User Manual
The PressForward Plugin aggregates content from the web from within the WordPress dashboard.
PressForward provides an RSS/Atom feed reader within the WordPress dashboard, a tool for collaborative editorial work, and a process for republishing aggregated content.
You may also wish to view the Quick Start Guide
- Installing PressForward
- Installing and Using the “Nominate This” Bookmarklet
- Subscribe to RSS/Atom Feeds
- Using the Feed Items Panel: How to Read, Nominate, and Add Comments to Items
- Using the Nominated Items Panel: How to Review, Select, and Publish Nominations
- Posting Nominated Items to WordPress
- Managing Feeds Using the Subscribed Feeds Page
- Preferences
- Tools
- Folders
To install from the WordPress Dashboard:
- Go to Installed Plugins in the Plugins menu in the WordPress sidebar and click Add New.
- Search for PressForward.
- Click Install Now.
- Click Activate.
To install via FTP:
- Download PressForward from the WordPress plugin directory or download the most recent version of the zip or tar.gz file from GitHub.
- Place the folder in your "/wp-content/plugins" directory through your FTP client.
- Unzip the folder and rename it "pressforward."
- Activate plugin via Installed Plugins in the Plugins menu in the WordPress sidebar.
Once installed, two items will appear in your Wordpress sidebar: PressForward and Subscribed Feeds.
The Nominate This bookmarklet allows you to visit a static page on the web and nominate the page content or draft it as a WordPress post. The Nominate This bookmarklet, once placed in your browser's bookmarks bar, can be used to nominate any item, even those not associated with RSS/Atom feeds.
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Make sure you have the bookmarks bar visible in your browser. This is where the bookmarklet will go. (Most browsers have a View option in their menu bar, and the bookmarks bar options can be turned on there.)
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The Nominate This bookmarklet can be found in two places. You can select Tools from the PressForward menu in the WordPress sidebar. You can also find the bookmarklet as the first item in the Feed Items panel.
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To complete the installation, drag and drop the Nominate This bookmarklet into your browser’s bookmarks bar.
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In your browser, open a blog post, article, or web page that you would like to nominate.
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While you are on the page, click the Nominate This bookmarklet in your bookmark bar. A popup window will appear and the content from the current page will populate the title and content fields. (Note: You will be prompted to log in if you are not already logged in.)
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Check to be sure that the information you would like to display in the nomination is displayed in the Nominate This popup window.
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Add the author name(s) in the box provided above Enter Authors if you wish to include that metadata.
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Add or select any Categories or Tags. If you choose not to at this stage, admins will have a chance to do so when the item is sent to draft.
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If you wish to also subscribe to the feed associated with the post you are nominating, check the "Nominate feed associated with this item" box underneath the author field. Checking this box will prompt the plugin to attempt to add the RSS/Atom feed if one exists. If the plugin was able to successfully find and add a feed, it will appear in Subscribed Feeds in the Under Review section. (For instructions on approving a nominated feed, see here.)
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Click the Nominate button on the top right of the popup window. After the nomination has been processed, the window will briefly display the message, "Your nomination has been saved." Nominated items will appear in the Nominated panel. (Note: Users with administrative privileges will also see a Send to Draft button. Any items sent to draft will appear as drafts in the WordPress Posts panel.)
Add feeds to PressForward using the Add Feeds panel. Items from feeds will populate the Feed Items panel. Once added successfully, your feed will appear in the All Feeds panel. More information about feeds can be found here.
Feeds can be added three ways: one at a time, in batches using an OPML file, or by subscribing to an OPML file. Either way, you should save a list of your feeds in a backup file outside of the plugin.
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Select Add Feeds from the PressForward menu.
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On the Subscribe to Feeds tab, paste the complete URL (http...) or RSS path into the Feed URL box. (e.g. http://www.plosone.org/taxonomy/browse/neuroscience)
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Click the Check Feed button next to the URL input to validate the feed. If the site has a feed which is different from the inputed URL, it will be detected. To use that feed, click the Use Detected URL button
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Click the Subscribe to Feed button to finalize the subscription.
