News Feed / News Ticker

You can choose what news categories and articles to display in your news feed. To do this, you need to:

1. Select the 'Content' tab in the news feed component
2. Next to 'Categories', select 'Add' and then check off the news categories you want to include in the news feed. After you have selected your categories, click 'Submit'
3. Next to 'Latest Count', enter the number of latest published articles you want to display in the news feed
4. Next to 'Heading', add what heading you would like to appear at the top of the news feed
5. Next to 'View all Text', add the text that you want users to click on to view all the news feed items in another window
6. Next to 'View All Link', you can add a link to the full news feed so users can view all news articles. Select 'Add', and then enter the URL to the news feed page and click 'Submit'
7. Next to 'Featured Article', select 'Add' and then choose which news article you want to be displayed as the feature article on the news feed. This step is optional.

The news ticker is a variation of the news feed display. Rather than display news post vertically, it creates a horizontally scrolling feed that displays one news post at a time. You can switch between the two options by selecting the 'News Ticker' toggle in the 'Display' tab.

You can customize how the news feed is displayed on the page. To do this, you need to:

1. Select the 'Display' tab in the news feed component
2. Turn on or off the 'News Ticker' toggle to indicate whether or not you want a standard vertical feed or a horizontal rotating news ticker. Selecting the news ticker option will remove many of the display settings.
3. Turn on or off the 'Display Description' toggle to indicate whether or not you want to display news article descriptions in the news feed. This option is not available for news tickers.
4. Turn on or off the 'Display Categories' toggle to indicate whether or not you want to include the associated category for each news article in the news feed. This option is not available for news tickers.
5. Turn on or off the 'Display Published Date' toggle to indicate whether or not you want to show when each news article was published. This option is available for both news feeds and tickers.
6. Select an 'Auto rotate speed' in seconds. Setting this option to 0 with prevent the news ticker from rotating automatically. Posts will only change using the manual controls. For auto rotating tickers 8 seconds is the minimum recommended setting. This option is available for news tickers only.
7. Turn on or off the 'Display Featured Item With Image' toggle to indicate whether or not you want the featured news article you chose to appear more prominently beside the feed with its associated image. This option is not available for news tickers.
8. Turn on or off the 'Display Image' toggle to indicate whether or not you want to display each news article's image in the news feed. This option is not available for news tickers.
9. Turn on or off the 'Display Authors' toggle to indicate whether or not you want to display the author of each news article in the news feed. This option is not available for news tickers.
10. Turn on or off the 'Display Line Divider' toggle to indicate whether or not you want to have a line divider between each new article in the news feed. This option is not available for news tickers.

If your news feed has the option to preview posts from the list this toggle determines if the preview is triggered by a mouse over action (toggle off) or by clicking (toggle on). If the preview opens by clicking then a close button will be provided.

This feature is not supported in the current version of Govstack. 

You can customize the content colours of the component using the colours that are part of your website design. Depending on your website design, you can add a coloured background behind the component to create a hot spot on the page. 

Colour options

The colour options are based on the design of your website. You may be able to change the design colours depending on your Govstack plan. To get access to the website design features, speak with your GHD Digital Account Executive.

If you'd like, you can add an image to the background of your component. To do this, you need to:

1. Select the "+" icon next to the "Background image" field
2. This will open the 'Media' folder
3. From here, choose the folder that contains the image you'd like to add
4. Select the image you'd like to insert
5. Press the "Select" button 

Please note

Background images ignore the focal point and cropping information added to your image in the media tab. Instead they use the settings provided under "Background image options".

Adding an image behind text can cause colour contrast issues for users with low vision or colour blindness. You should only add an image behind text if it meets the colour contrast ratio requirements associated with accessibility legislation in your region.

Background images do not use alternative text and are not called out for those using screen readers. Make sure that background images do not contain information critical to understanding the meaning or context of your content.

You can also set a few options for a background image, including the placement of the image, size of the image and whether or not the image repeats. 

Image Size

These settings replace the cropping and sizing settings added in the media section image editor.

Cover - The image will stretch to fill the available space. This is the most popular option for a single image background.

Full-Width - The image stretches to fill the full width of the available space. Depending on the characteristics of the image this may result in gaps at the top and bottom of the component.

Auto - The image displays at it's actual size. This may leave gaps around the edges of your component.

Repeat - The background image with tile vertically and horizontally. Use a smaller image or a tiling image for best results.

Repeat Horizontal - As repeat but the background image tiles in a single row.

Repeat Vertical - As repeat but the background image tiles in a single column.

Image Placement

This setting replaces the focal point setting added in the media section image editor.

Select the origin point of your background image. The image will fill the space behind your component starting from the selected point. You may need to experiment to find the best contrast and focal point position for each image.

This setting only applies if you are using a page with a 'Full' page layout. Typically, full page layouts are reserved for the home page of your website or any landing pages you've created.

You can add animation to the component by selecting the 'Animate' toggle. Once the 'Animate' toggle is selected, you'll have the option to customize the:

• Animation style
• Animation delay (seconds)
• Animation duration (seconds)

From the 'Animation style' dropdown menu, select the type of animation you'd like to add to the accordion. There are a variety of different animation options in the following categories:

• Attention Seekers
• Bouncing Entrances
• Fading Entrances
• Flippers
• Light Speed
• Rotating Entrances
• Sliding Entrances
• Zoom Entrances
• Specials

We recommend testing out a variety of animation styles to select the one you like the most. 

Please note

Animation styles can cause accessibility issues for some users visiting your website. For example, some users may experience motion sickness when viewing animated elements on your website.

Using the 'Animation delay' slider select the time in seconds that you'd like to delay the animation. 

Please note

Animation delay can cause accessibility issues for some users visiting your website. Certain animation styles and delays can combine to make your animated component invisible to screen readers. Please test your animations to make sure they are accessible.

You can select how long you'd like the animation to last on the component by using the 'Animation duration' slider. Select the number of seconds you'd like the animation to continue on the public website. 

In the 'Name' field you can give a unique name to the component. This will make it easier to differentiate between components, both on your page as well as in your clipboard.

You can create an anchor link that will link a user directly to the top of this component. 

When linking to this page add the anchor to the "Anchor / querystring" field in the "Select link" dialogue box. The link will then jump to the top of the target component rather than to the top of the page.

Note that anchor names are case sensitive. For best results use lowercase characters, numbers, and dashes only. Avoid spaces and special characters.

In the 'Custom classes' field, you can add any custom CSS classes you may have. Custom CSS classes can be found in the Design node under the 'CSS' tab in the backend of Govstack. 

If you'd like to add more than one custom class, you'll need to leave a space between each class. 

Please note

Depending on your Govstack plan, you may not be able to access the Design node in the backend. If you'd like to be able to add custom CSS and get access to the website design, contact your GHD Digital Account Executive.

We cannot guarantee that future updates to Govstack will not break or negatively impact custom CSS.

You can select additional styles to the component, including:

• Spacing
• Visibility
• Design

Spacing

You can remove the spacing around the component by selecting one of the following options:

• Remove spacing
• Remove spacing top only
• Remove spacing bottom only

Visibility

You can customize the visibility of the component. Select one of the following options:

• Hide on all screens
• Hide on extra small screens
• Hide on small screens
• Hide on medium screens
• Hide on large screens
• Hide on extra large screens

Design

Select one of the following options if you'd like to customize the design of the component:

• Show shadows - this will add a shadow effect to the component. Note that by default most Govstack websites do not have shadows. You can add these in the Design node
• Sticky - the component will stay on the screen even as users scroll down the page

Turn on the 'Hide from website' toggle if you'd like to hide this component from the web page.