XenCustomize - News Publisher 2.3.9

New Features & Enhancements:​

• About the Author:
  • Added a new admin setting: "Show 'About the Author' block" with multiple display options:
    • Below the news story
    • In the sidebar (above the information block)
    • Do not show
  • Displays an elegant author block, featuring the author’s avatar, name, title, and bio.
  • Pulls bio content from the "About you" field in the user profile — shown only if filled.
  • Fully responsive and visually refined for both mobile and desktop views.
• Related Topics (Tags):
  • Tags have been moved to a new, dedicated block below the news story.
  • Revamped their visual design for better visibility and a cleaner, more modern appearance.

• Fixed a missing alert template issue causing the error: "[E_USER_WARNING] Template public:alert_nwp_news_mention is unknown".

New Features & Enhancements​

• Change News Dates & Times
  • Added the ability to modify the news publish date & time.
  • Added the ability to update the last edit date & time for accurate record-keeping.
  • Ensured that the last update date cannot be set before the publish date.
  • Implemented restrictions on future-dated entries for consistency.
  • Timezone support added to ensure accurate timestamp conversions based on the user’s timezone.
• Latest News Widget: New Display Styles
  • Carousel Slider: A dynamic slider-based display for showcasing recent news. (Not designed for sidebar positions.)
  • Carousel Slider (Card Grid): A slider using the Card Grid display mode for a more visually engaging layout.
• Avatar Display Toggle
  • Added a style property setting to toggle avatars on or off in all display modes.
  • Available separately for: Card Grid, Compact List, Expanded List, and Standout Card Grid.
  • Provides per-style control without needing template edits.
• Styling Improvements for Card Grid Display Mode
  • Prevented news title from wrapping unexpectedly, ensuring layouts remain intact.

• News view page now prioritizes the description field over message for metadata snippets.
• Open Graph and Twitter card images now use getCoverImage() instead of getThumbnailUrl(), providing a more reliable fallback for news thumbnails.

• Fixed category permission classes not matching the correct formatter pattern.
• Fixed missing template causing the error: "Template email:xcu_nwp_watched_news_update is unknown".
• Fixed a missing phrase on News category permission page.
• Fixed a couple of missing phrases xcu_nwp_news_x_watched_news_updated and xcu_nwp_watched_news_update_email_html.

New Features & Enhancements:
Scheduled News Publication

• Added new Publication options on the news creation page, allowing users to choose between:
• Publish Now – Make news live immediately upon submission.
• Schedule Publication – Set a future date, time, and time zone for automatic publishing (must be in the future).
• Added a "Scheduled" label next to news titles for clear identification.
• Added a block status message to indicate scheduled news.
• Added a "Reschedule Publication" (pencil icon) button for quick rescheduling.
• Added a "Publish Now" button to immediately publish a scheduled news item.
• Added a "Your Scheduled News" navigation link for easy access to all scheduled news.
• Added a new moderator permission: "View scheduled news" to allow access to other users' scheduled news.
• Added a new "Publish Scheduled News" cron entry, running every 5 minutes to automatically publish scheduled news. (Note: The cron runs only when site activity triggers it, as XenForo cron jobs do not run independently.)
• Improved Search Autocomplete
• Search autocomplete results now utilize the getCoverImage() method to ensure the best available image is displayed consistently. If no image is found, a default thumbnail is used.

Improved News Thumbnails

• Enhanced thumbnail display in compact mode, search results, and tag pages to maintain the correct aspect ratio using custom styling instead of XenForo's avatar classes.

Changes:
Public Navigation Enhancements

• Renamed "Your News Stories" to "Your News" and changed it to a dropdown menu.
• Renamed the previous "Your News Stories" to "Your Published News", now a sub-navigation link under "Your News".
• Added "Your Scheduled News" as a new sub-navigation link under "Your News".

Bug Fixes:
Fixed various missing phrases. (Reported by @PhineasD and others)
Fixed missing template causing the error: "Template public:alert_nwp_news_update is unknown". (Reported via ticket)
Fixed missing template causing the error: "Template public:alert_user_news_converted_thread is unknown". (Reported via ticket)
Fixed an issue where moderator action alerts for news were increasing the alert count but not appearing in the user's alert list. (Reported via ticket)
Fixed an issue where creating news without key points would save an empty key point entry. (Reported via ticket)