Publishing Workflow

The publishing workflow describes a set of fields and settings that are common across most of the core features in Stacks. These typically relate to how your users/patrons may be able to access and view the content that is added to your site, and can include options for adding a menu link to the content, settings for controlling who has access, creating a custom path to the content, and more.

It's important to note that these settings are configured for each piece of content. For example, two different Callouts could have different settings based on who needs access the content or when you want users/patrons to see it on your site.

Publishing workflow settings can include:

• Revision log
• Menu settings
• Meta tags
• Content protection
• Scheduling options
• URL alias
• Domain settings

When adding or editing content, these fields/settings will appear on the right side of the screen.

Revision Log

Especially helpful if you have multiple administrators and/or content creators, the revision log allows you to add important notes related to content creation and editing.

The revision log can be found at the top of the publishing workflow, information display here will include:

• When the item was last saved
• Author
• Revision log message

Menu Settings

From the menu settings you can create a link in either the main menu or top menu to the content you are creating or editing without having to navigate to the Menu tile in the Dashboard. Expanding the section will display the following fields and settings:

1. Provide a Menu Link - when checked, will display the fields below for creating the link
2. Menu link title - this is the name/label displayed in the menu
3. Description - optional, when add this will be displayed when a mouse hovers over the menu link
4. Parent Link - select the appropriate value to place the menu link below the desired link
   1. Select <Main menu> to place the link in the main menu; OR
   2. Select --<link name> to embed link under an existing menu link
5. Weight - enter a numerical value to determine the link position in relation to the other links
   1. The larger the number, the further down the menu link will appear

Meta Tags

Meta tags are HTML tags that are used to tell users and search engines more information about the content of a webpage. These are commonly used by marketing professionals because they can help improve SEO (search-engine optimization) which helps determine how high your content ranks in Google and other platform searches. They can also be used to provide more information to users in order to achieve more clicks in the searches. 

Tokens can be used to pull values entered into the fields from your content to populate meta tag information, these default values include:

• [node: title]
• [site: name]
• [node: summary]

The defaults mentioned above can be changed or added to depending on your needs. 

Content Protection

The Content protection area allows you to control who has access to the content you create. Via these settings you can restrict access to content to users within a certain patron segment, role or IP address range.

1. Patron Segments - specify the segment(s) that should be allowed to access the content
2. IP Whitelist - when enabled, will grant access to the content for those who are physically located on premise or logged into a network via an approved virtual private network (vpn) without the need to authenticate as a patron or staff user
3. User Roles - when enabled, will grant access to view content if the user is assigned to a role that has been defined by an Administrator by selecting one or more role(s)

Scheduling Options

Scheduling options provide you with the flexibility to prepare content at any time, then specify a publish or unpublish date and time.

1. Publish on - dates are entered in the format YYYY-MM-DD and your site’s configured time zone in a 12-hour format
2. Unpublish on - dates are entered in the format YYYY-MM-DD and use your site’s configured time zone in a 12-hour format

Note: If no publish or unpublish date and time is entered, and the content was created by an administrator or moderator, it will be published immediately upon saving. If the content was created by a contributor or editor, the draft state must be updated to published by an administrator or moderator after reviewing it.

URL Alias

Each page and content block created in Stacks is assigned a node path that can be read by machines, and a human-readable alias based on the content's title. This path can be used in URL and link fields throughout Stacks (in the menus or other core features) to allow users/patrons to navigate to this content.

As mentioned above, a default alias is auto created based on the value entered in the main Title field for the content being created. If needed, you can override this value with your own custom URL alias. 

To use a customized URL alias:

1. Generate automatic URL alias, uncheck this box
2. URL alias - enter your desired alternate path with a leading forward-slash (/)
   1. For example: if you have a Page titled "About our Library" the alias would default to /about-our-library, but through these settings could be customized to /about-us

Domain Settings

For customers who have multiple domains, and depending on the permissions provided by your role, you may have the ability to create content that can appear across just one or more domains.

For example, an educational institute may have three separate sites (domains) for different target audiences but have a shared announcement they wish to appear in across all sites. If your user account has access to all 3 domains, you can create the content on one domain and choose to publish it on either selected domains or all as needed.

To make content available on one or more domain:

1. In the Domain Access section
   1. Check the box for each domain the content should be published to; OR
   2. Check Send to all affliates to publish on all domains
   3. Domain Source, this drop-down should always be set to 'None'