What is News & Updates?

The BLOX CMS News & Updates panel (or BLOX CMS Dashboard) is the page BLOX admins are greeting with when logging into a new session of BLOX CMS. This page includes helpful BLOX-related information. This page can be accessed within the BLOX CMS menu within the Other section. 

Webinars & Best Practices

The TownNews Marketing team curates our latest product webinars so that admins can stay on top of our latest features and improvements. Our marketing team also creates meaningful case studies, highlighting effective ways of leveraging capabilities within BLOX CMS. 

System Status

The System Status panel displays any issues currently affecting TownNews or any of our partners. System release information is also listed. 

Upcoming Maintenance

The Upcoming Maintenance panel lists any upcoming changes that may cause disruption to service. Maintenance and other upgrades are typically completed in the middle of the night to avoid disruptions in service. 

Software & Service Updates

The Software & Service Updates panel lists previous software and template releases. Release notes are available for each release for details on each update.

Need Help?

Helpful links are available for searching our documentation, submitting a support ticket, scheduling demos and other helpful links. 

Customer Community Discussions

The Customer Community Discussions panel lists recent discussions and requests made within our TownNews Customer Community, located at community.townnews.com.  

What is News & Updates?

The BLOX CMS News & Updates panel (or BLOX CMS Dashboard) is the page BLOX admins are greeting with when logging into a new session of BLOX CMS. This page includes helpful BLOX-related information. This page can be accessed within the BLOX CMS menu within the Other section. 

Webinars & Best Practices

The TownNews Marketing team curates our latest product webinars so that admins can stay on top of our latest features and improvements. Our marketing team also creates meaningful case studies, highlighting effective ways of leveraging capabilities within BLOX CMS. 

System Status

The System Status panel displays any issues currently affecting TownNews or any of our partners. System release information is also listed. 

Upcoming Maintenance

The Upcoming Maintenance panel lists any upcoming changes that may cause disruption to service. Maintenance and other upgrades are typically completed in the middle of the night to avoid disruptions in service. 

Software & Service Updates

The Software & Service Updates panel lists previous software and template releases. Release notes are available for each release for details on each update.

Need Help?

Helpful links are available for searching our documentation, submitting a support ticket, scheduling demos and other helpful links. 

Customer Community Discussions

The Customer Community Discussions panel lists recent discussions and requests made within our TownNews Customer Community, located at community.townnews.com.  

What is Inheritance?

Inheritance is a concept where something takes on the characteristics of something else more dominant.  In BLOX, inheritance comes in the form of sections and subsections. Inheritance has 2 primary functions: content organization and consistent page building

When it comes to content creation, it is logical to structure and organize content into main sections and secondary subsections, as that is how readers naturally find the information that they're looking for. 

Thinking about building consistent site sections, BLOX adheres to this same concept, so when a new subsection is created, it will automatically pull in, or (inherit) characteristics from the main section. 

How does Inheritance work?

Let's say that there is a need to add a /crime section beneath /news and assume that the /news section features 2 dynamic content blocks that are set to pull in the latest 51 articles. These blocks are also set to pull in content from the section (or URL) the block is placed on, or any subsection below it. This means that the blocks are pulling in content dynamically for any content section tagged to /news, or any subsections below it, such as /news/local or /news/state.

When the new /news/crime section is added, BLOX will automatically add the same 2 content blocks to the new /crime page. Assuming that there is /news/crime content available, the new page will populate with Crime content in the same presentation style as the other News sections and subsections. When the new page is ready for public view, it can be linked within the site navigation.

In another example, let's think about the site header, footer and right-rail. If it wasn't for inheritance, it would be required to recreate all of these elements whenever a new section or subsection is created.

Inheritance makes creating new and consistent site sections quick and easy. 

How can I determine the inheritance status of a region?

Regions that are being inherited appear gray in color and are noted with "(inherited)" after the name of the region. 

Breaking Inheritance

There are some instances when a truly consistent page layout isn't needed. Whether a subsection should feature a completely unique block layout or minor tweaks, inheritance can be toggled off on a region-by-region basis.

Once inheritance has been toggled off within a region, the relationship or connection with the main section will be cut. This means that if any page layout modifications are made within the main section that affect that region won't be reflected within that region. 

Any blocks that have inherited into that region can be rearranged or removed, while new blocks can be dragged into the region for achieving a varied look. 

Reestablishing Inheritance

Inheritance can be re-enabled by toggling the same block option. Any blocks that may have been added will be removed and replaced with any blocks from the main section within that region.