When feeds have been added successfully, the following message will appear at the top of your window: "You have submitted a feed." If there are problems with the feed you added, the message will read: "You have submitted a feed. The feed was not found." Note: When a feed is added with errors, it will immediately appear in the Alerts tab at the top of the Add Feeds panel.
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OPML files can be added using a live link. Copy and paste the link in the Add OPML File field. Click the Import button.
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Or Click the Upload OPML file button to open a dialogue box, select a local OPML file from your directory. Click the Import button.
When feeds have been added successfully, the following message will appear at the top of the window: "You have submitted an OPML file." When the OPML file has errors, you will see the following message at the top of your window: "You have added an OPML file. The OPML file was not found." (Note: When an OPML file with errors is added to your feed, it will also appear in the Alerts tab at the top of the Add Feeds panel.)
In addition to a single OPML import, users can also subscribe to OPML files in the Add Feeds panel. An OPML subscription, similarly to an RSS subscription, will import all the feeds associated with the file and check for newly added feeds during the feed retrieval cycle.
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Select the OPML as Feed tab in the Add Feeds panel.
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OPML subscriptions should be added using a live link. Copy and paste the link in the Add OPML Subscription field.
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Click the Submit button.
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All of the feeds associated with an OPML subscription will appear in the All Feeds panel within 30 minutes. Click on All Feeds to confirm that each feed has been uploaded.
The OPML file will appear as a feed in the All Feeds panel, and each feed included in the file will appear as a child of the OPML file. If the OPML includes folders, PressForward will import the folder structure, as well. For more information, see the Folders section of the User Manual.
The Feed Items panel is populated with items from the feeds you have added to the reader. (Items from the Nominate This bookmarklet can be found in Nominated.) In both the Feed Items and Nominated panels users have the option of viewing items in several ways, outlined below. Users may also browse in Full Screen mode by selecting that option on the top of the page.
Select the Feed Items tab from the PressForward menu. From Feed Items, you can browse items by seeing the title, the first 75 characters of each post, and the name of the source feed.
The options in the Feed Items navigation bar allows users to sort and filter items, filter by folder, view items in infinite scroll or grid view, and get help using the plugin. As users scroll through content, the navigation bar will stick at the top of the window.
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In the View dropdown menu, there are two modes to view items:
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The default browse view is the Grid "snippet" view. (Default options can be changed in the Preferences menu on the WordPress sidebar.)
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You can also switch to a List layout.
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In either mode, you also have the option to toggle between Infinite Scroll (scroll down and the page automatically loads more content) and Paginate (provides previous and next page links at the bottom of the page)
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In the Filter dropdown menu, you can filter Feed Items by my starred, hidden, my nominations, unread, drafted items, or date. Filtering items using this dropdown menu will reload Feed Items. Choosing to reset the filter will show all items.
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The Sort dropdown menu allows you to sort items by the date they were retrieved by the plugin's feed reader and by the date they were published. Sorting items does not reload Feed Items. Sorting and filtering choices can be traced using the breadcrumb trail at the top of the page.
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The Need Help? button will direct you to this user guide.
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On the far right, the Folders button provides you with a list of the folders created within the plugin. (See the Folders section to find out how to create and use folders). Clicking this button will allow you to sort feed items by their assigned folder.
Below the navigation bar, you will see feed items in either list or grid view. Each item contains the item title, the source feed, a snippet view of the item text, the date the item was retrieved by the plugin, and an item toolbar. The toolbar that appears with each individual post enables you to interact with each item and to select particular items for publication.
From left to right:
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The Info button (i) reveals more detailed information about the item, such as the original URL, the date published, the author, and assigned tags.
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The Star button is a user-specific feature that enables you to mark particular items that you would like to return to or that you find interesting. You can use the Filter menu in the navigation bar to see only your starred items.
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The Comment button counts the number of comments that have been made on the post. Clicking on this box will allow you to see comments others have made on the item and add your own comments.
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Select the Nominate button (single arrow icon) to nominate the item for editorial review. Nominated items will appear in the Nominated panel.
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Click on the bullhorn icon to see the Amplify options. If you are logged into WordPress with administrator permissions, you can use this button to send an item directly to WordPress Posts as a draft. If you are not, you can use this button to tweet the selected feed item.
