Add Features You Need

In the next few steps, we will add the blog and gallery features to our website and create a first blog post that will show a gallery of images from a Picasa web album.

The blog and gallery features are not part of out-of-the-box C1 CMS Website but you can easily add them right in the Administrative console from the large online extension module repository called the C1 CMS Package system.

First let’s install the Blog and Picasa Image Gallery packages:

1. In the “System” perspective, expand “Packages”, “Available Packages”, “Composite.Media”.
2. Select “Composite.Media.ImageGallery.Picasa” and click “Package Info” on the toolbar. This gives you access to information about the package, including a “Read more” button.
3. Click “Install” and follow the steps in the wizard to complete the installation.
4. Next, expand “Composite.Community”, select “Composite.Community.Blog” and install this package, too.
5. When the blog feature has been installed, your CMS Console will reload.

Watch how to install the Blog and Picasa Gallery packages:

With the blog and the gallery feature installed, now let’s create a blog page:

1. In the “Content” perspective, expand “Websites”, select “Frontpage” and click “Add page” on the toolbar.
2. Give your new page the title “Blog”, select “Blog” as the page type, and click “Finish”. This will launch the editor for your blog page.
3. Publish the “Blog” page clicking “Publish” on the toolbar.

When the blog page opens in the editor (Step 2), it is already properly set up. You can, however, tweak the blog element’s behavior and layout template here if you like.

Notice the green boxes with a small lightning icon. These are CMS Functions and they are what bring about dynamic content.

Watch how to create and publish a blog page:

Finally, let’s create a blog post with a gallery of images:

1. In the “Content” perspective, in the page tree, expand the Blog page, select “Blog Entries” and click “Add Blog Entry”. The editor for your new blog post launches.
2. Give your blog post a title and then switch to the “Content” tab.
3. Write some content and then click “Insert”, “Function”, select “Composite.Media.ImageGallery.Picasa” and click “OK”.
4. This particular gallery shows images from Picasa and uses a URL to locate a gallery RSS feed – copy/paste the following URL into the Album RSS URL field: https://picasaweb.google.com/data/feed/base/user/busja43/albumid/5266647566634729569?alt=rss&kind=photo&hl=en_US
5. Click ”OK” to close the dialog, save the blog post, locate it in the tree and publish it.

Now if you browse your website, you will find a “Blog” in your main menu, hosting your post with the Picasa gallery.

Watch how to create a blog post with a gallery of images:

• Next step: Customizing the Design