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Current news is the real killer benefit of having your own App.  The days of printing off letters, distributing them to each class, and handing them out, (only to be lost at the bottom of schools bags!) are over.  The News section of OurSchoolsApp is intended for all of your breaking school school news. What better way to celebrate success than to shout about it as it happens?news - at any time during the day, direct to your parents' phones. 

Adding articles into the news is very really easy to do, and will also send out an instant push notification to parents letting them know that you have published a new article.



Info
titleTop Tip
A great way of using OurSchoolsApp News section is to use it like a journal or log of happenings in the school. When it comes to publishing your regular news letter newsletter, you already have a lot or much of the work completed.




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Warning
titleNote:

We highly recommend that you do not post anything on OurSchoolsApp that contains private or sensitive information.

As this information is potentially accessible by anyone who chooses to use OurSchoolsApp; we recommend that you only publish information which you would be comfortable publishing on your website.

If in doubt please consult with your organisations appointed Data Protection Officer.

Step-by-Step Guide


Add a New News Article

1. Click "Add" Button

Click the Add button 'add' in the central action panel


2. Enter your Title

Enter your title here - remember to keep it short and concise, as this will also be sent to parents as a push notification.


3. Upload an image

Click the "'Upload" ' button 


3.1  Click on "Open" button

Select your image (fig. 1) and click the "'Open" ' button (fig. 2)


3.2  Adjust Cropping Area

Click the handles in the corners to adjust the cropping area (Fig. 1). When you are happy with the selection click 'crop' (fig. 2).


4. Add Body Text

To add the body text, click in into the empty field and simply type your entry into the available field. TO To make you your life a little easier, if you already have the news article some where somewhere else (such as in a draft newsletter, or on your website) simply copy and paste the text right directly into the text field.


4.1  Add live links to body text

OurSchoolsApp also allows you to add links to websites and email addresses. A An HTML link can be link to anything you wish on the web you wish - weather whether that is 's a document, youtube a YouTube video, a website, or a tweet. .. If it's out there, you can add it to your news articles to support compliment them, and add richer content for Parents parents to see.


5. Set display of time and date of post

You have the ability to add set the date and time and date that will be displayed on the each post. If you wish, you can edit the date and time, or if you do not need to change this, simply leave the field as it is and it will post the time and date the article was created. You may change the date and time by typing (fig. 1) or click the calendar icon to the right of the field.

Info
titleNote:

This will not effect affect the push notification that is sent to users. Notifications will be sent when you publish the article.


5.1 Date and Time Picker - Date

To use the Date and Time Picker, simply choose the month using the left and right arrows in the Mont month selector (fig. 1). Choose the date from the day picker by clicking on the date in the calendar (fig. 2). Finally, if you wish to change the time, click the clock button at the bottom of pane (fig. 3).


5.2  Date and Time Picker - Time

To adjust the displayed time of the news article, click the up chevrons to increase the time (fig. 1).  Conversely, conversely to decrease the time, click the down chevrons (fig. 2). Hours are displayed on the left and minutes to the right.


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6. Post Your Article

Give your article a final check over and make sure you are happy with the content you have created; then click Add 'add' in the lower right corner. After a short success message, a push notification will be sent and your news article will be available for all parents to enjoy peruse in OurSchoolsApp. 

Below is a short video outlining the steps above:

View file
nameOSA Admin Guide - News - Add.mov
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Amend a News Article

If you wish to change any thing anything about a News news article that you have already added, you may use the Amend function:

1. Select the Article

Select the item you wish to amend (fig. 1) and select the Amend button in the central control panel (fig. 2)
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2. Edit Content 

You will now see the edit dialogue window appear to allow you to change all attributes, in exactly the same way as when adding a new article (see Add a New News Article)
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  1. Title - Edit or change the title
  2. Upload Image - Replace the image on the article
  3. Body Text - Edit or replace body tyext
  4. Display Date and Time - Change the display date of the post this will change the display oder of the article - News items are displayed in chronological order with the newest at the top.
  5. Make Active/Inactive - This will allow you to hide a news article by un-checking the box
  6. Amend - When you are finished, click the 'amend' button to save your changes.

