About this manual

Copyright (C) 2012 Sourcefabric o.p.s

This manual was written for Sourcefabric by Trevor Parsons, using the tools at FLOSS Manuals. Please add your comments and contributions at: http://en.flossmanuals.net/gen-live-desk/

This documentation is free documentation; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, version 3.

This documentation is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this documentation; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.


GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE

Version 3, 29 June 2007

Copyright © 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc. <http://fsf.org/>

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

Preamble

The GNU General Public License is a free, copyleft license for software and other kinds of works.

The licenses for most software and other practical works are designed to take away your freedom to share and change the works. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change all versions of a program--to make sure it remains free software for all its users. We, the Free Software Foundation, use the GNU General Public License for most of our software; it applies also to any other work released this way by its authors. You can apply it to your programs, too.

When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for them if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs, and that you know you can do these things.

To protect your rights, we need to prevent others from denying you these rights or asking you to surrender the rights. Therefore, you have certain responsibilities if you distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it: responsibilities to respect the freedom of others.

For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must pass on to the recipients the same freedoms that you received. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights.

Developers that use the GNU GPL protect your rights with two steps: (1) assert copyright on the software, and (2) offer you this License giving you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify it.

For the developers' and authors' protection, the GPL clearly explains that there is no warranty for this free software. For both users' and authors' sake, the GPL requires that modified versions be marked as changed, so that their problems will not be attributed erroneously to authors of previous versions.

Some devices are designed to deny users access to install or run modified versions of the software inside them, although the manufacturer can do so. This is fundamentally incompatible with the aim of protecting users' freedom to change the software. The systematic pattern of such abuse occurs in the area of products for individuals to use, which is precisely where it is most unacceptable. Therefore, we have designed this version of the GPL to prohibit the practice for those products. If such problems arise substantially in other domains, we stand ready to extend this provision to those domains in future versions of the GPL, as needed to protect the freedom of users.

Finally, every program is threatened constantly by software patents. States should not allow patents to restrict development and use of software on general-purpose computers, but in those that do, we wish to avoid the special danger that patents applied to a free program could make it effectively proprietary. To prevent this, the GPL assures that patents cannot be used to render the program non-free.

The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modification follow.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

0. Definitions.

“This License” refers to version 3 of the GNU General Public License.

“Copyright” also means copyright-like laws that apply to other kinds of works, such as semiconductor masks.

“The Program” refers to any copyrightable work licensed under this License. Each licensee is addressed as “you”. “Licensees” and “recipients” may be individuals or organizations.

To “modify” a work means to copy from or adapt all or part of the work in a fashion requiring copyright permission, other than the making of an exact copy. The resulting work is called a “modified version” of the earlier work or a work “based on” the earlier work.

A “covered work” means either the unmodified Program or a work based on the Program.

To “propagate” a work means to do anything with it that, without permission, would make you directly or secondarily liable for infringement under applicable copyright law, except executing it on a computer or modifying a private copy. Propagation includes copying, distribution (with or without modification), making available to the public, and in some countries other activities as well.

To “convey” a work means any kind of propagation that enables other parties to make or receive copies. Mere interaction with a user through a computer network, with no transfer of a copy, is not conveying.

An interactive user interface displays “Appropriate Legal Notices” to the extent that it includes a convenient and prominently visible feature that (1) displays an appropriate copyright notice, and (2) tells the user that there is no warranty for the work (except to the extent that warranties are provided), that licensees may convey the work under this License, and how to view a copy of this License. If the interface presents a list of user commands or options, such as a menu, a prominent item in the list meets this criterion.

1. Source Code.

The “source code” for a work means the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it. “Object code” means any non-source form of a work.

A “Standard Interface” means an interface that either is an official standard defined by a recognized standards body, or, in the case of interfaces specified for a particular programming language, one that is widely used among developers working in that language.

The “System Libraries” of an executable work include anything, other than the work as a whole, that (a) is included in the normal form of packaging a Major Component, but which is not part of that Major Component, and (b) serves only to enable use of the work with that Major Component, or to implement a Standard Interface for which an implementation is available to the public in source code form. A “Major Component”, in this context, means a major essential component (kernel, window system, and so on) of the specific operating system (if any) on which the executable work runs, or a compiler used to produce the work, or an object code interpreter used to run it.