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Each item also has three option buttons associated with it. The X option deletes the item, the checkmark marks the item as read or unread, and the eyeball hides the item. These options are user-specific. Deleting an item does not delete it from other users' Feed Items panels.
In Feed Items, clicking on the title of a feed item will open the Reader View. This window allows you to view the feed item title, author, and source feed, as well as the complete text and associated images.
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Using the links at the bottom, you can open the original item in a new window or reset readability if there are errors in the text.
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In the top right corner, you can find information on and a link to the previous item in Feed Items. In the bottom right corner, you can choose to move to the next item.
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In the middle of the right pane, you can add comments or read comments added by other users.
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Using the toolbar in the bottom right, you can get information about the item, star it, nominate it, or use the amplify button to send the item to draft or tweet.
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To close the Reader View, click the X in the top right corner, or use the Close button in the bottom right toolbar.
In Nominated Items, items nominated from Feed Items and from the Nominate This bookmarklet will appear in list view with an extended snippet. Users have the option of viewing items in several ways, outlined below. Users may also browse in Full Screen mode by selecting that option on the top of the page.
Select the Nominated Items tab from the PressForward menu.
The options in the Nominated Items navigation bar allows users to sort and filter items, filter by folder, archive items, and get help using the plugin. As users scroll through content, the navigation bar will stick at the top of the window.
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In the Filter dropdown menu, you can filter by starred, unread, drafted, or by whether they have been archived. unread, or drafted items. Filtering items using this dropdown menu will reload the Nominated content. Choosing to reset the filter will show all items.
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The Sort dropdown menu allows you to sort items by the date they were retrieved by the plugin's feed reader, by the date they were published, by the date they were nominated, or by the number of nominations received. Sorting items does not reload the Nominated content.
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The Need Help? button will direct you to this user guide.
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The Archive all button on the right will archive all of the items in Nominated. This option is not user-specific. It will archive the items in other users' Nominated panels. You can use the Filter menu in the navigation bar to toggle the visibility of archived items or to view only archived items.
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On the far right, the Folders button provides you with a list of the folders created within the plugin. (See the Folders section to find out how to create and use folders). Clicking this button will allow you to sort feed items by their assigned folder.
Like items in Feed Items, nominated items include the name of the item, the source feed, a longer snippet, the date the item was retrieved, and a toolbar with additional options. There are seven buttons on the toolbar:
From left to right:
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The Info button (i) reveals more detailed information about the item, such as the original URL, the date published, the author, and assigned tags.
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The Star button is a user-specific feature that enables you to mark particular items that you would like to return to or that you find interesting. You can use the Filter menu in the navigation bar to see only your starred items.
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The Comment button counts the number of comments that have been made on the post. Clicking on this box will allow you to see comments others have made on the item and add your own comments.
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The Nomination Count button (single arrow icon) is not an action button. The icon on this button shows the number of times this item was nominated.
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The Archive button archives the item. This option is not user-specific. It will archive an item in other users' Nominated Items panels. You can use the Filter menu in the navigation bar to toggle the visibility of archived items or to view only archived items.
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The Draft button (double arrow icon) sends the item to draft. Clicking this button creates an unpublished WordPress post containing the original text of the item, as well as the item metadata found using the Info button.
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The bullhorn icon is the Nominated Items version of the Amplify button. You can use this button to tweet the selected item.
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Each item also has two option buttons associated with it. The X option deletes the item, and the checkmark marks the item as read or unread. The X option is not user-specific. Deleting an item will delete it from other users' Nominated Items panels.
In the Nominated Items panel, clicking on the title of a feed item will open the Reader View. This Reader View option works the same way as the Reader View opened from Feed Items, but contains the extended toolbar associated with Nominated Items items.
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Using the links at the bottom, you can open the original item in a new window or reset readability if there are errors in the text.
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In the top right corner, you can find information on and a link to the previous item in Nominated Items. In the bottom right corner, you can choose to move to the next item.
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In the middle of the right pane, you can add comments or read comments added by other users.
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Using the toolbar in the bottom right, you can get information about the item, star it, see the number of times it has been nominated, archive it, send it to draft, or use the amplify button to tweet it.
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To close the Reader View, click the X in the top right corner, or use the Close button in the bottom right toolbar.
