Try ShortPoint nowThis article demonstrates how you can use the Site News connection type, which allows you to connect ShortPoint Design Elements to news posts/links within your Site Collection or a specific Site Collection within your organization’s tenancy.
Note: If you want to present news articles from site pages associated with a hub site, check out the article on Hub News connection type. Or if you want to present news posts and links across all Site Collections within a Microsoft SharePoint tenancy, view the article on Org News connection type.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prerequisites
- You have the latest version of ShortPoint SPFx installed on your SharePoint environment.
- You are a ShortPoint Designer with an active license.
- You must have an existing ShortPoint Design Element you want to use to connect.
- You must have SharePoint News/Links on your organization’s Site Collections.
- You must have at least Read permissions to connect to your organization’s Site Collections. For more information, check our FAQ article: What permissions are required to be able to view news posts and links that are dynamically inserted using any of the ShortPoint News connection types?
Interactive Tutorial
Go through the interactive tutorial to learn how to use the Site News connection type:
NOTE: To learn more about the Connect feature and Items Mapping, check out ShortPoint Connect: Basic Tutorial.
NOTE: Check out Step 4 and Step 5 of the Step-by-step tutorial to learn more about the options you can modify using Site News.
NOTE: You can use any ShortPoint Design Element of your choice to establish the connection.
Step-by-step Tutorial
Follow the steps below for a detailed step-by-step guide on how to use the Site News connection type:
Step 1: Edit the ShortPoint web part
- Go to the SharePoint page where you want to use the Site News connection type and click Edit.
- Click the ShortPoint tag.
- Click the pencil icon.
Step 2: Switch to Grid Mode
- Click the Switch to Grid Mode icon.
NOTE: The ShortPoint Connect feature is currently only available in Grid Mode.
Step 3: Edit the Design Element
- Look for the Design Element you want to use to connect and click the cogwheel icon.
NOTE: You can use any ShortPoint Design Element of your choice to establish the connection.
Step 4: Connect using the Site News connection type
- Go to the Connect tab.
- Click Site News.
- Select the Sourceof your news from the drop-down:
- News from Current Site Collection - allows you to search for news from the site pages of the site collection where your SharePoint page currently resides. When you select this option, an additional field will appear asking you to connect to the News from entire Site Collection including all subsites or select other sites listed in the dropdown.
- News from Other Sites - allows you to connect to a different site collection within your SharePoint tenancy. You will be asked to select the Site Collection where you want your news to be taken from and the Site you want to pull the news from.
- News from SharePoint Site URL - allows you to directly insert the URL of the site collection you wish to get your news information from.
NOTE: Selecting the News from Current Site Collection option will use SharePoint Search and bring all news pages from the site. News results may not always be updated as it is subjected to SharePoint Search crawl.
- (Optional) You can also modify the following fields:
Item Limit allows you to modify the maximum number of news shown 
Select column to sort allows you to quickly sort news Title, Date Created, Last Modified, and Author in ascending or descending order. 
Default Image allows you to assign an image that will be displayed on your page when the news post or link you are pulling does not have an associated image. You can select from your image library or enter a URL. 
Date/Time Format allows you to customize how the date and time of your news posts or links will be displayed. Check out How to Use Custom Date and Time Formats with ShortPoint Design Elements for more information. 
Use Cases allows you to set up a Use Case, which is an automatic filter functionality that produces the most common outputs required by ShortPoint users. Check out Getting Started with Use Cases to learn more.
NOTE: Some Use Cases may require additional Use Case Parameters. Default values will appear for the Use Case and the parameters will automatically be applied.
NOTE: You can use Placeholders as your Use Case Parameters. Check out our support article on How to Use Placeholders in Connections for more information.
- Click Connect to establish the connection.
Step 5: Map Items to display
- Go to the Items tab.
- Delete all default content.
- Click the link icon for each field to choose the property you want to display.
- (Optional) Modify the Link Text, which is the text displayed inside the button.
- (Optional) Select a Linking Option:
- Lightbox - opens the link in a lightbox
- New Window - opens the link in a new window
- Dialog - opens the link in a dialog box
NOTE: Check out Types of Linking Options in Page Builder Elements for more information about Linking Options.
NOTE: To learn more about the Connect feature and Items Mapping, check out ShortPoint Connect: Basic Tutorial.
Step 6: Update and Save
- Click Preview to see how the Design Element will look on your page.
- Once satisfied, click Update.
- Then, click the eye icon to see how your page will look in real-time.
- Click Save to apply your changes.
Congratulations! You now know how to use the Site News connection type. You can now use this connection type on your SharePoint pages.
Related articles:
- Connection Type: Hub News
- Connection Type: Organization News
- Getting Started with Use Cases
- How To Use Placeholders In ShortPoint Connections
- ShortPoint Connect: Basic Tutorial
- What permissions are required to be able to view news posts and links that are dynamically inserted using any of the ShortPoint News connection types?
