+1 (646) (US) +44 (20) (UK) Blog. for Magento 2. ecommerce.aheadworks.com/magento-2-extensions

Transcription

1 Blog for Magento 2

2 Table of contents: Table of contents:... 2 Reference table... 3 Getting started... 4 Sidebar... 5 SEO... 6 Related Products... 6 Wordpress Import... 7 Blog categories... 7 Blog posts... 8 The First Post... 9 Step 1: title, URL key, and schedule... 9 Step 2: images, canonical URLs... 9 Step 3: short content, categories, tags Step 4: content, comments, and meta description Step 5: Twitter cards, Ope Graph tags, and blog post visibility options Commenting and sharing...12 How to comment Managing comments... 13

3 Blog extension helps socializing the store and introduces discussion platform for the customers: Post editing via WYSIWG editor; Disqus integration for managing comments; Best SEO practices: URLs, XML sitemap, meta data; Friendly content navigation. The extension offers an in-store social network by introducing all the things necessary for managing a news line or in-store promotions. Posts can be categorized, optimized for search engines, and edited any number of times. Blog extension uses Disqus service to process and manage blog comments. On top of comment management enhancements, Disqus allows opening a discussion at Disqus forums and serves as another social platform for your store advertising. Reference table Blog post a single Blog entity filled with the store administrator defined content; WYSIWYG What You See Is What You Get editor.

4 Getting started Once the extension is installed and Discus application is registered, proceed to Magento 2 backend to finalize Blog setup. Before creating the first blog post we suggest running through extension settings and other available options. This will help to better understand how the extension functions and what can be expected from the general look and feel of the blog. The first step is the application of Disqus Forum Code and Secret Key in the General Settings section of the extension, which finalizes the installation. Stores > Configuration > Aheadworks Extensions > Blog This configuration section reflects the extension's functional aspects. These are the settings that affect the blog accessibility, content layout, and other. Here, you have access to the following configuration options: Enabled - defines if the Blog extension is enabled in your store; Route to Blog the direct link to the main blog page, e.g.: store.com/myblog; Blog Title the name of the blog page; may be left as default or changed to incorporate company name or brand-specific lingo; Posts per page how many posts will be displayed per blog page;

5 Display Sharing Buttons At defines where the social network sharing buttons should be displayed at; Comments enabled - defines if customers can comment blog posts; Disqus Forum Code Disqus URL from the step 3 of Disqus setup; Disqus Secret Key Disqus Secret Key from the step 2 of Disqus setup; Facebook App ID - allows you to take benefit of Facebook Insights and explore the traffic from Facebook to your site; Default Twitter site account - the Twitter card markup required to determine the official company's Twitter account; Default Twitter post author account - the Twitter card markup required to determine a Twitter account of the post author. You have just configured the main blog page and access to it. Now, we suggest proceeding to the adjusting the Blog sidebar and SEO step. Sidebar Stores > Configuration > AheadWorks Extensions > Blog This configuration section reflects the Blog sidebar's functional aspects. These settings define the post tags look, let you add a CMS block and configure the recent posts to display. Here, you have access to the following configuration options: Number of Recent Posts to Display how many recent blog posts should be displayed in the blog sidebar; Number of Most Popular Tags to Display how many popular tags should be displayed in the tag cloud of the blog sidebar; Highlight Popular Tags defines whether most popular tags should be highlighted with font effects; Sidebar CMS Block allows choosing a CMS block to be displayed in the blog sidebar; Display Categories List in a Sidebar - enables blog categories to be displayed on the sidebar; Maximum Number of Categories to Display - the number of categories visible above the 'Show X More' link on the sidebar.

6 SEO Below the Sidebar configuration block, you can find SEO configuration with a single filed Blog Meta Description. At this field, you are suggested to type in few words for SEO identification of your Blog. The second configuration option URL structure allows you to determine the structure of your URLs either containing categories or not. Related Products Starting from 2.0 version of Blog extension, store administrator can add related product blocks to the blog post pages. In addition, Blog tab is added to the product pages. Under the 'Blog' tab customers can find blog articles where this particular product has been mentioned as related. This configuration section defines how the related product blocks that can be assigned to the blog posts should behave: Display Blog Posts Tab on Product Page - defines if the 'Blog' tab should be displayed at product pages; Display Related Products Block on Post Page - defines if and where the related products block should be displayed at the blog post page; Related Products Block Layout - defines the related product block's layout; Display "Add to Cart" Button - defines if 'Add to Cart' button should be displayed on the products featured in the related product blocks at blog post pages. Once done with the settings click button. Before continuing to creating your first blog post there is one other thing to consider - blog categories.

7 Wordpress Import Stores > Configuration > aheadworks extensions > Blog Starting from version of Blog extension, store administrator can import blog posts from the WordPress blog. The process behind migration is the following: 1) Navigate to Tools > Export in the Wordpress administrator area; 2) Choose 'Posts' option and click 'Download export file' button. An XML file containing all blog posts should be downloaded; 3) Navigate to your Magento backend Stores > Configuration > aheadworks extensions > Blog; 4) In the 'Wordpress Import' section of the Blog settings upload XML file via 'Import file'; 5) Set 'Override existing posts with the same URL' if you want the existing Magento 2 posts with the same URL overridden; 6) Click 'Import Posts' button to begin post import; 7) If imported successfully copy contents from Wordpress folder: wp-content/uploads/ directly to Magento folder: /pub/media/wp-content/uploads/ If this directory doesn't exist - create it manually. Make sure the file permissions are set properly. Post migration is now complete. Blog categories Blog category settings can be found under Content > Blog by aheadworks > Categories.

