Overview

The SkyLite Post is a daily newspaper website with its own newsroom. Reporters write stories in the Newsroom admin, editors review and publish them, and the front page and department pages fill themselves with the newest stories. Readers comment on stories, sign up for the newsletter and follow the paper's social accounts.

The paper is organised in departments (News, World, Business, Sports, Culture, Opinion) and each department in sections (Local, Politics, Markets, Football …). Every story belongs to one section, and everyone's rights are set section by section.

How the pieces fit together

The SkyLite Post newsroom map.

Reading it from the top: departments hold sections, and each user has rights per section. A reporter writes a story in a section and sends it for review; an editor publishes it, now or at a set time. Editors stack sections on the front page and department pages, and each one fills itself with the newest published stories from its source. Readers comment, and the comments wait for an editor before anyone else sees them.

Who sees what

Everyone signs in with their own user name and password. For every section a person has some of five rights — View, Upload, Edit, Delete and Publish. The menu, the story list and the buttons only show what those rights allow. The editor-in-chief has every right and also manages Users, Departments, Settings and the front page.

Where to go next

Start with 1. Getting Started. Reporters then read 3. Stories and 4. Media; editors also 5. Pages and 7. Comments; the editor-in-chief 8. Users and 10. Settings. For a quick fact use the search box, 13. Reference or 14. Quick Answers.

1. Getting Started

1.1 Signing in

Click Newsroom sign in at the top or bottom of any page of the website, or go straight to /AdminLogin. Enter your user name and password and press Sign in.

The newsroom sign-in page.

• A wrong user name or password shows a message. After several wrong tries for the same user, sign-in pauses for a few minutes.
• Your session lasts 8 hours and renews while you work.
• If the editor-in-chief changes your password or turns your account off, you are signed out everywhere.
• A new account can't sign in until the editor-in-chief has set its password (8.2).

1.2 The layout

The parts of the newsroom screen.

Every page has the same shape. Long lists have Previous and Next under them, and quick periods such as Today or 7 days where dates matter. A short message at the bottom of the screen confirms each save.

1.3 Your rights

Rights are set section by section. Each right includes the ones above it.

Your Dashboard shows a Your access table with your letters for every section. The server checks every request; anything your rights don't allow is refused and written to the activity log.

1.4 My account

Open My account to change your byline name, job title and the short bio shown on your author page, then press Save profile. To change your password, type the current one and the new one twice and press Change password. View my author page opens your page on the website.

My account.

1.5 On a phone or tablet

The newsroom and the website both work on phones and tablets. On a narrow screen the newsroom menu folds into the ☰ button, and lists become cards.

The story list and the front page on a phone.

2. Dashboard

2.1 An editor's dashboard

The editor-in-chief's Dashboard.

• Counts: stories published in the last 24 hours, stories waiting for your review, comments to moderate and newsletter sign-ups.
• Waiting for review: stories reporters have sent you, with a Review button.
• Your drafts and submissions, Recent activity, Your access and Quick links (Write a story, Media library, Arrange pages, Open the site).

2.2 A reporter's dashboard

A reporter sees their own work instead: stories in review, drafts, live stories on their desks, and their rights.

A business reporter: View and Upload on Markets and Tech.

3. Stories

3.1 The story list

Stories on the desks you can see.

• The chips filter by status and show counts: All, Mine, Drafts, Ready for review, Scheduled, Published and Suspended.
• Below them: a section filter, a search box for titles and sections, and a filter for front-page picks.
• Click a column heading to sort. Small labels mark Breaking and ★ Front stories.
• Edit opens a story; New story starts one.

3.2 Writing a story

The story editor: text on the left, publishing and details on the right.

1. Type the headline, then the standfirst: one or two sentences under the headline.
2. Write the story in the text box. The toolbar has paragraph (¶), heading (H2), subheading (H3), bold, italic, quote (“”), bulleted list, Link and Photo (a photo from Media inside the text).
3. Pick the Section.
4. Choose a photo and write its caption, add a video if you have one, and add tags.
5. Press Save draft as often as you like.

3.3 Photo, video and tags

Photo, caption, video and video caption.