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Once an item has been sent to draft (using the Send to Draft button in the Amplify options in Feed Items or the Draft button in the Nominated item toolbar), users with administrator permissions can access these drafted WordPress posts, edit them, and publish them to the site. Posts sent to draft from the Nominate This bookmarklet will also appear here as drafts.
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Items sent to draft can be found in the WordPress Posts panel, found in the WordPress sidebar. When you click on All Posts, you will see a list of posts with " — Draft" after the post title.
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These drafted posts contain the content and metadata that the plugin found in the original feed item. Content and metadata can be edited from within the WordPress Edit Post interface.
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Text content will appear in the main post window. To see the metadata pulled in by the plugin and to view or change which author will appear in the published version of the post, click on Settings icon in the top right corner of the post page.Once this option is selected, a number of custom fields generated by the plugin will appear in a menu to the right of the post content.
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In the PressForward section, you will see an option to forward to the item's original URL. If you choose to forward, visitors to the item will be forwarded to the source item URL. (This option can be found in the Preferences tab of the PressForward menu and is off by default.)
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In the Nomination Info section, you will see the Author on Source information. If you have allowed the plugin to overwrite the default WordPress author of the post, the name in the Autbor on Source field will appear as the author in the published version of the post. (This option can be found in the Preferences tab of the PressForward menu and is on by default.)
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Once you have completed your edits, you can publish or schedule the post as you would any other WordPress post.
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The Subscribed Feeds panel is a list of the feeds that have been added to your PressForward plugin via OPML or individual feed addition. The options at the top of the page allow you to filter your subscribed feeds by:
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Active - Fully functional feeds that are actively used by the plugin.
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Inactive - Feeds that have been sent to draft by users because they are broken or are throwing errors. Dismissing an alert marks a feed as inactive.
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Alerts - Feeds that are throwing alerts in PressForward's feed reader. These feeds may be taking too long to load, may have moved, or may be incompatible with the feed reader. Alerted feeds will also appear red in the All filter tab. You can also see the number of alerts in the PressForward menu next to Subscribed Feeds.
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Under Review - Feeds that have been nominated through the Nominate This bookmarklet. These feeds will appear yellow in the All filter tab until they are approved.
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The Subscribed Feeds table header allows you to find out more about how the plugin is using a feed.
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The Folders column contains the names of the folders with which a feed is associated.
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The Last Time Feed Item Retrieved column tells you when the plugin last found a new feed item on this feed.
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The Last Time Feed Checked column tells you when the plugin last checked that feed for new items.
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The Items column tells you how many items the plugin has pulled from that feed into All Content.
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Feeds can be manually refreshed from the Subscribed Feeds page by clicking Refresh Feed Items under the url in the Title column.
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In the Subscribed Feeds panel, click Under Review to see the feeds that have been nominated through the Nominate This bookmarklet.
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Hover over the name of the feed under the Title column to see your options. If you want to add the nominated feed, click Quick Edit. (If you do not want to add the nominated feed, you can just click Trash.)
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In Quick Edit, select the dropdown menu next to Status. Select Active instead of Pending Review. (You can also change the tags and folders associated with the feed here.)
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Click Update in the bottom right corner of Quick Edit.
To access the Preferences panel, click the Preferences tab in the PressForward menu.
Users can control aspects of the content display in the Feed Items and Nominated Items pages by setting preferences here.
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Infinite Scroll: When this box is checked, users can scroll through content continuously. Infinite scroll is on by default.
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Side menu: When this box is checked, a menu that includes a list of feeds with alerts displays on the right side of the Feed Items and Nominated Items panels. This option is turned off by default.
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Number of feed items per page: Setting this number determines how many items will appear on the Feed Items and Nominated Items panels when infinite scroll is turned off. 20 items per page is the default.
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Email notifications: Select the situtions when PressForward sends the user an email notification: upon successful item nomination, when a nomination is promoted, or when a comment is post on an item with which the user has interacted.
These preferences are available only to users with administrator privileges in PressForward. Options set on this page will determine behavior across the site as a whole. They are grouped into four categories.