3. Click Amend

When you are happy with your changes, select the Amend 'amend' button to apply instantly apply them instantly to the article within OurSchoolsApp.

Info
titleNote:

Amending an existing item will not send out a push notification. This only happens when a new item is added.

Below is a short video outlining the steps above:

View file
nameOSA Admin Guide - News - Amend.mov
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Delete a News Article

1. Select item for removal

From the available list, choose the item you wish to delete, and click on it highlight in blue.


2. Click Delete

Click Delete 'delete' in the central action panel


3. Confirm Delete

To finish the process, simply click Delete 'delete' to confirm, and after a short success message the article will be removed.

 

New Feature - Upload CSV and RSS Feeds

New to OurSchoolsApp is the ability to add RSS feeds to your news feed and upload a series of articles in one simple step by using a simple CSV spreadsheet.

What is RSS?

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RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a type of web feed which allows users to access updates to online content in a standardised, computer-readable format. These feeds can, for example, allow a user to keep track of many different websites in a single news aggregator. Wikipedia
You may even find that your own school website has an RSS feed connected to some parts of your website such as any blogs you may have or even your own News page

.

 In computing, a comma-separated values file stores tabular data in plain text. Each line of the file is a data record. Each record consists of one or more fields, separated by commas.

The advantage this will offer you will decrease the amount of work that you need to do get news articles out to parents. If your website offers RSS capability, you will only need publish content to your website and OurSchoolsApp will pick up the text and send it out to parents without you needing to do any thing. If your website does not currently use RSS you may be able to speak to your website provider to see about adding this functionality.

What is CSV?

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Wikipedia

Similarly to RSS, CSV uploads will allow you syndicate multiple articles in one simple process. Although it should be noted that a CSV upload is not automated in the same way as RSS feeds. You will need to create and your CSV document each time you wish to upload new items.

The only thing you may need do is add images to your articles if you wish to do so.

Below is your step by step guide to using these new time and effort saving features:

Add RSS

In this example we will be using an RSS feed from BBC News as an example. To locate the RSS feed on your website look for the RSS logo (see above) or speak to your IT Support or Website Provider.

1.Click Upload

Click Upload from the central action panel.

2. Add the RSS Feed URL

Find the RSS URL that you wish to use - you can simply browse to this website and copy and paste the URL into this field. If you are having trouble locating the RSS feed connected to your school website speak to your website designer or School IT Support they may be able to advise you where to find this.

3. Set the Number of News Items to display

You can either the in to the field provided or use the number stepper to the right of the field and click up to increase the number and down to decrease.

4. Activate Notifications

You may want to send out a notification each time a new news item is added - by checking this box OurSchoolsApp will automatically send out a push notification for each item added.

5. Click Amend to add the Feed

At this point to add the news feed you 

6. Refresh the List

You may notice that once you have added your RSS feed articles that have appeared in the past will not appear straight away. If you wish for OSA to display historic feed notifications select the upload button once again.

7. Click Refresh

You may wish to Activate/DeActivate Push Notifications or change the amount of items to display if you wish to change this click Amend to finish. If your aim is to just make OurSchoolsApp display the historic items click Refresh.

Amend a RSS News Item Select Item

You may wish to Amend a news item, this can be achieved in the same way as editing any news item. For example to add an image if it has not automatically been added already or your RSS feed does not support images. Or you may want to add or remove some text from the item.

Info
titleNote:

The admin tool may not display Images included within the RSS feed, this does not mean they are not visible in OurSchoolsApp. We recommend checking news items to see if image have been included on an Android or iOS device.

Note: Click the item you wish to amend.

1. Item Select Item

Click the item you wish to amend.

2. Click Amend fro the central action panel

3. Make Changes

Simply make changes as adding a new news item (see above) 

Upload an image (fig. 1)

Change text (fig. 2)

Change date and time of post (fig. 3)

4. Click Amend to finish

Once you are happy with your changes click the amend button to save and publish changes to parents.

Upload CSV



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