The “Corresponding Source” for a work in object code form means all the source code needed to generate, install, and (for an executable work) run the object code and to modify the work, including scripts to control those activities. However, it does not include the work's System Libraries, or general-purpose tools or generally available free programs which are used unmodified in performing those activities but which are not part of the work. For example, Corresponding Source includes interface definition files associated with source files for the work, and the source code for shared libraries and dynamically linked subprograms that the work is specifically designed to require, such as by intimate data communication or control flow between those subprograms and other parts of the work.

The Corresponding Source need not include anything that users can regenerate automatically from other parts of the Corresponding Source.

The Corresponding Source for a work in source code form is that same work.

2. Basic Permissions.

All rights granted under this License are granted for the term of copyright on the Program, and are irrevocable provided the stated conditions are met. This License explicitly affirms your unlimited permission to run the unmodified Program. The output from running a covered work is covered by this License only if the output, given its content, constitutes a covered work. This License acknowledges your rights of fair use or other equivalent, as provided by copyright law.

You may make, run and propagate covered works that you do not convey, without conditions so long as your license otherwise remains in force. You may convey covered works to others for the sole purpose of having them make modifications exclusively for you, or provide you with facilities for running those works, provided that you comply with the terms of this License in conveying all material for which you do not control copyright. Those thus making or running the covered works for you must do so exclusively on your behalf, under your direction and control, on terms that prohibit them from making any copies of your copyrighted material outside their relationship with you.

Conveying under any other circumstances is permitted solely under the conditions stated below. Sublicensing is not allowed; section 10 makes it unnecessary.

3. Protecting Users' Legal Rights From Anti-Circumvention Law.

No covered work shall be deemed part of an effective technological measure under any applicable law fulfilling obligations under article 11 of the WIPO copyright treaty adopted on 20 December 1996, or similar laws prohibiting or restricting circumvention of such measures.

When you convey a covered work, you waive any legal power to forbid circumvention of technological measures to the extent such circumvention is effected by exercising rights under this License with respect to the covered work, and you disclaim any intention to limit operation or modification of the work as a means of enforcing, against the work's users, your or third parties' legal rights to forbid circumvention of technological measures.

4. Conveying Verbatim Copies.

You may convey verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice; keep intact all notices stating that this License and any non-permissive terms added in accord with section 7 apply to the code; keep intact all notices of the absence of any warranty; and give all recipients a copy of this License along with the Program.

You may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey, and you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee.

5. Conveying Modified Source Versions.

You may convey a work based on the Program, or the modifications to produce it from the Program, in the form of source code under the terms of section 4, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:

A compilation of a covered work with other separate and independent works, which are not by their nature extensions of the covered work, and which are not combined with it such as to form a larger program, in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, is called an “aggregate” if the compilation and its resulting copyright are not used to limit the access or legal rights of the compilation's users beyond what the individual works permit. Inclusion of a covered work in an aggregate does not cause this License to apply to the other parts of the aggregate.

6. Conveying Non-Source Forms.

You may convey a covered work in object code form under the terms of sections 4 and 5, provided that you also convey the machine-readable Corresponding Source under the terms of this License, in one of these ways:

A separable portion of the object code, whose source code is excluded from the Corresponding Source as a System Library, need not be included in conveying the object code work.

A “User Product” is either (1) a “consumer product”, which means any tangible personal property which is normally used for personal, family, or household purposes, or (2) anything designed or sold for incorporation into a dwelling. In determining whether a product is a consumer product, doubtful cases shall be resolved in favor of coverage. For a particular product received by a particular user, “normally used” refers to a typical or common use of that class of product, regardless of the status of the particular user or of the way in which the particular user actually uses, or expects or is expected to use, the product. A product is a consumer product regardless of whether the product has substantial commercial, industrial or non-consumer uses, unless such uses represent the only significant mode of use of the product.

“Installation Information” for a User Product means any methods, procedures, authorization keys, or other information required to install and execute modified versions of a covered work in that User Product from a modified version of its Corresponding Source. The information must suffice to ensure that the continued functioning of the modified object code is in no case prevented or interfered with solely because modification has been made.