• Choose photo and Choose video open the Media library; Remove takes them off the story.
• With a photo, the photo leads the article and the video plays at the end. Without a photo, the video leads and story cards show its poster with a ▶ badge.
• Videos only play when a reader presses ▶.
• Tags: words separated by commas. Readers can search them and they appear as popular tags on the Search page.

3.4 Breaking, front page and comments

People with Publish rights see three switches in the Publishing box:

• Breaking news banner: shows the story in the red Breaking banner across the top of every page.
• Front-page pick: makes the story available to front-page sections set to Front-page picks.
• Allow comments: lets readers comment on this story (if comments are on in Settings).

3.5 From draft to published

The life of a story.

As a reporter

1. Write the story and press Save draft while you work.
2. When it's ready, press Send for review. The story waits in your editor's review list, and you can still make changes.

A reporter writes a story and sends it for review.

As an editor

1. Open the story from Waiting for review on the Dashboard, or the Ready for review chip. A yellow note says who sent it.
2. Edit what you need, then:
   • Publish now to put it on the website straight away;
   • set Status to Scheduled, pick Publish at (your local time) and press Save; or
   • set Status to Draft and press Save to send it back to the reporter.

Reviewing a story: Status set to Scheduled shows Publish at.

Published.

3.6 Suspending and deleting

• To take a live story off the website without deleting it, set Status to Suspended and save. Readers can no longer open it. Put back on the site publishes it again.
• Delete story removes it after you confirm. Reporters can delete their own drafts; deleting others' drafts needs Delete, and live stories need Publish.

4. Media

4.1 The library

One photo and video library for the whole newsroom.

The Media library.

• Show All, Photos or Videos; search by title or credit; filter by who added them.
• Each file shows its title, credit and who added it. Videos have Preview and their length.

4.2 Uploading a photo

Upload a photo.

1. Open Upload a photo and choose a JPG, PNG or WebP file.
2. Give it a title and a credit (your name is filled in).
3. Press Upload photo. Your browser resizes it to 1600 px with a 720 px thumbnail first.

4.3 Uploading a video

How a video upload works.

Upload a video.

4.4 Deleting

Press Delete under a file and confirm. A photo or video used by a story can't be deleted until it is removed from that story; the message says which one.

5. Pages

5.1 Choosing a page

The front page and each department page are built from sections stacked top to bottom. Pick the page with the buttons at the top: Front page, News, World …

The front page: a Ticker, a Lead and a Rundown at the top.

• The front page can be arranged by the editor-in-chief and anyone with Can arrange the front page.
• A department page can be arranged by its department publishers.

5.2 Setting up a section

Each section shows a thumbnail of its style and these settings:

• Heading: the title above it on the page (optional for some styles).
• Stories from: All sections, Front-page picks, a whole department, or one section.
• Stories: how many to show.
• Pin a story to the top: keep one story first, or Newest first.

Sections fill themselves with the newest published stories from their source, and a story never appears twice on the same page.

Further down the front page.

5.3 Adding, moving and removing

• Add a section (under the last one) opens the style picker. Click a style to add it at the end.
• Drag a section by its handle (⠿), or use the up and down arrows.
• The bin icon removes a section.

The 14 section styles.

5.4 Saving and Restore last version

• Press Save page to put the new arrangement on the website. View page opens it.
• If you leave with unsaved changes, the page asks first.
• Restore last version puts back the arrangement from before the last save.

6. Departments

6.1 Departments and sections

For the editor-in-chief. The order here is the order in the website's menus and footer.

Departments, with their sections and story counts.

• Change a department's Name and Short description (shown on its page), or click a section name to rename it.
• + Add section adds a section to a department; + Add a department adds a new department.
• Drag by the handle or use the arrows to change the order.
• Press Save departments when you're done.

6.2 Rules

• Web addresses (such as ?d=news or ?s=local) stay the same when you rename, so links keep working.
• A department or section that still has stories can't be deleted. Move or delete its stories first.
• After adding a section, give people rights on it in Users.

7. Comments

7.1 The life of a comment

Comments wait for an editor before anyone else sees them.

7.2 Moderating

Comments waiting, newest first.

• Waiting and Approved tabs, with counts. Narrow by period, search name, comment or story, and section.
• Approve puts a comment under its article. Unpublish moves an approved one back to Waiting. Delete removes it for good.
• Open story opens the article at its comments.
• Each editor sees only comments in the sections they can publish.

