Working with News Blocks

Owned by Melissa Chavira
Last updated: Mar 13, 2023
3 min read

Each home page template in Cascade CMS includes an option to include a News Block. The news block will appear above the footer on the homepage and can be turned on and off at any time.

Table of Contents

What is the News Block?

The news block element can be previewed on our Demo website. It is available on all three homepage templates.

Features of the News Block

  • Unlimited featured news rows. It is recommended that images used in featured news blocks be sized to 900x450 pixels.

  • Unlimited news story rows. News stories are grouped in rows of three columns. It is recommended that images used new stories be sized to 350x380 pixels. News blocks includes a hover animation and are clickable.

The news block is built using Site Configuration Blocks. It includes:

  1. News Highlight Heading - Display a custom heading for the news block. This heading can also be turned off.

  2. News Category or Labels - Optional labels can be used to provide categories to users to give them a general idea of the story topic. Labels appear above the Story Headline in Featured News blocks and in the upper left corner of News Story blocks.

  3. News Headline - The title of your news story or article.

  4. Featured Story Details - Featured news items have the option to include lead in text.

  5. Read More Link - Include the link to the full featured news article. This text label can be customized.

  6. View More Link - Include a link to a list of story archives or link back to our NMSU Newsroom.

How to Create/Edit the News Block

Each Cascade CMS site includes a starter News Highlights Block available in the _Site Configuration folder. You can create as many News Blocks as you’d like.

Edit the News Highlights Block

  1. From the _Site Configuration folder, select the News Highlight Block to edit.

  2. Click Edit.

  3. Make your edits.

  4. Click Preview Draft.

  5. Click Submit.

Create a News Highlights Block

  1. Look for a red plus sign in the topmost header area of the page, and click on Add Content.

  2. Inside the Add Content menu, select Add Site Configuration Builder Block from the dropdown menu.

  3. Select News Highlight Block.

  4. Enter a Block Name. The block will automatically be placed in the _Site Configuration folder.

  5. Configure the news block content.

  6. Click Preview Draft.

  7. Click Submit.

 

Adding a News Block to a Homepage

The final step to include a news block on your site is to attach it to a homepage.

  1. Select the desired home page in the Site Content menu on the left of the interface.

  2. Click Edit.

  3. Scroll to the bottom of the content tab.

  4. Select Yes from the Add News Highlight Block? option.

  5. Click Choose Block.

  6. From the Choose a block menu, select the desired news highlight block.

  7. Click Choose.

  8. Click Preview Draft (blue button at the top of the screen). After previewing the draft, click Submit to save these changes to the CMS.

  9. The page has been successfully saved to the CMS. You must now Publish your page.