[XenCustomize] News Publisher: Home Page, Portal & CMS 2.3.13

News Publisher 2.3.4 is now available! This update brings enhanced social media sharing, flexible side block placement options, and additional widget positions for better control over your news layout. We've streamlined the widget setup process and included essential bug fixes.

As always, we’d love your feedback! If you find the update useful, please take a moment to rate News Publisher on XenForo or at XenCustomize.

New Features & Enhancements​

• SEO Meta Tags for Better Visibility (Suggested by @Luca_)
  • Boost SEO and social sharing with added meta tags for news stories:
    • og:image for Open Graph
    • twitter:image and twitter:card with "summary_large_image" for Twitter previews
• Admin Option for Side Block Position (Suggested by @Luca_)
  • New setting to customize side block placement on the News Index and Category View pages:
    • Choose between Side Navigation (left) or Sidebar (default on right)
• Category Side Block Display Control (Suggested by @hakyangler)
  • Admins can now hide or show the category side block on listing pages, enabling cleaner and more tailored layouts. The default setting is Side Block.
• New Widget Positions
  • Additional widget positions for better layout control:
    • Index Sidebar — displays on the News Publisher index page
    • Category Sidebar — displays on the Category View page

Changes​

• Improved Widget Creation Process
  • New sidebar positions are now included automatically on fresh installations.
• Default Side Block Position Set to Sidebar
  • For new installs, side blocks default to the sidebar, providing a consistent right-side layout.

Important Upgrade Step​

After upgrading to News Publisher v2.3.4, follow these steps in your Admin Control Panel (ACP) to ensure correct widget placement:

1. Navigate to Widgets in ACP
2. Adjust Existing Widgets: (Step by step guide)
   • For xcu_nwp_latest_news_simple:
     • Set the position to "XenCustomize News Publisher: Category Sidebar".
     • Set Display Order to 200 and Save.
   • For xcu_nwp_latest_comments:
     • Set positions to "XenCustomize News Publisher: Index Sidebar" and "Category Sidebar".
     • Set Display Order to 300 for both and Save.
   • For xcu_nwp_news_statistics:
     • Set position to "XenCustomize News Publisher: Index Sidebar".
     • Set Display Order to 1000 and Save.

Following these steps will ensure that all widgets display correctly, maintaining the intended layout for your news listings.

Bug Fixes​

• Resolved an issue where Author's Other News block didn't hide when set to 0 or had insufficient content. (Reported by @hakyangler)
• Added the missing "Headlines" phrase for News Ticker. (Reported by @hakyangler)
• Included missing bookmark templates: (Reported by @tmrerdgn)
  • bookmark_item_nwp_news
  • xcu_nwp_news_bookmark_custom_icon

Enjoy the new features and flexibility in News Publisher 2.3.4! For more details and examples, visit the related threads and suggestions on XenCustomize.com.

News Publisher 2.3.3 is now available! This update introduces the ability to embed News Publisher stories across the platform! For more details on the various XF, XFRM, and XFMG Embed Resolvers, refer to the XF 2.3 - Embed your content anywhere.

As always, we’d love your feedback! Please take a moment to rate the add-on on XenForo or at XenCustomize.

New Features & Enhancements​

• Embed News Publisher Stories Anywhere!
  • You can now embed News Publisher stories across your site using the new EMBED BBCode. Simply paste a News story URL into any Rich Text Editor (RTE) that supports embedding.
  • See an example screenshot and more details about this feature at XenCustomize.com:
    • Embed your News Publisher stories anywhere!
  • Please read the HYS thread for more information: XF 2.3 - Embed your content anywhere.

Example​

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News Publisher 2.3.2 is now available! This update includes some key improvements, including the ability to add a customized meta description to the News Publisher index page. This feature is designed to help improve your News Publisher index page's SEO, especially if you're using News Publisher as your site's homepage.

Additionally, you can now easily rename the News Publisher title and control the visibility of the News Ticker with a new user group permission.

As always, we’d love your feedback! Please take a moment to rate the add-on on XenForo or at XenCustomize.

New Features & Enhancements​

• Introduced a new option to easily rename the News Publisher index title. (Suggested by @80sDude @hello2029)
• Added the ability to enter a meta description for the News Publisher index page.
• Added a new user group permission, "View News Ticker," to control the visibility of the News Ticker. (Suggested by @hello2029)
  • Implemented a post-upgrade script to automatically apply this new permission based on existing permissions.
• Added support for News Thumbnail fallback options on the "New Comments" page.

Changes​

• Changed the default Public navigation title from "News Publisher" to "News".
• Changed the default News Publisher index page title from "News Publisher" to "News Index".

Bug Fixes​

• Added the missing phrase "xcu_nwp_view_full_story". (Reported by @80sDude)

Features in detail & screenshots​

Check out the detailed threads with screenshots that explore all these new features!

• News Publisher: Meta Descriptions for News Publisher Index Page!
• News Publisher: Add User Group Permission to Control News Ticker Visibility
• News Publisher: Rename News Publisher

News Publisher 2.3.1 is now available! This update brings exciting new features, including a new Standout Card Grid display mode, a featured ribbon to highlight news stories, improved news thumbnail handling, and a more polished search box design. We’ve also enhanced the Expanded List display mode by adding a snippet of news content as a fallback description.

As always, we’d love your feedback! Please take a moment to rate the add-on on XenForo or on our site – your support is greatly appreciated!

New Features & Enhancements​

• Introduced a new 4th display mode among the available category display modes:
  • Display Mode - Standout Card Grid
• Added a featured ribbon to highlight featured news stories in the "Standout Card Grid" and "Card Grid" display modes.
• Improved News Thumbnail fallback options
  • Added support for external image URLs as a secondary fallback when no news thumbnail is uploaded.
  • Moved the default thumbnail image to the third fallback option, utilizing the default thumbnail set in style properties.
  • Updated various templates to ensure consistent display of images, thumbnails, and avatars across different views.
• Enhanced the "Expanded List" display mode by including a snippet of the news story content as a fallback description.
• Refined the search box design for a more polished look.

Changes​

• Updated the default News Thumbnail (Landscape) image.
• Updated the default News Thumbnail (Square) image.

Screenshots and details​

• News Publisher: Display Mode - Standout Card Grid
• News Publisher: Featured Ribbon
• News Publisher: Improved News Thumbnail Fallback Options
• News Publisher: Snippet as Fallback Description
• News Publisher: Search Box Design Polished

Desktop: Example Video of the Index​

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Mobile: Example Video of the Index​

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We're pleased to announce that the News Publisher for XenForo 2.2 is officially released!

Understanding that many of you are still using XF 2.2, we've created a dedicated version to bring you the same excellent features, minus the XF 2.3-specific enhancements.

And great news: News Publisher 2.2.0 is upgradeable to News Publisher 2.3.0 once you upgrade your XenForo to 2.3!

Here are the two versions now available:

• News Publisher 2.2.0: Compatible with XenForo 2.2
• News Publisher 2.3.0: Compatible with XenForo 2.3

Thank you for your ongoing support and feedback!

First, thanks for the great response we have received since the release!

As we receive feedback, we understand that many of you are still using XenForo 2.2 and may not plan to upgrade to 2.3 soon but are interested in using the News Publisher. Therefore, we have decided to develop a separate XF 2.2 compatible version with all the same features, excluding those introduced in XF 2.3, such as featured content, trending news, etc. We’re happy to say it’s in development and will let you know as soon as it’s ready.

Additionally, we've bumped the XF 2.3 compatible version from 1.0.0 to 2.3.0. The XF 2.2 compatible version will be labeled as 2.2.0.