If you convey an object code work under this section in, or with, or specifically for use in, a User Product, and the conveying occurs as part of a transaction in which the right of possession and use of the User Product is transferred to the recipient in perpetuity or for a fixed term (regardless of how the transaction is characterized), the Corresponding Source conveyed under this section must be accompanied by the Installation Information. But this requirement does not apply if neither you nor any third party retains the ability to install modified object code on the User Product (for example, the work has been installed in ROM).

The requirement to provide Installation Information does not include a requirement to continue to provide support service, warranty, or updates for a work that has been modified or installed by the recipient, or for the User Product in which it has been modified or installed. Access to a network may be denied when the modification itself materially and adversely affects the operation of the network or violates the rules and protocols for communication across the network.

Corresponding Source conveyed, and Installation Information provided, in accord with this section must be in a format that is publicly documented (and with an implementation available to the public in source code form), and must require no special password or key for unpacking, reading or copying.

7. Additional Terms.

“Additional permissions” are terms that supplement the terms of this License by making exceptions from one or more of its conditions. Additional permissions that are applicable to the entire Program shall be treated as though they were included in this License, to the extent that they are valid under applicable law. If additional permissions apply only to part of the Program, that part may be used separately under those permissions, but the entire Program remains governed by this License without regard to the additional permissions.

When you convey a copy of a covered work, you may at your option remove any additional permissions from that copy, or from any part of it. (Additional permissions may be written to require their own removal in certain cases when you modify the work.) You may place additional permissions on material, added by you to a covered work, for which you have or can give appropriate copyright permission.

Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, for material you add to a covered work, you may (if authorized by the copyright holders of that material) supplement the terms of this License with terms:

All other non-permissive additional terms are considered “further restrictions” within the meaning of section 10. If the Program as you received it, or any part of it, contains a notice stating that it is governed by this License along with a term that is a further restriction, you may remove that term. If a license document contains a further restriction but permits relicensing or conveying under this License, you may add to a covered work material governed by the terms of that license document, provided that the further restriction does not survive such relicensing or conveying.

If you add terms to a covered work in accord with this section, you must place, in the relevant source files, a statement of the additional terms that apply to those files, or a notice indicating where to find the applicable terms.

Additional terms, permissive or non-permissive, may be stated in the form of a separately written license, or stated as exceptions; the above requirements apply either way.

8. Termination.

You may not propagate or modify a covered work except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to propagate or modify it is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License (including any patent licenses granted under the third paragraph of section 11).

However, if you cease all violation of this License, then your license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated (a) provisionally, unless and until the copyright holder explicitly and finally terminates your license, and (b) permanently, if the copyright holder fails to notify you of the violation by some reasonable means prior to 60 days after the cessation.

Moreover, your license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated permanently if the copyright holder notifies you of the violation by some reasonable means, this is the first time you have received notice of violation of this License (for any work) from that copyright holder, and you cure the violation prior to 30 days after your receipt of the notice.

Termination of your rights under this section does not terminate the licenses of parties who have received copies or rights from you under this License. If your rights have been terminated and not permanently reinstated, you do not qualify to receive new licenses for the same material under section 10.

9. Acceptance Not Required for Having Copies.

You are not required to accept this License in order to receive or run a copy of the Program. Ancillary propagation of a covered work occurring solely as a consequence of using peer-to-peer transmission to receive a copy likewise does not require acceptance. However, nothing other than this License grants you permission to propagate or modify any covered work. These actions infringe copyright if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or propagating a covered work, you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so.

10. Automatic Licensing of Downstream Recipients.

Each time you convey a covered work, the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensors, to run, modify and propagate that work, subject to this License. You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties with this License.

An “entity transaction” is a transaction transferring control of an organization, or substantially all assets of one, or subdividing an organization, or merging organizations. If propagation of a covered work results from an entity transaction, each party to that transaction who receives a copy of the work also receives whatever licenses to the work the party's predecessor in interest had or could give under the previous paragraph, plus a right to possession of the Corresponding Source of the work from the predecessor in interest, if the predecessor has it or can get it with reasonable efforts.

You may not impose any further restrictions on the exercise of the rights granted or affirmed under this License. For example, you may not impose a license fee, royalty, or other charge for exercise of rights granted under this License, and you may not initiate litigation (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that any patent claim is infringed by making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the Program or any portion of it.