8. Users

For the editor-in-chief.

8.1 The user list

Everyone in the newsroom with a summary of their rights.

Search by name, user name or title, or filter by department. A Needs password label marks accounts that can't sign in yet.

8.2 Adding and editing people

1. Press Add a user, or Edit on a person.
2. Fill in the full name, user name, job title, department, email and the short bio shown on their author page.
3. Type a New password, or leave it blank to keep the current one. A new account needs one before it can sign in.
4. Tick Account active to let them sign in; untick it to switch the account off.
5. Set their rights (below) and press Save changes.

Editing a business reporter.

8.3 Rights by section

Tick V U E D P for each section (see 1.3). Shortcuts save clicks:

• Department publisher on a department row ticks Publish for all its sections.
• Can arrange the front page gives Pages access to the front page.
• Editor-in-chief (every permission) gives everything.

A world desk writer: View, Upload and Edit on the World sections.

9. Activity

9.1 The activity log

Everything the newsroom does: when, who, the action, the item and the result.

The activity log. A refused attempt is highlighted.

• Pick Today, 7 days, 30 days, All or your own dates; filter by person, action or item, and outcome.
• Refused rows are requests someone's rights didn't allow, such as a reporter trying to publish.
• The editor-in-chief sees everyone; everyone else sees their own actions.

10. Settings

For the editor-in-chief. Press Save settings to put changes on the website.

10.1 The paper

The paper, and Contact and about.

• Name and Tagline: the masthead and footer.
• Accent colour: pick a colour or type its code. It colours the Breaking banner, buttons and labels.
• Default theme: Light or Dark. Readers can switch with the moon button.
• Allow reader comments: comments on or off for the whole paper. Each comment is still moderated.

10.2 Contact and about

Email, Phone and Address appear on the About page with the About the Post text (leave a blank line for a new paragraph).

10.3 Social links

Social links with a Show tick box each.

Eleven networks: Instagram, YouTube, X, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, Threads, Behance, Flickr and Vimeo. Type the full address starting with https:// and tick Show. Shown links appear as icons in the footer and in Follow sections.

11. The Public Website

11.1 The front page

The masthead with the date, the department menu, the Breaking banner and the sections arranged in Pages.

The top of the front page: Breaking banner, Ticker and Lead.

Further down: a Rundown and an Opinion Row.

The Newsletter band, Follow links and the footer.

11.2 Department and section pages

Each department has its own page built in Pages. Each section has a simple page: the lead story, then a list with Load more.

The Business department page.

The Local section page.

11.3 The article page

Headline, standfirst, byline with a link to the author, time, photo and caption, the story, tags, a Most read rail and More in stories from the same section.

An article.

Under the story readers can read approved comments and add their own. A new comment shows a note that it will appear after an editor approves it.

Comments under an article.

11.4 Search, authors and About

Search looks in headlines, tags, sections and text.

An author page with the bio from My account and their latest stories.

About the Post, with the newsroom staff and contact details from Settings.

11.5 On a phone

On a phone the departments fold into the ☰ menu, with search and every section listed.

The front page and the menu on a phone.

12. Installation & Setup

For the person who installs and looks after the site.

12.1 The first editor-in-chief

1. Make a password hash. In PowerShell:

   $p = Read-Host "Password"; [BitConverter]::ToString([Security.Cryptography.SHA256]::Create().ComputeHash([Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetBytes($p))).Replace("-","").ToLower()

2. Edit appConfig/application.cfg:

   app.app.runmode | 1
   app.admin.user | nora
   app.admin.passhash | <the 64-character hash>

3. Sign in as that user; they become editor-in-chief. Open Users and set a password for everyone who needs access. Switch off or rename the accounts you don't need.

12.2 Folder permissions

Give the site write access to three folders. On IIS, give the application pool identity Modify permission.

12.3 HTTPS and video

• Serve the site over HTTPS. The session token travels in a cookie and with each newsroom request.
• If uploaded videos don't play on IIS, make sure the site serves .mp4 as video/mp4 and .webm as video/webm (IIS Manager → MIME Types).

12.4 Redeploying

13. Reference

13.1 Story statuses

13.2 Rights

13.3 Section styles

13.4 Upload limits

13.5 Example roles

14. Quick Answers