Defining Flags for Content

Overview

Flagging lets site visitors provide feedback about a piece of content, thereby enabling site visitors to moderate your site. This is especially important for sites with large amounts of visitor-generated content. Flagging also helps site visitors feel invested in the site.

For example, a flagging list can describe types of inappropriate content, such as:

  • Sexually Explicit
  • Mature (over 18 only) content
  • Graphic Violence
  • Hate Speech

Flagging can also indicate the quality of content, so can help create a recommended content list. For example:

  • I loved this content.
  • I hated this content.
  • I am neutral about the content.

Flagging is similar to the ContentReview server control, except flagging feedback is not displayed on the site. Also, the Flagging control provides a list of reasons for the flag. So, a flagging definition describes how a content item may be reviewed, and provides a list of reasons for the flag. For example:

After creating a flagging definition, you assign it to relevant folders. All content in those folders can be flagged with that definition.

IMPORTANT: As the final step in letting site visitors flag content, a developer adds a ContentFlagging server control to a Web page, and assigns to it the ID of the content being flagged. See Also: ContentFlagging Server Control .

Flagged content appears in the following Workarea locations.

  • ContentFlags list on the Smart Desktop
  • Settings > Community Management > Flagging > Flagged Content
  • a content item’s View Content Reports > Flagging tab

The Flagging Definitions screen is located in the Workarea > Settings > Community Management > Flagging. Here, you can view a list of flagging definitions, work with them, or create new ones.

Flag field definitions
  • ID—The ID of the flagging definition.
  • Name—The name of the flagging definition.
  • Description—A description of the flagging definition.
  • Language—The national flag of the language. For example, American English is .
  • Items—The number of flags in a definition. For example, the number is 4 if you have a flag definition for these movie ratings: G, PG, PG-13, and R.
Adding a flagging definition

Adding a Flagging Definition

  1. In the Workarea, navigate to Settings > Community Management > Flagging > Flagging Definitions.
  2. Select a language with which the flagging definition will be associated.
  3. Click Add New Flag Definition. The Add Flagging Definition screen appears.
  4. Enter a Name and Description for the flagging definition.
  5. Click Option () to add a flag choice to this flagging definition.
  6. Continue to click the Option button to add additional flag choices.
  7. Optionally change the order of the flag choices by clicking the Sorting buttons ().
  8. Click Save.
Editing a flagging definition

Editing a Flagging Definition

  1. In the Workarea, navigate to Settings > Community Management > Flagging > Flagging Definitions.
  2. Click the flagging definition Name link or the ID link.
  3. Edit the options. If desired, you can change the order of the flagging options by clicking the Sorting buttons ().
  4. Click Save.
Deleting a flagging definition

Deleting a Flagging Definition

When a flagging definition is deleted, it is removed from all folders with which it was associated.

  1. In the Workarea, navigate to Settings > Community Management > Flagging > Flagging Definitions.
  2. Click the flagging definition Name link or the ID link.
  3. Click Delete ().
Assigning a flagging definition to a folder

Assigning a Flagging Definition to a Folder

After creating a flagging definition, you may assign it to folders. If you do, the flagging definition is applied to all content in that folder.

Like other folder properties, a folder’s flagging definitions may be inherited by its child folders, although this does not occur by default.

To assign a flagging definition to a folder:

  1. Create a flagging definition, as explained in Adding a Flagging Definition.
  2. Click the Workarea Content tab.
  3. Navigate to the folder that contains the content to be flagged.
  4. Select View > Properties from the View menu. The View Properties screen appears.
  5. Click Edit Properties.
  6. Click the Flagging tab.
  7. Make sure the Inherit Parent Flagging Configuration check box is not checked.
  8. Select a flagging definition from the Flagging drop-down.

  9. Click Update.

Working with Flagged Content

From the Smart Desktop

From the Smart Desktop

To see content flags, you must add the Content Flags widget to your desktop. The Content Flags widget lists the 10 most recently-added content flags. From there, you can view a flag by clicking its title. To view all recent flags, click the View recent flags link. Clicking this link takes you to the Content Reports: Recent Flags screen.

From the Settings tab

From the Settings Tab

Settings > Community Management > Flagging > Flagged Content shows all flagged content.

NOTE: You can also access this report from the Workarea > Reports > Contents > Content Flags.

  • Showingflagsforthelast#days—Enter a new number of days for which to show Flagged Content. Click Report to refresh the display.
  • Title—The title of the content block being flagged. Clicking this link brings you to a detailed description of the content’s flag.
  • Display Name—The name of the user who flagged the content.
  • Date—The date the content was flagged.
  • Flag—The specific flag from the flagging definition for this content.
  • Comment—Comments added by the site visitor who flagged the content.

To print the flagged content report, click Print ().

Filtering flagged content by folder

Filtering Flagged Content by Folder

From the Content Reports: Flagged Content screen, you can filter flagged content by folder. To do so:

  1. In the Workarea, navigate to Settings > Community Management > Flagging > Flagged Content.
  2. Click Filter Reports by Filter (). The Select Folder screen appears.

