Questions Index

Posting News

How do I post news?
Why do I receive errors when trying to submit news?
Why do the dates on the posting page and the actual post date differ?

Editing News

How do I edit my news?
How do I delete news?
What is the beta editor?

Cache

What is the cache?
How do I use the cache?
When would I use the cache?
Why do I get errors when trying to create the cache?

Settings

Why should I turn HTML off?
What are UNP codes?
What are the date/time formats for?
What are the smilies?
What are headlines?

Styles

What are the styles colors used for?
What kind of values am I supposed to enter for a style color?
Why don't the example color boxes update?
Why are my colors showing up incorrectly?

User Management

How do I add another user?
How do I edit a previously created user?
How do I remove a user?
What is the purpose of the user levels?
What are the user levels?

Profile Management

What are avatars?
How do I set an avatar?

Comments

How do I disable comments?
Can I remove comments en masse?
What is allowed in comments?
Why can't I post comments under my UNP username?
What can I do if someone is spamming the comments?
How do I moderate comments?

Categories

What are categories?
What is the Default category for?

Templates Editor

What are templates?
What are "*bits"?
How do I use variables in templates?
How do I add my own templates?
How do I use custom templates?
How do I know what each template is used for?

Miscellaneous

How do I include my news?
How do I change the way the news looks?
What is RSS?
How should I add RSS to my site?
How do I back up my site?
How can I use UNP to send newsletters?

Questions and Answers

Posting News

How do I post news?
To post news to the database, click either on the "Post News" link in the header or on the main News Pro page. Once on the news posting page, fill in both the Subject and News fields with the news subject and content respectively. When done, press Post News, and your news will be submitted. (NOTE: If you make use of the Cache, you will need to update the cache manually if it is not set to automatically update.)

Why do I receive errors when trying to submit news?
You are most likely not filling in both the subject and news fields. Both fields are required to submit news.

Why do the dates on the posting page and the actual post date differ?
The date shown on the news posting page is the time that the page was loaded. In most cases, it will take some time to enter the news, and the date and time upon which the news is actually submitted usually differs from the time the page was loaded. The time of submission is the time recorded.

Editing News

How do I edit my news?
To edit existing news, click on the "Edit News" link in the header or on the main News Pro page. Navigate to the news post which you want to edit and make necessary changes. Then, press Submit to commit the changes to the database. (NOTE: If you make use of the News Cache, you will need to update the cache manually if it is not set to automatically update.)

How do I delete news?
To delete existing news, click on the "Edit News" link in the header or on the main News Pro page. Navigate to the news post which you want to delete and click the checkbox next to Delete News. Then, press Submit to delete the news from the database. (NOTE: If you make use of the News Cache, you will need to update the cache manually if it is not set to automatically update.)

What is the beta editor?
The beta editor that now appears in Edit News (introduced in 1.4.0) is a trial editor that may be used in future versions as the default way to edit previous news stories. Using the new editor, users can quickly edit news without refreshing the page, allowing for more rapid functionality. The beta editor is currently riddled with bugs, and is currently not recommended for primary use.

Cache

What is the cache?
The cache saves the display of the dynamic news, headlines, and RSS pages into single static files. This greatly increases the speed of displaying news, headlines, and RSS (especially on high-traffic sites) as it does not have to be generated from the database and dynamically altered on every view; it can merely be pulled out of a static text file very quickly.

How do I use the cache?
To use the cache, first submit news as you normally would. Then, go to the cache management page and click either "Update Cache" or "Create Cache". After submitting new news or after editing news, you must click "Update Cache" again unless Auto Cache Update is turned ON in the settings.

When would I use the cache?
You may use the cache for many reasons.
1. You have a high-traffic site in which you want to take the extra load posed by dynamic news off the server.
2. You wish to speed up your news display by converting it into static files.
3. You wish to ensure that your news page does not display un-professional looking errors during times when the MySQL server might be down.


Why do I get errors when trying to create the cache?
You may need to CHMOD your UNP directory to 777 in order to use the cache functionality.

Settings

Why should I turn HTML off?
You should turn HTML off because, with it on, it could allow users to entirely alter the news display page in a very bad way. Instead, if you wish to be able to do many HTML formatting techniques, use UNP code.