11. Patents.

A “contributor” is a copyright holder who authorizes use under this License of the Program or a work on which the Program is based. The work thus licensed is called the contributor's “contributor version”.

A contributor's “essential patent claims” are all patent claims owned or controlled by the contributor, whether already acquired or hereafter acquired, that would be infringed by some manner, permitted by this License, of making, using, or selling its contributor version, but do not include claims that would be infringed only as a consequence of further modification of the contributor version. For purposes of this definition, “control” includes the right to grant patent sublicenses in a manner consistent with the requirements of this License.

Each contributor grants you a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free patent license under the contributor's essential patent claims, to make, use, sell, offer for sale, import and otherwise run, modify and propagate the contents of its contributor version.

In the following three paragraphs, a “patent license” is any express agreement or commitment, however denominated, not to enforce a patent (such as an express permission to practice a patent or covenant not to sue for patent infringement). To “grant” such a patent license to a party means to make such an agreement or commitment not to enforce a patent against the party.

If you convey a covered work, knowingly relying on a patent license, and the Corresponding Source of the work is not available for anyone to copy, free of charge and under the terms of this License, through a publicly available network server or other readily accessible means, then you must either (1) cause the Corresponding Source to be so available, or (2) arrange to deprive yourself of the benefit of the patent license for this particular work, or (3) arrange, in a manner consistent with the requirements of this License, to extend the patent license to downstream recipients. “Knowingly relying” means you have actual knowledge that, but for the patent license, your conveying the covered work in a country, or your recipient's use of the covered work in a country, would infringe one or more identifiable patents in that country that you have reason to believe are valid.

If, pursuant to or in connection with a single transaction or arrangement, you convey, or propagate by procuring conveyance of, a covered work, and grant a patent license to some of the parties receiving the covered work authorizing them to use, propagate, modify or convey a specific copy of the covered work, then the patent license you grant is automatically extended to all recipients of the covered work and works based on it.

A patent license is “discriminatory” if it does not include within the scope of its coverage, prohibits the exercise of, or is conditioned on the non-exercise of one or more of the rights that are specifically granted under this License. You may not convey a covered work if you are a party to an arrangement with a third party that is in the business of distributing software, under which you make payment to the third party based on the extent of your activity of conveying the work, and under which the third party grants, to any of the parties who would receive the covered work from you, a discriminatory patent license (a) in connection with copies of the covered work conveyed by you (or copies made from those copies), or (b) primarily for and in connection with specific products or compilations that contain the covered work, unless you entered into that arrangement, or that patent license was granted, prior to 28 March 2007.

Nothing in this License shall be construed as excluding or limiting any implied license or other defenses to infringement that may otherwise be available to you under applicable patent law.

12. No Surrender of Others' Freedom.

If conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot convey a covered work so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not convey it at all. For example, if you agree to terms that obligate you to collect a royalty for further conveying from those to whom you convey the Program, the only way you could satisfy both those terms and this License would be to refrain entirely from conveying the Program.

13. Use with the GNU Affero General Public License.

Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, you have permission to link or combine any covered work with a work licensed under version 3 of the GNU Affero General Public License into a single combined work, and to convey the resulting work. The terms of this License will continue to apply to the part which is the covered work, but the special requirements of the GNU Affero General Public License, section 13, concerning interaction through a network will apply to the combination as such.

14. Revised Versions of this License.

The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions of the GNU General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.

Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program specifies that a certain numbered version of the GNU General Public License “or any later version” applies to it, you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that numbered version or of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of the GNU General Public License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation.

If the Program specifies that a proxy can decide which future versions of the GNU General Public License can be used, that proxy's public statement of acceptance of a version permanently authorizes you to choose that version for the Program.

Later license versions may give you additional or different permissions. However, no additional obligations are imposed on any author or copyright holder as a result of your choosing to follow a later version.

15. Disclaimer of Warranty.

THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

16. Limitation of Liability.

IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MODIFIES AND/OR CONVEYS THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

17. Interpretation of Sections 15 and 16.

If the disclaimer of warranty and limitation of liability provided above cannot be given local legal effect according to their terms, reviewing courts shall apply local law that most closely approximates an absolute waiver of all civil liability in connection with the Program, unless a warranty or assumption of liability accompanies a copy of the Program in return for a fee.

