All posts by John

I am a teacher, currently working in Banton Primary for North Lanarkshire Council. I also act as Product Owner/provide support for Glow Blogs. I like Blogs.
news, Releases

Glow Blogs New “New Site” Functionality

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The latest release of Glow Blogs makes a slight change to how you create a new site.

There is an added choice when creating a site:

Screenshot of the New Blog page, chowing the radio buttons for choosing the editor.

You can choose between the Classic and Block editor.

Choosing Classic will create a site with the default editor for posts and pages is the classic editor and the theme is Twenty Fourteen. This is the default choice.

Choosing Blocks with make the default editor the newer blocks editor. The Theme will be Twenty Twenty-three.

In both cases you can change the editor later in the settings-> Writing page of your blog’s dashboard. You can also set it to allow yourself and other users of the site to swap back and forth between editors.

You can also change the theme in the Dashboard-> Appearance page.

The Twenty-Twenty-three theme is a block theme and is very customisable using the Site editor to edit the templates. This is a bit more complex that using the customiser on older themes.

You can use either editors to edit pages and posts on your site they are not theme dependent. The exceptions are the Make and Agama themes which do not work with the block editor.

The block editor is the future of WordPress, it allows for a modular design for flexible content creation. You can make more complex layouts than with the old classic editor. Many features, columns, groups which have been much requested by glow users are in the Block editor.

We have a page on the help blog: The Block Editor which outlines some of the differences.

We have also a blog which give a lot more details on using the blocks editor Blocks – Using the Blocks Editor in Glow Blogs. This lists all the available blocks, shows examples and has links to even more information.

news

H5P in Glow Blogs – News

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The First Annual H5P Academy Awards were just announced. The winners in the different categories:

  • Best Interactive Book (content type)
  • Best use of Course Presentation (content type)
  • Innovative Use of Multimedia (video, image and sound)
  • Outstanding Visual Design
  • Impactful Gamification

Although they are all from higher education they give a good idea of how H5P can be used at a sophisticated level.  The winners are linked from the announcement.

H5P updates

There has been a new version of Game Map and Drag the Words. You can read more on the March 2024 release note at h5p.org.

These updates are available in Glow Blogs now. You may need to update the modules concerned when you are creating H5P content:

Screenshot of the H5P create content screen showing that an update is available.

Click on the Details Button and then Update.

Releases

Glow Blogs Update: More Blocks & More

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Glow Blogs has undergone an update, including fixes for various issues and notable improvements.

Fixes

  • List blocks now function as expected; a new item is generated when the return key is pressed.
  • Buttons Blocks also work correctly, creating a new button upon pressing the return key.
  • Bulk adding users in “Add Users” and “Add Curriculum Groups” now functions properly. Please note that it requires pupil and teacher information to be present in SEEMiS and sent to Glow via Click and Go.

Improvements

Still to fix

  • The Bulk Create Blogs feature is currently not operational but is expected to be resolved in October.
  • Forms created with the Block Editor are currently experiencing issues and are under investigation. However, the Jetpack Contact form can still be used in the classic editor for posts and pages, and it continues to function as usual.

Issues

Forms in the Block Editor

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We have just added a lot more blocks to use in the Block Editor.

Unfortunately the Forms are not working properly. The Developers are working on a fix.

Workaround

In the meantime the Jetpack Contact form still word as expected in the classic editor. If you switch to the classic editor for a post or page you can create a form there.  Contact forms can be used for gathering information of all sorts, not just contacts. More information on the Jetpack Contact form in Glow Blogs.

Fixed Issues

Add Users & Bulk Create blog problem

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There is currently a problem with the system for adding users from a curriculum group from seemis.

November 2024 Bulk Create Blogs is now working as expected.

27 Sep 2023 Add Users, Add Curriculum Groups is now fixed and working as expected.  A fix is under way for Bulk Create Blogs and we expect it to be live in October.

This stops the Bulk Creation of blogs working.

Users can still be added to blogs using the Add Users Screen, not the Add Curricular Groups. Details: Add Users.

A fix has been developed and is in the process of being tested before deployment. We hope the fix for the Add Users screen will be out before the end of the month and the Bulk Create Blogs in October.

Fixed Issues

Block Editor List Block problem – Fixed

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Fixed 26 September 2023

We have currently a problem with the list block in the Block Editor on Glow Blogs. When you create a list, it only allows you to have one item. Pressing return does not give you another item in the list.

A fix has been found and will be release soon.

Workarounds

Use a classic block. This adds the older classic editor to a post where you can add a list.

Use a markdown block.

Markdown bullet list:

  • item 1
  • item 2

Markdown numbered list:

  1. item a
  2. item b

The about list was produced with the markdown block, here is a screenshot:

A screenshot of a markdown block being edited to show a list.
news, Releases

Glow Blogs Update June 2023

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Highlights

  • The WordPress version is now 6.2
  • We have included new themes Twenty Twenty-two & TwentyTwenty-Three
  • WordPress 6.2 and the new themes bring Full Site Editing to glow blogs.