What are UNP codes?
UNP codes are replacements for certain basic HTML codes. They are as follows:
[b]This text is bold.[/b]
This text is bold.
[i]This text is italicized.[/i]
This text is italicized.
[u]This text is underlined.[/u]
This text is underlined.
[url]http://www.utopiasoftware.net[/url]
http://www.utopiasoftware.net
[url=http://www.utopiasoftware.net]UtopiaSoftware[/url]
UtopiaSoftware
[email]support@utopiasoftware.net[/email]
support@utopiasoftware.net
[email=support@utopiasoftware.net]Email Us[/url]
Email Us
[color=red]This text is red.[/color]
This text is red.
[size=3]This text is size 3.[/size]
This text is size 3.
[blockquote]This text is blockquoted.[/blockquote]
This text is blockquoted.
[img]http://www.utopiasoftware.net/images/icon_ok.gif[/img]
Image
[hr] - Horizontal Ruler:


What are the date/time formats for?
This is the format of how you want the date and time to be displayed throughout Utopia News Pro as well as on the news display page. If you are unsure of what to fill in, either leave them at the defaults or check the resources listed for more information.

What are the smilies?
The smilies are small emoticons that can be used in news posts. They are as follows:
:) -
:( -
;) -
:D -
:P -
^_^ -
:angry: -
:confused: -

What are headlines?
Headlines is a file that generates the latest x news posts' subjects and dates which can then be included into a page to link to the news posts. For example, check out your headlines page.

Styles

What are the styles colors used for?
The styles colors are used on the news display page (news.php and news.txt). Colors entered here are automatically sent to replace the default colors on the news display page.

What kind of values am I supposed to enter for a style color?
You can enter either hexadecimal values or color names. For example, if you want red, you can enter either "red" or "#FF0000" (including the #). Either way, the color will be red. Generally it is best to use hexadecimal values when possible.

Why don't the example color boxes update?
The example color boxes update upon clicking outside of the text box.

Why are my colors showing up incorrectly?
Colors will only show up incorrectly if you have not entered a correct/valid value. Ensure that you have entered the correct hexadecimal value (including the #) or have spelled the color correctly.

User Management

How do I add another user?
To add another user to the database, click either on the "Manage Users" link in the header or on the main News Pro page. Then, click on the "Add User" link. Once on the new user page, fill in all fields and select a user level. When done, press Add User.

How do I edit a previously created user?
To edit an existing user, click on the "Manage users" link in the header or on the main News Pro page. Find the user you want to edit on the main users list, and click on the [Edit] link next to their name. Again, fill in all fields, and press Submit Changes, and the changes will be committed to the database.

How do I remove a user?
To remove an existing user, click on the "Manage users" link in the header or on the main News Pro page. Find the user you want to edit on the main users list, and click on the [Remove] link next to their name. On the next page, you will be prompted with a final chance to cancel the action. Confirm that you want to remove the user by pressing Yes, and the user will be removed. Additionally, you can navigate to the delete users prompt by going to edit a user's profile first, and then clicking Delete This User.

What is the purpose of the user levels?
The user levels allow you to create special users who have more or less abilities than other users. This ensures that you don't trust too many people with too many abilities.

What are the user levels?
The user levels are as follows:
Administrator - Has access to all settings and styles, can send newsletters, can post news, can edit all news
Enhanced Level - Can not edit settings or styles, can send newsletters, can post news, can edit all news
Standard Level - Can not edit settings or styles, can send newsletters if turned on in settings, can post news, can edit only own news

Profile Management

What are avatars?
Avatars are small images unique to a certain user that are attached to every one of that user's news posts (if they are set).

How do I set an avatar?
To set an avatar, click on your profile link in either the header or on the main News Pro page. Once at your profile, click [Update Avatar]. In the browse box, browse your computer for the avatar that you want. Valid file types are GIF, JPG, and PNG. When you have selected your avatar, click Update Avatar.

Comments

How do I disable comments?
If you do not want to use comments, you can disable them in the settings. Disabling comments does not remove them from the database. You can still enable them again and retain the original comments.

Can I remove comments en masse?
You can remove all of the comments to a single news post on the Edit News page. Click on [Remove All Comments], and it will immediately remove all comments; there is no confirmation.

What is allowed in comments?
In comments, only smilies are enabled (if smilies are turned on in the settings). UNPCode and HTML cannot and should not be enabled in comments for security reasons.

Why can't I post comments under my UNP username?
You cannot post comments under any registered UNP username unless you are logged in at the time. Login before trying to post under a registered username.

What can I do if someone is spamming the comments?
If someone is spamming your comments, log in to UNP first, and then view the comments made by this person. The IP address (and proxy, if applicable) of the poster is always logged. You can go to the Banned IPs section of UNP and ban that IP. Also, with the IP you can find out the Internet Service Provider (ISP) of the poster and report them for defacing/vandalizing parts of your site.

How do I moderate comments?
To moderate comments, you must be logged into the news administration panel. Go to "Edit News" and select [View Comments] for the news post from which you want to remove comments. A new link appears in the commentsbit: [Remove Comment]. Use this to remove the comment.

Categories

What are categories?
The categories allow you to segregate all of your news into groups whose names are displayed in the postbit template.