END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Configuring your live blog

The Configure Blog button opens up your live blog's configuration section.

Only a limited number of configuration options are available in this section at the moment. More will be added as development of Live Blog progresses.

Items currently configurable are: the blog's embed script, embed theme and frontend server; the language for the blog; and 'blog types'.

The embedding options are covered in the chapter 'Publishing your live blog'.

The languages currently available are English, French and German.

Blog types

The ability to configure blog types is an emerging feature of Live Blog. Your chosen blog type controls what options will be available in the dropdown menu in the Edit tab (see the chapter Creating content and using sources). It is configurable both when the blog is first created (see the chapter Creating a live blog) and at any time afterwards in the blog configuration.

The default blog type contains the four standard posting styles, viz normal, link, quote and wrapup. Custom blog types consist of the four standard styles of the default blog type, hard-coded, plus your customisations.

Currently the only customisation available when you create a new blog type is the addition of predefined posts.

For example, you may wish to create a new blog type with predefined posts which welcome readers at the start of your live coverage and bid them farewell when you finish. To do this, click the Add New button.

 

The Add New Blog Type dialog will appear. First, give your new blog type a name, e.g. Greetings. Then click Create New Predefined Post. Proceed through the four steps of setting up a new predefined post.

Step one: Enter the post name, eg 'Welcome'.

Step two: Type the text of your predefined post, eg 'Welcome to our coverage of racing at Caymanas Park, brought to you courtesy of XYZ Sports Ltd'

 

Step three: Customise font style and colour.

Step four: Customise the background.

Click Save. You will be returned to the Add New Blog Type dialog, where you can add further predefined posts in the same way. If you need to edit a predefined post, or delete it, hovering your mouse pointer over the post name will bring up the required controls.

 

When you have added all the predefined posts you wish your custom blog type to contain, click the Save Changes button. Your custom blog type will now be listed in the configuration section, below the default blog type. If you select the radio button corresponding to your custom blog type, and click Save & Close, your predefined posts should now be available in the Edit tab in addition to the standard four styles.

Creating a live blog

 To create a live blog, click on Live Blogs in the menu, and then on Create live blog.


 

You will be prompted to choose a Language and title for your new live blog, and to provide a brief description.

Select 'default' as the type of blog, unless you or your system administrator have set up a custom blog type for your publication. (For information on setting up custom blog types, see the chapter Configuring your live blog).


 

Click the Save button, and your new live blog will appear, empty of content and ready for you to start using. If you change your mind about the title or description, you can change these simply by clicking on the relevant text in the right-hand pane and editing it.

You can also at this stage add an image to go along with your live blog's title and description. Click in the space for description text, and a formatting toolbar will appear. Click on the image button, and a dialog box will pop up.

 

At the moment this dialog won't let you upload an image from your computer. You have to paste the link to an image already available somewhere on the Web into the URL box and press the Insert button.

Tip: To gain a little more space for viewing items in the timeline, you can click on the Collapse link to the right of your live blog's title. The description of the live blog will then be hidden until you choose to click on Expand.  

Creating content and using sources

You will notice a number of tabs along the left-hand side of the left pane in Live Blog, each with a different icon.

 
 

These tabs allow you to switch between different sources of content. Reading from top to bottom, these content sources are:

Edit tab

This is where you create your own content.


 

When click you into the text area, you will notice that a formatting bar appears above. You can use this to do basic styling (bold, italic, underline, strikethrough), align your text (left, centre, right), insert a web link, and insert an image. Finally, there is a button you can use to edit the HTML formatting of your post, or to insert code of your own.

To the left of the formatting toolbar, and remaining in view permanently, is a drop-down menu which, by default, contains four style options: normal, link, quote and wrapup.


 

Normal

This is the style which you will use to create normal text posts. It results in a post that looks like this:


 

Link

If you choose link style, a link field is added above the content text area. When you paste a web link into this field and press enter, Live Blog will fetch summary content from your link and insert it into your post. If you wish, you can then edit this fetched content or add a comment of your own.

 

Be aware that any text you type into the fetched content will acquire the formatting of that content. If you are familiar with editing HTML tags, you can adjust the formatting as you wish using the 'edit HTML' facility in the toolbar, which has a button like this:

 

Here's how that post looks in the timeline:

 

Quote

If you select this option, the whole of your text entry will be styled as a quotation.


