Django updates, just in time for election coverage

Some recent django news you can use, listed by slug to help the scanability:

UPDATE: DELETE KEY: The delete key (aka backspace key) will no longer take you back to the previous Web page you visited. This should help save us from losing edits by mistake.

UPDATE: HOT TOPICS: TJ recommends that we limit these to 18 active at a time, to save on load times with the home page. Maggie and I cleaned several of them out a few days ago. Noah also reset the count on all of them to 10. Now, just like with articles, if the priority numbers are the same on two hot topics, the newer one will come up first.

UPDATE: AUTHOR FIELDS: These are now showing up on landing pages, where before just the byline field would.

TIP: HOW TO PLAY TWO PHOTOS IN THE LEAD POSITION ON AN ARTICLE PAGE: Load both photos in the lead media field, then switch the template to Photo. It's the same way we make photo gallery pages.

NEW FEATURE: LANDING PAGES FOR PACKAGES: Want to read all the news from the Election 08 Preview we're currently in the midst of running? Click here. Noah has made it so that packages now have their own landing pages. To get there, go under Packages, select the package you want, and click View on Site. This is a great feature for Hot Topics and blog posts.

TIP: DON'T BREAK THE WEB SITE: When we write slugs, they need to be unique to each file in django. When identical slugs happen, you're likely to get an internal server error. Noah is working on a safeguard for this, but in the meantime, let's make sure we're using unique slugs by always putting at least a four-digit or six-digit date.

This problem is an exact mirror of the headline/django ID problem, which you can read more about here.

More updates hopefully coming soon.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Django updates, just in time for election coverage

Some recent django news you can use, listed by slug to help the scanability:

UPDATE: DELETE KEY: The delete key (aka backspace key) will no longer take you back to the previous Web page you visited. This should help save us from losing edits by mistake.

UPDATE: HOT TOPICS: TJ recommends that we limit these to 18 active at a time, to save on load times with the home page. Maggie and I cleaned several of them out a few days ago. Noah also reset the count on all of them to 10. Now, just like with articles, if the priority numbers are the same on two hot topics, the newer one will come up first.

UPDATE: AUTHOR FIELDS: These are now showing up on landing pages, where before just the byline field would.

TIP: HOW TO PLAY TWO PHOTOS IN THE LEAD POSITION ON AN ARTICLE PAGE: Load both photos in the lead media field, then switch the template to Photo. It's the same way we make photo gallery pages.

NEW FEATURE: LANDING PAGES FOR PACKAGES: Want to read all the news from the Election 08 Preview we're currently in the midst of running? Click here. Noah has made it so that packages now have their own landing pages. To get there, go under Packages, select the package you want, and click View on Site. This is a great feature for Hot Topics and blog posts.

TIP: DON'T BREAK THE WEB SITE: When we write slugs, they need to be unique to each file in django. When identical slugs happen, you're likely to get an internal server error. Noah is working on a safeguard for this, but in the meantime, let's make sure we're using unique slugs by always putting at least a four-digit or six-digit date.

This problem is an exact mirror of the headline/django ID problem, which you can read more about here.

More updates hopefully coming soon.
Make sure slugs are unique

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Writing headlines in django

When you're filing stories to django, please do your best to write a real headline. Here's why:

The headline becomes the django ID, which is part of the URL for that story. If two people write the same headline on the same day, like "heady goes herey," then we're all trying to save the same story under the same filename, essentially.

While there are safeguards in place to prevent us from actually losing data, it can result in a misdirected story. For instance, I clicked on a story tonight and ended up with something different than I clicked on.

And if you're absolutely rushed and don't have time to craft a headline, paste the slug into the headline field.

Another reason to go with the slug or a real headline: The django ID is part of the URL. So if you say something like "my stupid headline here," that becomes part of the URL.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Random django things on my mind ...

Web development is still going well. One little thing Noah fixed this week:

-- The check in/check out problem. We think we know where this problem was coming up. When you use the "print" features in django, stories were checking in. He's changed that so that stories stay checked out even when on the print screens. That should make things better.

Also, some other random thoughts I wanted to get down somewhere ...

-- Tom points out that we're not getting our hottest topic of all, MU football, into our Hot Topics menu. He's right. We have to figure out a way to do better with that.

-- That thought got me thinking: Maybe we need a whole promotions team to not only keep our Hot Topics regularly switched up, but to also otherwise promote the good journalism that we do here.

-- I hope to get Radio Adelante saved as a podcast and incorporated into the Missourian's Web site this semester. More to come on that.

-- We're seriously looking at dumping Falcon all together and going to PlanSystem. As long as the night news editors are OK with PlanSystem, I'm OK with it too. While I don't think it's the ideal system for us, I do think it's better than Falcon (of course, what isn't better than Falcon?). And while we'd still trade one set of problems for another, I think we have the potential for fewer problems on PlaySystem.

Blogged with the Flock Browser