What is the Default category for?
The Default category is where all news appears automatically if no category is selected or if there are no categories created. This category can not be deleted or emptied. When other categories are deleted without being empty, news automatically becomes part of the Default category.

Templates Editor

What are templates?
Templates are the editable chunks of HTML that are output on certain public pages of UNP such as comments pages and the news output. The template editor allows you to edit these and tailor them to your needs.

What are "*bits"?
*Bit templates are templates that are used repeatedly on a specific page. (ie. the newsbit is the template used repeatedly for each instance of a news post on the news display page, the headlinesbit template is the template used repeatedly for each instance of a headline.)

How do I use variables in templates?
When using a variable in a template (ie. $var), enclose the variable within curly braces (ie. {$var}).

How do I add my own templates?
Converting your UNP installation to a developer build will enable you to add your own custom templates. To convert, locate your global.inc.php file and change

define("DEV_BUILD", false);

to

define("DEV_BUILD", true);
How do I use custom templates?
Custom templates can be used and accessed from within the code itself. If you are modifying UNP functionality or adding functionality, then you can create custom templates for anything that you'll need. To use them, you must first activate the developer features.

How do I know what each template is used for?
Templates are named and grouped by the page that they appear in. They have names that should fairly accurately describe the purpose of the template. If you cannot figure out what the template is used for just by looking at it, it would be wisest to not alter the template.

Miscellaneous

How do I include my news/headlines on my pages?
There are two methods of including news and headlines: SSI and PHP includes. If the page in which you want to include your news/headlines is a standard HTML page, you will use SSI. If the page is PHP, you can use the more efficient PHP includes. If your page is HTML, rename the page with a *.shtml extension (unless your host allows SSI on *.html or *.htm pages). To include the news, place the following code wherever you want in the page:

<!--#include virtual="unp/news.php"--> - If you are NOT using the cache

OR

<!--#include virtual="unp/news.txt"--> - If you ARE using the cache.

If your page is PHP, there is no need to rename any files. Just place the following code wherever you want the news in the page:

include('unp/news.php'); - If you are NOT using the cache

OR

include('unp/news.txt'); - If you ARE using the cache.

To include headlines instead of news, replace news.php and news.txt with headlines.php and headlines.txt respectively. You may need to surround the PHP statement with <?php and ?> if PHP is not being parsed in the region you want the news inclusion. Please note that all 4 examples assume that the page the news is to be included in is one directory higher than UNP in directory structure. (ie. news page is /, unp is /unp). Remember to replace unp/ with UNP's actual directory.

How do I change the way the news looks?
The newsbit, as well as all other templates, can be altered in the template editor. The template for the way news looks is called news_newsbit.

What is RSS?
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It is a file which provides summaries of the news on your site which can be used by other sites or RSS readers to syndicate your news. This allows other sites to easily display your news, getting your word out to a wider audience. It also allows people to load the RSS file into RSS readers so that they can easily read your news as it is published. Users of the Mozilla Firefox web browser will be able to add your RSS feed as a "Live Bookmark" which continually updates with your news.

How should I add RSS to my site?
In order to let RSS readers, such as Mozilla Firefox, to access your RSS feed, you can add the following line anywhere in the <head> section of your main pages:

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Site Title News" href="unp/rss.php" /> - If you are NOT using the cache.

OR

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Site Title News" href="unp/rss.xml" /> - If you ARE using the cache.

Please note that all 4 examples assume that the page the news is to be included in is one directory higher than UNP in directory structure. (ie. news page is /, unp is /unp). Remember to replace unp/ with UNP's actual directory.

How do I back up my site?
If you want to back up your site, you should back up the MySQL database storing the information. There are two methods of backing up the database.
1. The first method is through phpMyAdmin. You can navigate to your database and click Export. Select all tables and check "Save as file". Click "Go" and download the backup.
2. The second method is using SSH or Telnet. Using an SSH client like PuTTY you can log into your site and run various commands. The following command will backup your database:

mysqldump --opt -uUSERNAME -p DATABASENAME /absolute_location_for_backup

For example, if your username is utopia for database utopia_unp, and your location for the backup is /home/utopia/backup, you would type:

mysqldump --opt -uutopia -p utopia_unp /home/utopia/backup

You will then be asked for your MySQL password and the backup will be created.

How can I use UNP to send newsletters?
News posted in UNP can be sent out to the list of email addresses in the Main Settings. Separate email addresses with commas. By default, only Administrators and Enhanced level users can send out news as newsletters, but this can be changed in the settings. To send the news, check "Email as newsletter" on the Post News page. If you do not send the newsletter upon submitting the news, you can still submit the newsletter through the Edit News page.