  3. Select a folder.
  4. Click Save. The page refreshes, and any flagged content in the folder is shown.

NOTE: Only content flagged within the time frame for the Showing flags for the past # days field is shown. For example, if the field is set to 5, only content that’s been flagged in the last 5 days appears.

Filtering flagged content by language

Filtering Flagged Content by Language

To see flagged content for a specific language, select the language from the Language drop-down box.

From the Content Report

From the Content Report

You can also view flags for a content from the Content Report screen's Flagging tab. You can filter flags by a date range or see all flags associated with the content. This screen also contains a purge button, which removes all flags associated with this content.

Viewing flags applied to a content item

Viewing Flags Applied to a Content Item

  1. In the Workarea, find the content for which to retrieve content flags.
  2. Click the content title. The View Content screen appears.
  3. Click Content Reports (). The Content Report screen appears.

  4. Click Start Date () and End Date () to select a date range.

    NOTE: To retrieve all flags, leave Start Date and End Date blank.

  5. Click Get Flags. A list of flags applied to that content within the selected date range appears.
Purging a content item's flags

Purging a Content Item’s Flags

  1. In the Workarea, find the content block for which to purge content flags.
  2. Click the content title. The View Content screen appears.
  3. Click Content Reports ().
  4. Click Start Date () and End Date () to select a date range.

    NOTE: To retrieve all flags, leave Start Date and End Date blank.

  5. Click Purge Flags.
Viewing the details of a flag

Viewing the Details of a Flag

Viewing a flag’s detail lets you read the entire comment, even if it is truncated in one of the lists. You can also edit or delete a flag from this screen.

  1. Navigate to one of these area in the Workarea:
    • Smart Desktop > Content Flags widget
    • Settings > Community Management > Flagging > Flagged Content
    • Reports > Contents > Content Flags
  2. Click either a flag’s content title or its date. The flag’s detail information appears.
Editing the details of a flag

Editing the Details of a Flag

Edit a flag when you want to change the selection or the comments of a flagged content item. This can be useful if a user selects a flag by mistake, or you want edit its comments. For example, a user selected the “Offensive Content” flag but the user meant to choose “Copyright Violation”.

  1. Navigate to one of these area in the Workarea:
    • Smart Desktop > Content Flags
    • Settings > Community Management > Flagging > Flagged Content
    • Reports > Contents > Content Flags
  1. Click either a flag’s content title or its date. The flag’s detail information appears.
  2. Click Edit.
  3. Change the flag or edit the comments.
  4. Click Save. The flag’s information is changed.
Deleting a flag

Deleting a Flag

NOTE: To remove all flags for a content item, see Purging a Content Item’s Flags.

  1. Navigate to one of these area in the Workarea:
    • Smart Desktop > Content Flags
    • Settings > Community Management > Flagging > Flagged Content
    • Content Reports > Flagging tab for a content item
  2. Click either a flag’s content title or its date. The flag’s detail information appears.
  3. Click Delete ().
ContentFlagging server control

ContentFlagging Server Control

The following are Ektron-specific server control properties. You can find information about native .NET properties such as font, height, width and border style in Visual Studio® help.

  • Authenticated (String)

    Indicates if you are logged into the CMS Explorer and can use it to browse to content, collections, and so on. See Also: Browsing Your Ektron Site Using CMS Explorer.

  • DefaultContentID (Long)

    The default content ID for this control to use when there is no matching dynamic parameter value passed.

  • DisplayXslt (String)

    If desired, enter a relative or absolute path to an Xslt that determines the display of the page.

    WARNING! If you specify an external file, do not store this file in the Workarea folder. If you store this file in the Workarea folder, the file will be lost when you upgrade.

  • DoInitFill (Boolean)

    By default, Fill occurs during the Page_Init event. Set to false if you want to postpone the fill-action until later. In this case, Fill is automatically called during the Page Render event. You might do this if you need to set or change a property on the control in code-behind and have it render with your changes shown.

  • DynamicParameter (String)

    Gets or sets the QueryString parameter to read a content ID dynamically. To use the default content ID, leave blank.

  • FlagImage (String)

    Enter a path to an image that overrides the text in the FlagText property. When the image is clicked, the flag dialog appears.

  • FlagText (String)

    Text for the link that is shown to allow flagging. For example, you might use “Click here to flag this content.” The FlagImage property overrides this property. When the text link is clicked, the flag dialog appears.

  • Hide (Boolean)

    Hides or displays the output of the control in design time and run time.

    • True—Hide the control output.
    • False—Display the control output.
  • Language (Integer)

    Set a language for viewing content; shows results in design-time (in Visual Studio) and at run-time (in a browser).

  • Stylesheet (String)

    Specify the path to a style sheet for use with this server control. The location can be relative or absolute. Leave blank to use the default style sheet.

  • SuppressWrapperTags (Boolean)

    Suppresses the output of the span/div tags around the control.

    • True—Suppress wrap tags.
    • False (default)—Allow wrap tags.
  • WrapTag (String)

    Lets a developer specify a server control’s tag.

    • Span (default)—designate an inline portion of an HTML document as a span element.
    • Div—apply attributes to a block of code.
    • Custom—Lets you use a custom tag.