 

Wrapup

This is a special option, to be used when a natural break occurs in your live blogging, and you want to 'wrap up' the preceding posts in the timeline into a distinct section. The text you enter will be the name of the wrapup section, so choose something which sums up the section well.

If you were covering an afternoon at Caymanas Park horse-racing course, for example, you might entitle the first wrapup section 'Pre-race commentary', the second wrapup section 'Race 1, 1820m, purse $528,000', and the third wrapup section 'Race 2, 1200m, Purse $516,600'.

When you're ready, click Save & post, and the wrapup section will be created.



 

This is how wrapup sections look in the journalist's timeline. Clicking on the arrowhead will reveal the contents of the wrapup section.

Like other posts, wrapup posts can be unpublished or deleted, but they cannot be edited once they have been saved, whether or not they have yet been placed in the timeline.

If you accidentally place a wrapup post in the wrong position in the timeline, unpublish it and place it in the timeline again.

Tip: When you're drafting a post in the Edit tab, make sure you click Save or Save & post before you switch to another tab. If you don't, your work will be lost.

Collaborators tab

Collaborators are the other journalists who are working with you on the live blog. When you select the collaborators tab, you will see a row of user names in blue buttons, and below them a timeline of content items that has been created by those users.


 

If you wish, you can filter out content from one or more of your collaborators. When you click on a username button, it will change to a grey colour and you will no longer see content from that user until you click on their button again. In the above screenshot, both Andrew Reporter and Christine Journalist have been filtered, so that we can temporarily concentrate on content from Janet Editor.

The collaborators tab has a notification feature which can alert you to events occurring within the collaborators tab even when you have navigated away from it and are working in another content tab. Notifications are turned off by default. To turn on notifications, click on the circled exclamation mark on the collaborators tab icon. The circle will turn orange indicating that Live Blog will alert you to changes happening within this tab, for instance a new post. Clicking again on the circled exclamation mark will turn off notifications.

When you're working in another tab, a counter on the collaborators tab shows how many new unpublished posts have been created by your colleagues.

 

Advertisements tab

The functionality of this tab has not been enabled yet. The advertisements tab will allow you to organise advertisements and place them into your timeline.

 

Google tab

This tab allows you to search for relevant external content conveniently within the Live Blog interface.


 

Just like in the familiar Google search interface, you can switch between results from Web, News and Images, by clicking the links above the search field. A limited number of results are shown, but you can request more by clicking the Show More Results button at the end of the page.

Twitter tab

The next tab down lets you search Twitter for relevant items. This means you can incorporate different voices into your timeline, as well as encouraging your readers to signal their participation in your live blog by using a hashtag of your suggestion.

As with the Google tab, Live Blog's Twitter search function will show a limited number of results to begin with. Scroll down to review these, and if you wish to see more, click on the See More Results button at the end.


 

Like the collaborators tab, the Twitter tab has a notification facility. Turn notifications on by clicking on the circled exclamation mark on the Twitter tab icon. It will go orange to show that notifications are enabled. When you are working in, for example, the Edit tab, and someone sends a tweet that matches your existing search keywords, a 'New' button on the Twitter tab will alert you.

  

Flickr tab

Search here for images hosted on the popular image sharing service. A drop-down menu enables you to filter your search results by copyright licence (e.g. Any, or Attribution-Sharealike).


 

As before, if you wish to see more results, click on the See More Results button at the end of the page.

YouTube tab

The YouTube search tab features a straightforward keyword search, as well as search by user's favourites and user's videos. There is also a drop-down menu which permits you to order search results by relevance, date published, number of views, and rating.

  

When published to the timeline, video items are transformed into the a YouTube embedded player, complete with the familiar controls.

Instagram tab

This tab allows you to search for images from the popular Instagram photo sharing service, with found items presented in a simple list. The photographer's accompanying text and hashtags are included as tooltip-style popups available when you mouse over.

 


Soundcloud tab

Live Blog now also allows you to search for audio hosted on SoundCloud.

 

When published to the timeline, audio items are transformed into a SoundCloud player, complete with play/pause button, waveform, and like and share buttons, which can be used by your readers if they have a SoundCloud account.

