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richmilns
New User
Dec 16, 2003, 6:11 AM
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Output News headlines and links to files in a text file?
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Hiya!
Firstly, I have to say that this software is outstanding, especially now you can completely rebrand it ! 
However, I was wondering: I need to display news headlines in a news ticker that would sit on the front page and cycle the headlines. I would love News Manager to be able to output the headlines to a text file (along with relating links to the news story) so that a news ticker made with Flash or DHTML can read the text file and populate itself with latest news -- Is this possible, and if so, how ?
ttfn!
Rich
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Eric
Product Specialist
Dec 17, 2003, 1:46 PM
Post #2 of 4
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Re: [richmilns] Output News headlines and links to files in a text file?
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Hi Rich,
Thank you for your kind comments.
While you cannot create this text file automatically, you can manually create this text file by modifying the template files. Here's how:
1. VERY IMPORTANT! Backup the /templates/_index.html template file. You need that file later on if you don't want to lose your web design.
2. Edit _index.html file, and erase everything on it. Now copy and paste the following:
<!-- template insert : $list$ -->
<!-- templatecell : row -->
"$name$", "$url$"
<!-- /templatecell : row -->
<!-- templatecell : notfound -->
<!-- /templatecell : notfound -->
The comma and quotations are necessary to differentiate between the headline and the URL. This is commonly known as comma-delimited notation and is used often by programs to export information from one software to another. Programs like Flash should be able to pickup comma-delimited records and use them accordingly.
3. Upload the new _index.html file back to the server, overwriting the existing one.
4. Republish the News Articles Index by going to Setup Options and press the Publish All button.
5. Don't be alarmed if your news site doesn't work properly. This is intentional. Right now the news.html page in your /nm/publish folder contains the text file you need. Simply rename the file to something else with the .txt extension.
6. Backup the _index.html, and rename the file to a meaningful name, since you will need to use that file again whenver you want to update the text file.
7. Re-upload the original _index.html file back to the server, replacing the _index.html template file.
8. Repeat step 4 to republish the content.
9. Your site should be back to normal, and now you have the text file you need  .
Since this is a manual process, you will need to do this every time you want to update the text file. Other than that, you have a text file you can use, and you don't have to pay anything extra for it! Let me know how it goes, and if you have questions about it, please let me know.
Cheers,
Eric Lau - Product Specialist
support@interactivetools.com
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richmilns
New User
Dec 18, 2003, 1:36 AM
Post #3 of 4
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Re: [Eric] Output News headlines and links to files in a text file?
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Hiya!
Thanks for your help. So there really is no way I can get it to automatically generate this text file? Perhaps this could be a suggested future improvement (it's about the only thing I can think of!!!)
I will try this method out... although it's a bit long-winded, especially since my client is likely to be a little keen on *constantly* posting news 
cheers,
Rich
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Eric
Product Specialist
Dec 18, 2003, 9:54 AM
Post #4 of 4
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Re: [richmilns] Output News headlines and links to files in a text file?
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Hi Rich,
Thank you for responding .
I can see why you would want a feature that can generate text files from News Manager data. In fact, I can see how this feature can be used for other things like exporting News Manager data to a database program. While I cannot guarantee anything, I will submit a feature request to the development team and hopefully the feature will be implemented in a future release.
In the meantime, if you have other questions please let me know.
Cheers,
Eric Lau - Product Specialist
support@interactivetools.com
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