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Opt-in to allow us to collect non-sensitive diagnostic information? Users will be prompted to opt-in or opt-out upon update to version 5.0 of PressForward. This prefrence can be updated anytime through the Site Options tab in Preferences.
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Redirect to source: 0 means no redirect. PressForward makes use of canonical URLs. If you would like to redirect your readers automatically to the items aggregated by the feed reader and published to your site, this setting will determine how long to wait before redirecting. The default setting is 0 seconds. The redirect setting can be manually overridden in the Edit Post page by editing the forwarding status in the publish box.
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Source author: When this preference is on, the name of the author in a PressFoward item will appear in the item_author custom field when the item is drafted. This author will overwrite the creator of the post. This is on by default.
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Source statement position: This setting controls where the link to the source will be positioned on published content: Top or Bottom.
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Source statement format: These settings allow the for control of the source statement formats for PressForward items with or without a publication. Use the {{item}} and {{publication}} placeholders. "Format without publication" will be used when no publication name can be detected automatically. Leave both fields empty to disable the source statement.
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Archive.org integration: When this setting is enabled, PressForward will submit items to the Internet Archive (archive.org) when they are promoted to Draft status. Read more about the Internet Archive.
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Nomination emails: Input email address, separated by commas, to receive notifications about new nominates.
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User defaults: These settings configure the default user preferences for email notifications, and can be overridden by individual users on the User Options panel. The three possible notifications are when a user has successfully nominated an item, when an item that a user has nominated has been promoted, and when a comment is posted on an item with which the user has interacted.
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Time to retain feed items: This number determines the number of months that items aggregated by the PressForward feed reader will remain visible in Feed Items. This is set to 2 months by default.
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Error Limit: Feeds sometimes respond slowly or have errors that cause them to be unreadable. This setting determines the number of consecutive errors PressForward will allow from a feed before creating an alert and disabling it. The default is 3 errors.
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Retrieval frequency: This setting is the frequency at which PressForward will attempt to start the process of retrieving all the feeds your list.
- Warning: if you have a large number of feeds this setting should not go below 30 minutes.
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Promoted item behavior: These settings control the behavior of the PressForward items created when promoting nominated items or feed items.
- Post type: This setting allows you to set a default post status that gets set when you send nominations to become posts. The default WordPress post types are: Posts, Pages, and Media. Any custom post types will also appear here. For more information on post types see the WordPress documentation.
- Post status: This setting allows you to set a default post status that gets set when you send nominations to become posts. Options include: Published, Privates, Draft, or Pending Review. See the WordPress documentation for more information on each post status.
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Nominate This: By default, Nominate This will use the Block Editor, unless you are using a plugin like Classic Editor that allows the site admin or individual users to default to the Classic Editor. If you would like to force Nominate This to use the Classic Editor, regardless of plugins or user settings, select Yes.
- Advanced user roles?: This option may be needed if you customize user roles or capabilities within your WordPress install. For sites that manage multiple users using special plugins, administrators can use this option to insure PressForward respects customized user roles and capacities. See the Wordpress documentation for more information on user roles. This is off by default.
These preferences determine the type of access granted to each user role within the PressForward plugin. The user roles allowed by PressForward in order of most restrictive to least restrictive include: administrator, editor, contributor, and subscriber. These are based on the default WordPress user roles. For more information on customizing user roles refer to the WordPress documentation.
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PressForward Menu Group: This sets the user role required in order to access the PressForward plugin from the WordPress Dashboard. This is set to contributor by default.
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Feed Items Menu: This sets the user role required to see items in Feed Items. This is set to contributor by default.
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Nominated Items Menu: This sets the user role required to see items in Nominated Items. This is set to contributor by default.
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Nominate This: This setting controls accesso the Nominate This bookmarklet. This is set to Subscriber by default. Note, ability to use different features of the Nominate This bookmarklet will be set by user permissions on feed item and post post types.
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Non-User Preference Tabs: This sets the user role required to access the Site Options, User Control, and Module Control preferences in the Preferences panel. This is set to administrator by default.
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Feeder Menu: This sets the user role required to access the Add Feeds and Subscribed Feeds panels. This is set to editor by default.
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Stats Panel: This sets the user role required to access the Stats plan under the Tools menu option. This is set to editor by default.