 

Searches are remembered

Don't worry about search terms and results being lost when you switch between external source tabs. Live Blog saves them, so they'll still be there when you switch back.

Getting help

Live Blog is based on the Superdesk platform created by Sourcefabric. You can visit the Superdesk development forum, and sign up for the mailing list, at http://forum.sourcefabric.org/categories/superdesk-dev

This forum is mirrored by the mailing list, so posts on the forum appear on the mailing list and vice versa. You can therefore also post a message there by emailing superdesk-dev@lists.sourcefabric.org

To subscribe to forum updates via mail, please register or login to the forum by clicking the appropriate link. Then click the Subscribe button at the top of each forum page.

Bug reporting

Live Blog needs your input to improve. If you think you've found a bug, please visit http://dev.sourcefabric.org/ and sign in, using the same login and password that you registered for the Superdesk forum. Create a bug report by selecting Create Issue, then Superdesk, and then Bug on the Issues menu in the main navigation bar. That way, the Superdesk team can keep track of your problem and notify you when it has been fixed. You can also suggest improvements and new features for Live Blog on that site.

Contact

Finally, when all other avenues have been exhausted, email us directly at contact@sourcefabric.org and we'll try to help!

Media archive

The media archive is an emerging feature of Live Blog. You can upload media such as audio or images, and conduct various operations on the uploaded items, such as search, filtering, and editing of metadata. However, it cannot be used in production currently because the ability to place items from the media archive into the timeline of a live blog has not yet been enabled. Coming soon!

 

Publishing your live blog

When you are ready to start blogging, click the blue Go Live button in the top-right corner.


 

You'll be asked whether you're sure. If you click Yes, and all goes well, the blue Go live button will be replaced by a red Take offline button.


 

Click on the white Configure Blog button in the top-left corner. This will take you to your live blog's configuration page. Select a theme for the embedded content from the available themes using the drop-down menu. The embed code will then appear in the Embed script field.


 

Click into the script text box, select all of it, and copy it to your clipboard (with the keyboard shortcuts Control+A, Control+C).

This script can then be embedded in the web page where you want your new live blog to appear. Determining the exact method for embedding scripts into your publication will depend on what content management system or publishing platform you are using. This is a job for your web editor or designer.

You will not normally need to pay attention to the Frontend server field. This is only required when Live Blog is running in multiple instance mode, when there is a separate, cached instance for serving the embeddable content. In this case, inputting the name of the frontend server into this field will update the embed script with the correct information.

The Live Blog interface

Live Blog presents two different interfaces: one for the reader, and one for the journalist.

What the reader sees

The reader sees the results of your live-blogging work as a timeline on your website, with the latest items at the top. New items appear immediately, without needing to refresh the page.

The timeline created by Live Blog can be embedded wherever you choose on your site, and can be styled to fit seamlessly with the rest of your content.

 

A busy live blog can end up containing a large number of items. This can make it difficult for readers to get an overview of the content without having to do a lot of scrolling. Live Blog enables journalists and editors to 'wrap up' their posts into sections when a natural break occurs. If you are live-blogging from an afternoon of horse racing, for example, you can use wrap-ups to organise the posts you and your colleagues made during each race.

Wrapped sections appear as sub-headings with a plus sign next to them, inviting the reader to click and reveal the hidden posts.

 

Once clicked, the plus sign turns to a minus, and the items contained within the wrap-up section are displayed.

Find out how to create wrap-up sections in the chapter Creating content and using sources.

Another handy feature of Live Blog is that every post in the public timeline is formatted as an HTML anchor, enabling that the reader to share and link directly to any post of interest.

 

Readers can also click on the adjacent Share link to share a post via the leading social media services and email.


What the journalist sees

The journalist's view of Live Blog is a dashboard where content is originated or sourced, and then published in the live stream.


 

The interface consists of two panes in your web browser window. The left pane organises your content sources, while the right pane contains the live blog's timeline, into which items are dragged and published.

This timeline is very similar to what the reader sees, but has features for journalists and editors such as the ability to re-order and delete posts, and to add comments to them.

The chapters Creating content and using sources and Using the timeline detail the publishing process.

Only authorised users can access the journalist's view of Live Blog. User accounts are set up by the system administrator.

