Tutorial – Sections, Tags, and Content

This tutorial will help give you a head start in understanding how Metro Publisher functions, and how content, tagging and sprockets collaborate. You will be creating a recipe article, and adding sprockets to a currently empty section.

Time to complete the tutorial should be within 30 minutes.

Part I – Creating a Piece of Content

In this tutorial, you will create and publish an article, and create a sprocket in its assigned section for it to be displayed.

The article is a recipe to be added to the Food & Drink section of the website. This exercise will involve the basic entries for an article to demonstrate the simplicity of adding new content.

1. Go to your Metro Publisher work site and log in.
2. Click on the “Content” tab at the top. (If you don't see the content tab, it means you are not logged in as an "Editor." In the upper right corner of the page, you can switch your role by selecting "Editor" from the dropdown.)
   
3. At the bottom of the page, click the “Add” button.
4. In the Title field, type “Strawberry Chocolate Tart.”
5. In the description field, type “A divine and easy no-bake recipe for chocolate and Oreo lovers.”
6. In the content field, add the provided (content-tutorial-assets.zip) image by clicking on “Insert Media” in the content toolbar.
7. In the popup window, click “Add Media” button next to the "From File Library" option. (This will take you to the media library. This is where all of your images will be stored.)
8. Since the image is new and not yet in the file library, click the “Add” tab at the top.
9. Click “Select a file” and upload the attached image and click the “add” button to the right under “Selected Files” and then “Ok.”
10. Under the image, add the text in the provided document “ContentTutorialMedia.docx.”
11. Under Basic Settings in the right column of the page, assign the article to the Section “Food & Drink” by clicking on the Section dropdown list and selecting “Food & Drink.”
12. In the “Tag” field, type “Recipe” and select that tag. (The system automatically checks if it already exists. If it doesn’t exist, it gives the option to “Add Tag.”)
13. For the author, we’ll use a sample author we already have in the database. Type in “Jane Doe” and select that tag.
14. At the bottom of the screen, click “Save.” (you can view the article before publishing to check for any needed corrections before going live by clicking “Preview”)
15. Click “Publish.”
    
    

Congratulations! You have created and published your first article in Metro Publisher.

Now, get that article to appear on the Food & Drink section. This section currently doesn’t show any content. You will add content by adding a couple sprockets. You will add an existing sprocket then create a new sprocket.

Part II – Adding an Existing Sprocket

It’s very efficient to have general sprockets that can be used across the site. Wherever these are placed, content will display according to the settings within that sprocket. The sprocket you will add is a general Carousel sprocket that will show the latest additions (by issue date) of content within the section it is placed in.

1. Click on the “Sections” Tab at the top.
2. Click the “edit” button under the section “Food & Drink.”
3. Under Layout Versions, click the “edit” button of Standard Layout.
4. In the grid, click “Add Container.”
5. Within the container, click “Add Sprocket.”
6. At the bottom of the popup window, click “Existing Sprocket.”
7. Select the “Global - Carousel” sprocket.
8. Click “Save” and then “Live Preview” You will see the article you just created appear with other content assigned to the section.

Part III – Creating a New Sprocket

Let’s say you would like to have a sprocket that features only recipes from the Food & Drink section. This sprocket will be a List sprocket to be placed next to the Carousel sprocket. Continue from step 8 in the task above.

1. Close out the Live Preview window you opened from point 8 in the task above.
2. In the top left corner of the carousel sprocket, you will find 6 blue squares. Click on the 4th square so that only 4 are blue. The sprocket automatically reduces to 2/3 of the container width.
3. Click the “Add Sprocket” button in the container.
4. The popup window displays a gallery of different sprocket types. Click “Add” of the Layout List Sprocket.
5. In the Headline field, type “Recipes.”
6. In the “Include” field under Filter by Tag, type in and select “Recipe.”
7. Under Filter by Section, select the “Food & Drink” box.
8. Under Order by, select “Random.”
9. # of Items to Display slider should be set to 3.
10. Under Item Display Options, only have the first 3 options selected (Thumbnail, Title and Description) You can immediately view the display changes in the list review above Item Display Options.
11. Click “Save.”
12. The sprocket will show up in the container at full width (6 blue squares). Click on the 2nd blue square on the sprocket so that only 2 are blue. The sprocket automatically reduces to 1/3 the width of the container and is moved next to the first sprocket.
13. Click “Save” at the bottom of the screen to save your layout.
14. Click “Live Preview” to check that the two sprockets are displaying as they should.

You can visit your live site to see the updates you have made.

Well done! You’ve completed the content tutorial and should have a solid basic understanding of how to create and add content in the system.