8 Blog Categories represent another navigation tool customers may find helpful. Additionally, categories make post management easier and allow highlighting the main theme of the post. Click button to add the first blog category to your store. Now, when we are done with configuring the extension, it is time to create the first blog post. Blog posts Content > Blog by Aheadworks > Posts The Post page allows you to edit published and draft posts and contains a grid with the following columns: ID Title Image Status Publish Date Published Comments New Comments Categories Tags Author. The grid allows you to track the existing posts, delete and change their status with the provided mass actions functionality. Now, when we are done with configuring the extension it is time to create your first blog post.

9 The First Post To create the first post go to Content > Blog by aheadworks > New Post. This will land you directly at the New Post form. The New Post form is quite huge that is why for further convenience we will split it into three steps: Step 1: title, URL key, and schedule At this step you are suggested to: Type in the blog post title that will be visible at the top of it; Decide on the post's URL key; Schedulethetopostthe draft automatically at a time set. Scheduling a post may prove useful in different situations: Start of the sale; New product/service release; Holiday greeting. Using scheduling options the draft may be published on a specific date, hour, or even second. Whenever Schedule Post box is ticked, button appears at the top of the page. Click it once done with the post and it is scheduled. Step 2: images, canonical URLs

10 Second, you need to add an image to your post and provided it with Title and Alt text. The image can be taken from the existing media files or uploaded from your device. The hints provided for the image upon the question mark hover allows you to find out the recommended image sizes for different social media and the blog post page itself. The Canonical URL option makes it possible to determine a canonical blog post URL if the post is assigned to several categories. This option allows you to avoid duplicate content issues. Step 3: short content, categories, tags In the third step, you are suggested to decide if your post should have a Short Content, set the post to a particular category and decide on tags. Short Content can prove useful if your post is content heavy and takes a couple of pages. What it does is instead of displaying the whole post on a Blog page it allows displaying only the contents of the Short Content field, thus saving blog page space and making it look neat. Tags are one of the navigations tools provided by Blog extension. Every post is suggested to be tagged with relevant words or phrases to simplify further customer search for relevant information. All the tags are gathered in a tag cloud displayed at the blog Sidebar. The more often the tag is repeated the more highlighted it becomes. The image above shows five tags: post, lorem ipsum, first, Grand opening, test store. The 'post' tag has been used in three posts in our blog while the other tags were used only once. The 'post' tag is thus highlighted with font effects.

11 Step 4: content, comments, and meta description In the fourth step, you are suggested to type in the blog contents, meta description and decide if you want your customers to comment on the post. Content field column comes with native Magento WYSIWYG editor, allowing text editing, inserting images, widgets, variables, etc. Step 5: Twitter cards, Ope Graph tags, and blog post visibility options In order to make social media sharing suitable and attractive for your customers, the extension uses both Open Graph and Twitter Cards markups. The Open Graph markup acts behind the scenes and includes the following tags: og:site_name content="store title" - store title; og:type content="article" - the type of marked-up object. Content in this particular case; og:locale - the locale to be used; og:image - an image representing blog post;

12 og:title - blog post title; og:description - blog post short description; og:url - canonical blog post URL. The provided Twitter Card tags can be manually added from the backend. You can add them either for the whole extension or a particular blog post with 'Twitter site account' and 'Twitter post author account' options. The 'Enable post for customer groups' makes it possible to hide posts from particular customers if necessary. That's it. Providing you are done with all five steps you can now click the first blog post is ready. button and the Commenting and sharing Once the blog gets going, customers will probably want to leave feedback and comments. To handle customer comments, Blog extension introduces Disqus forum functionality. Disqus is a networked community platform used by hundreds of thousands of sites all over the web", meaning that Blog content can potentially be spread to the community beyond the initial customer base. Here is how the post will be viewed by customers. Social network sharing buttons available right after installation and do not require additional setup; Tags clickable, allowing quick blog navigation; Blog post category represents a category of the post (store only); Disqus account login lets customers log into the Disqus forums; Disqus forum name and link navigates to the store forum at Disqus.

13 How to comment In order to comment, customers will need to have a Disqus account or log in via: Facebook, Twitter or Google+. Once logged in, customers can leave comments and enter any open discussions on Disqus. When clicking Disqus forum name customers are redirected to the corresponding Disqus forum of the store. Here all active blog posts will be represented as different forum topics customers can join. Customers can like, share, flag, and reply to comments. Every customer action is respectively reflected at the Blog page of the store. Managing comments Store administrator can manage all the customer comments at Content > Blog by aheadworks > Comments. Comment management takes place on the Disqus side, where an administrator can: approve, mark as spam, delete comments, and manage Disqus forum settings. More information on how to manage comments and set up Disqus may be found in the Disqus knowledge base. For an in-depth look visit Blog demo store at the extension s product page. Feel free to contact our support team with any questions: Submit a help desk ticket Call us: US: +1 (646) UK: +44 (20)