Live blogs are much more interesting for readers if they contain a variety of voices rather than a monologue. With Live Blog, many individual contributors can be logged into the journalist's interface simultaneously, adding fresh content and helping to increase the pace of posting.

Users and collaborators

When Live Blog is first set up, at least one administrator-level user (Root) is created. The administrator can then add journalists and other contributors as required, by clicking the Add User button in the Users section.

 

In the Add User dialog, the user's login name and password are set up, along with other basic details. Additionally, there is a drop-down menu in which the user's role is defined. The standard available roles are Administrator or Collaborator.

 

Users with administrator privileges are able to do pretty much anything on the system, including adding and deleting users, and creating, publishing and deleting live blogs.

Collaborators are much more limited. They are only able to write posts, not publish them. A collaborator's posts will need to be approved and published by a user with administrative privileges.

Once users have been set up on the system, users can be added as contributors to individual live blogs via the Manage Collaborators button.

Note that even if an individual has been set to have only collaborator-level privileges by the administrator in the Users section, she can nevertheless be granted administrator-level privileges when added as a contributor to a live blog. These privileges only extend to the particular live blog in question.

 

Using the timeline

The timeline, in the right-hand pane of the journalist's view of Live Blog, is where live content is published. In a nutshell, to publish an item you just click on it in the left-hand pane, drag it over to the right-hand pane, and drop it into position in the timeline. But there are a few extra details that are worth knowing.

Publishing and re-ordering items

When you're writing a post in the Edit tab, the buttons below the text box offer you the choice to Save or Save & post.

 

If you choose Save & post, your item will be inserted at the top of the timeline on the right, and will be immediately visible to readers on your website.

If you choose Save only, as you might do if you are preparing an item for later insertion, it will appear in the list of items in the Edit tab, but not in the timeline.

When you move your pointer over an unpublished item in the left pane, a grab bar will appear on its left side, indicating that you can move it.


 

When you're ready to publish your item, go ahead and drag it over to the timeline. It will be immediately published to the live blog, at the top of the timeline.

Once posts have been published, you can drag them up and down to change their position in the timeline.

Tip: The Edit tab is different from the other source tabs in that, when you drag an item to the timeline in the right pane, it disappears from the left pane. In the other source tabs, a copy of the item remains in the left pane even when it has been dragged to the timeline.

Publishing items from external sources

When you drag items originating from external sources, i.e. from the Google, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Instagram and Soundcloud search tabs, into the timeline, they are not immediately published. You get the chance to check them over one more time, and also to add your own comment, if you wish, by clicking into the empty text field below the item. If you do so, a formatting toolbar will appear offering you basic text formatting functions plus the ability to add web links and HTML code.


 

When you've added any comment you wish to, and are sure that you want the item to appear in your live blog, click the blue Publish button. Alternatively, if you've had second thoughts about posting that dubious hot tip, click the Cancel button, which will remove the item from the timeline.

Editing published items

You can make corrections and additions to your posts even after they have been published in the timeline. Simply click into the text of the post, and it will become editable. To save your changes, either click the blue Publish button or simply click away from the post.



Unpublishing and deleting published items

When you move your mouse pointer over a item which has been posted to the timeline, two symbols will appear in the top-right corner: a circle with a diagonal line through it, and an 'X'.

  

If you click the circle, your post will be unpublished. This means that it will be sent back to the left-hand pane. Note that, whichever tab it originated in, a post which has been unpublished from the timeline will always return into the Edit tab.

If you click on the 'X', the item will be deleted from the live blog. If the deleted item originated from an external source tab, you can retrieve it from that tab if you decide you want to republish it.

However, if the item was a post written in the Edit tab, deleting it is permanent. It will not reappear in the list of items in the Edit tab.

Pinning

If content is being added to the timeline quickly by your fellow contributors, but you want some extra time to read a post before it gets buried under an avalanche of new items, you can click the Pin button at the top of the timeline. This will 'pin' the timeline as it was at that moment, with no new posts visible until you click the button again to 'unpin' it.

 

Filtering your view of the timeline

You can filter your view of items in the timeline by clicking on the Action button to the right of the Pin button at the top of the timeline. From a drop-down menu you can opt to show just advertisements, link posts, normal posts, quotes, or wrapup posts. To remove the filter and see all posts, select Show All.