to every other category, it may default to their blog category. I have not tested.
Also I noticed when I posted the blog via profile it auto created the category "Admins Blog" so is there a way to set a default icon for blog posts by creating a news category called "blog" and steting the icon to that and would it then pick that up for other blog posters or will they all have auto created news categories "Posters Blog" as a separate news category?
I checked the code, it is hard-coded how it adds the blog category:
Code
$map = array(
'nc_img' => 'newscats/community',
'notes' => '',
'nc_owner' => $submitter,
);
$map += insert_lang('nc_title', do_lang('MEMBER_CATEGORY', $GLOBALS['FORUM_DRIVER']->get_username($submitter, true)), 2);
Even though this is hard-coded, you can edit the newscats/community theme image to point to your own image and also edit the MEMBER_CATEGORY language string.
that eventually I'll have way too many news categories to sort thru when posting regular news.
If you are having hundreds of users posting blogs, future you probably won't mind so much having this small problem to solve.
It'd be like a 15 minute job to add some kind of URL filter to only show non-blog categories in the list, or to remove other user's blogs from the list.
Become a fan of Composr on Facebook or add me as a friend. Add me on on Mastodon. Follow me on Minds (where I am most active). Support me on Patreon
- If not, please let us know how we can do better (please try and propose any bigger ideas in such a way that they are fundable and scalable).
- If so, please let others know about Composr whenever you see the opportunity or support me on Patreon.
- If my reply is too Vulcan or expressed too much in business-strategy terms, and not particularly personal, I apologise. As a company & project maintainer, time is very limited to me, so usually when I write a reply I try and make it generic advice to all readers. I'm also naturally a joined-up thinker, so I always express my thoughts in combined business and technical terms. I recognise not everyone likes that, don't let my Vulcan-thinking stop you enjoying Composr on fun personal projects.
- If my response can inspire a community tutorial, that's a great way of giving back to the project as a user.
Standard member
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