Full Site Editing

WordPress Full Site Editing allows non-technical users to have more control over the appearance and layout of their website. It enables you to customise your entire website, including headers, footers, sidebars, and content areas, using a visual editor.

There is a lot to FSE, we will add more information and links to help on the Help Blog over the summer.

A couple of interesting improvements

Themes with FSE can allow you to easily swap from a set of predefined styles, or create your own.

Animated gif of the styles available in the Twenty Twenty Three theme
Animated gif of the styles available in the Twenty Twenty Three theme

Distraction Free mode. If you are rather overwhelmed by the new Block Editor you may like distraction free mode. This helps in giving you more space to write on and a much calmer experience. You can choose it from the editor settings, and it removes all toolbars and editing panels from the screen.

Openverse

An extensive library of free stock photos, images, and audio, available for free use.

Openverse is built into the Block editor, this allows you to search openverse for an image you can use legally. What is different from similar searches using other tools is that this also adds the attribution text below the photos.

Screenshot of openverse in Glow Blogs

There is more information on some of the main feature added in these posts:

What’s New in WordPress 6.0 (Features and Screenshots)

What’s New in WordPress 6.2 (Features and Screenshots)

These refer to standard versions of WordPress so there many be a few details of difference from glow blogs.

Remember too, general WordPress help online now often assumes the newer Blocks editor. This is not enabled by default yet on Glow blogs, but can be easily turned on.

news

Glow Blogs Adding Users improvements

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We have made some improvements to the Add users process.

It is still best to use the main “Add Curricular Groups” screen and select L.A. then School then class lists. This does need Seemis to be up to date for the school. This process is described in the Add users, Set Roles page.

Add Users

If you are adding users using the Add Users page Blogs will try and iron out any incorrect usernames.

Blogs need a username in the format gw09johnstonjohn4@glow Admins often add using a full email address like nljohnstonj1@glow.sch.uk which use to fail as the blog need nljohnstonj1@glow or nljohnstonj1.

You can only logon to Glow Blogs through RMunify with a Glow account.

Now if you put in an email address everything after @ will be replaced by @glow

So:
nljohnstonj1 will become nljohnstonj1@glow

nljohnstonj1@glow.sch.uk will become nljohnstonj1@glow

nljohnstonj1@example.com will become nljohnstonj1@glow

If you use an external non-glow email address it will create a pending user, but the person with the external email will not be able to log on with than.

Users Page

This list users, users that have been added but have not logged onto Glow Blogs used to be labelled User Pending, they are now labelled NOT LOGGED IN YET

This indicated that the user has not loggd onto Glow Blogs. They can do so by clicking the Glow Blogs tile on their RM Unify Dashboard. Once they have logged in their Name and email address will appear in the User List

.

Users-list

In the screenshot, the testjohn@glow is for a user that either doesn’t exist or one that has not logged onto Blogs

How To, news

Glow Blogs Start of Session FAQ 2022

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A few quick tips that might help at the start of this new session.

Forgotten username or password

Your RM Unify Admin, who may be in your establishment or Local Authority will be able to help.

I need to access a blog where I do not have a role. For example you have moved school.

An Admin of the blog should be able to add you. Adding Users, Setting Roles | Glow Blog Help

No one in school can access a blog (perhaps staff have moved or retired)

You need to get your Local Authority to raise a call with theRM help desk.

Make sure you include the usernames you want added to a blog and the URL of the blog.

I can log on to Glow but I can’t access a blog where I have a role.

If you have just be added to the blog, get an admin for the blog check you have been added in the right way. If you are showing as Pending, see this FAQ. If that doesn’t help you need to get your Local Authority to raise a call with the RM help desk.

Make sure you include your username and the URL of the blog.

I can’t work out how to…

  1. Search the help blog
  2. Check the FAQ
  3. Use the contact form to get personal help.
  4. Leave a comment on one of the pages if you think that is appropriate.
  5. email gw09johnstonjohn4@glowmail.org.uk

New to Glow Blogs

If you have not used blogs for a while or not kept up with the help blog a lot of new features have been added for example:

Accessibility they are new ways to make you sites accessibly to different visitors.

The Blocks Editor is a new way to edit posts and pages. It allows a lot more flexibility as to content and layout.  We have a blog that explains more:  Using the Blocks Editor in Glow Blogs.

H5P is a plugin that allows you to create & display on your site a whole range of interactive content, from quizzes, multi-choice and close exercises all the way to 360 tours. H5p examples

Extra help

WE have developed a few more help sites in addition to the main Glow Blogs help.  Here is a list of other help sites on Glow Blogs.

Fixed Issues, news

Glow Analytics plugin problem – Fixed

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July 2022: Update: this issue is now fixed. The Glow Analytics plugin is now working as normal.

The Glow Analytics Plugin is not working at the moment, 16 Jun 2022. The Developers are aware of this and working on a fix. This may take a few weeks to complete, test and put into a release.