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Internal Commenting Feature: This sets the user role required to be able to add comments in All Content, Nominated, and Reader View. Comments are not publicly visible when an item is moved to draft status in the WordPress Posts menu. This is set to contributor by default.
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Debugging Log: Debugging sets the user role required to access the debugging log (View Log) from the PressForward menu when it is turned on. This is set to administrator by default.
PressForward modules are add-ons to alter or improve the functionality of the plugin.
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Enable Internal Commenting: This module provides a way for users to comment on posts throughout the editorial process. This module is on by default.
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Enable Debugger Log Viewing Module: This module provides a way to view the feed retrieval log within the WordPress Dashboard. This module is on by default.
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Enable Foo Test Module: This module provides a set of test functions for developers to check. This module is off by default.
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Enable opml-subscribe Module: This module needs to overwrite the setup-module function and give a description. This module is on by default
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Enable RSS Import Module: This module provides the core functionality to read RSS feeds and translate them into PressForward's system. This module is on by default.
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Enable RSS Output Module: This module provides a way to output RSS feeds from your subscribed items. An RSS feed consisting of all your subscribed items will be available at your domain "/feedforward." This module is on by default.
To access the Tools panel, click the Tools tab in the PressForward menu.
The Nominate This bookmarklet allows you to visit a static page on the web and nominate the page content or draft it as a WordPress post. The Nominate This bookmarklet, once placed in your browser's bookmarks bar, can be used to nominate any item, even those not associated with RSS/Atom feeds. See Installing and Using the "Nominate This" bookmarklet for more details.
The Debug and Refresh panel includes options and advanced tools for system administrators who are attempting to test, debug, or execute advanced functionality. Please note that these options are capable of breaking your retrieval process.
- Clean Up: This button will attempt to clean up feed items. Using this button will manually initiate the process of selecting feed items more than 2 months old. There is a chance of initiating this process simultaneously with a process triggered automatically every 30 minutes. If this occurs, error messages will likely appear in your server logs.
These tools generate statistics about your PressForward installation by querying and compiling information in the PressForward Stats API endpoint.
- Assemble Author Stats: This button will generate a list of the authors of published PressForward posts and a count of how many times they have been published.
- Assemble Valid Posts for Stats: This button generates a list of the feeds that published PressForward Posts have come from and a count of how many posts have published from that source.
This tab contains an outbound OPML link that can be used to share your subscribed feeds as a subscription list with others.
This tab includes the Debug log for the plugin. It does not update in real time.
The Folders panel allows users to create folders. Folders can be used to organize and group feeds as well as to filter items in Feed Items and Nominated Items. Folders work similarly to WordPress’s post tags, however, folders only apply to feeds and will not overwrite your post tags. Feeds can belong to multiple folders at once. OPML subscriptions will automatically import folders and assign feeds according to the OPML structure.
- Select the Folders tab from the PressForward menu in the WordPress sidebar.
- Enter a name for the folder in the Name field. The folder name must be unique.
- Entering a Slug, which is a URL-friendly version of the name, is option.
- Selecting a Parent Category creates a folder hierarchy, and is also optional.
- Adding a Description is also optional. This field may display on your site if your theme supports it.
- When finished, click the Add New Folder button.
- The new folder will appear in the table of folders on the right. There are four pieces of information associated with each folder in this view: the name, description, slug, and number of feeds in that folder.
Once a feed has been added to Subscribed Feeds, it can be added to a folder in two ways:
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Hover over any feed and select Quick Edit. Then use the check boxes under Folders to assign the feed to folders.
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Hover over any feed and select Edit or just click on the title of the feed to bring up the Edit Feed page. Then use the check boxes under Folders section on the Feed settings panel to assign the feed to folders. (New folders can also be created from this screen by clicking + Add New Folder below the check boxes.)
Folders can be used to filter feed items in Feed Items.
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The Folders button on the right side of the Feed Items navigation bar will open a vertical pane containing a hierarchy of all the folders with feeds as well as feeds that are not contained in folders.
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Select any folder to filter the content and show only feed items from feeds in that folder.
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To unfilter content, select Reset Filter from the Filter dropdown menu in the Feed Items navigation bar.