Configuring the Extension

Once you are done with installing the extension and registering the Disqus application, proceed to your Magento 2 backend to finalize the setup of the Blog extension.

Before creating your first blog post, we suggest walking through the settings of the Blog extension. This will help you then keep complete control over your blog. Go to Stores > Configuration > AHEADWORKS EXTENSIONS > Blog.

General Settings

This is where you configure the behaviour of the blog: its accessibility, content layout, and etc.

Please refer to the following configuration options:

• Enabled - defines if the Blog extension is enabled in your store;

• Add Blog to Navigation Menu - enables/disables the Blog tab on the frontend in the navigation menue;
• Blog Title - defines the name of the blog page; 
• Route to Blog - defines the direct link to the main blog page of your store;
• Route to Authors Page - defines the link to the authors page of the blog;

• Posts per page - defines how many posts will be displayed per a blog page;

• Quantity of related posts - defines the number of related posts will be displayed on a page;

• Display Sharing Buttons At - defines where the social network sharing buttons should be displayed at;

• Comments enabled - defines if customers can comment blog posts;

• Disqus Forum Code - paste here the Disqus URL from Step 3 of the Disqus setup above;

• Disqus Secret Key - paste here the Disqus Secret Key from Step 2 of the Disqus setup above;

• Facebook App ID - allows you to take benefit of Facebook Insights and explore the traffic from Facebook to your site;
• Default Twitter site account - the Twitter card markup required to determine the official company's Twitter account;

You have just configured the main blog page and enabled access to it. Scroll down the General Settings window to proceed to adjusting the sidebar of the Blog and SEO metadata.

Sidebar

This configuration section reflects the Blog sidebar's functional aspects. These settings define the post tags look, let you add a CMS block and configure the recent posts to display.

Here, you have access to the following configuration options:

• Number of Recent Posts to Display - defines how many most recent blog posts are to be displayed in the Blog sidebar;
• Number of Most Popular Tags to Display - defines how many popular tags are to be displayed in the tag cloud of the blog sidebar;
• Highlight Popular Tags - defines if the most popular 1227948850 are to be highlighted with bold or increased font size;
• Sidebar CMS Block - allows choosing a CMS block to be displayed on the blog sidebar;
• Display Categories List in a Sidebar - enables blog categories to be displayed on the sidebar;
• Maximum Number of Categories to Display - the number of categories visible above the 'Show X More' link on the sidebar.

SEO

Scroll down the Sidebar configuration, and find the SEO metadata settings block. This is where you optimize your blog for best search outcomes with modern search engines. 

The options here come as follows:

• Enable Meta Tags - leave 'Yes' (by default) should you not opt for a stand-alone third-party SEO solution; 
• Blog Meta Description - a brief description of the content of the Blog Home page (an element in the HTML code of the page to be displayed by a search engine in search results);
• Blog Meta Keywords - a list of phrases to tell the search engine the topic of the page (an element in the HTML code of the page);
• URL structure - one of the two options for the structure of a blog post url (including or excluding the category name);
• Post URL Suffix - the character(s) to close a URL of a blog post (usually a '/', '.html' or empty);
• Author Page URL Suffix - the character(s) to close the Author Page (aka the 'All Authors' page) URL;
• URL Suffix for all other pages - the character(s) to close the URL of the blog Home page, categories page, authors page and search by tag page.
• Create Permanent Redirect for URLs if URL Key Changed - select 'Yes' to avoid confusing customers with pages differing in content and URL suffixes; 

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• Use Canonical Link Meta Tag For Categories - decide whether you are using canonical link meta tag for category pages;
• Use Canonical Link Meta Tag For Posts - decide whether you are using canonical link meta tag for post pages;
• Use Canonical Link Meta Tag For Authors - decide whether you are using canonical link meta tag for author pages;
• Title Prefix - the text line to start the title of a blog page (as included into the <title> tag);
• Title Suffix - the text line to close the title of a blog page (as included into the <title> tag);

• Organisation - the name of your company (as included into structured data (JSON-LD) markup).

http://site.com/blog/health_and_lifestyle/food_and_diet/recipes/sample_recipe/
http://site.com/blog/sample_recipe/

The settings above echo those in Stores->Config->Catalog->Catalog->Search Engine Optimization. For more details on SEO practices in Magento 2 refer to the official Magento 2 use guide.

Related Products

Scroll down  the extension settings page to reach the Related Products block.

Starting 2.0 version of the Blog extension, store administrator can add related product to a blog post page. In addition, a Blog tab is added to the product pages. Under the Blog tab customers can find blog posts where the product is mentioned as related.

This configuration section defines the behavior and layout of the product block related to the blog posts:

• Display Blog Posts Tab on Product Page - defines if the Blog tab should be displayed at product pages;
• Display Related Products Block on Post Page - defines if and where the related products block should be displayed at the blog post page;
• Related Products Block Layout - defines the related product block's layout;
• Display "Add to Cart" Button - defines if the Add to Cart button should be displayed on the products featured in the related product blocks at blog post pages.

Once done with the settings click the Save Config button at the top of the Configuration page, or proceed to the next step.

Wordpress Import

Go to Stores > Configuration > Aheadworks extensions > Blog and scroll down the page to reach the settings for Wordpress blog import. Starting from 2.2.0 version of the Blog extension, store administrator can import blog posts from a WordPress blog.

The process behind the migration is the following:

1. Navigate to Tools > Export in the Wordpress administrator area;
2. Choose 'Posts' option and click the Download export file button. An XML file containing all blog posts should be downloaded;
3. Navigate to your Magento backend Stores > Configuration > aheadWorks extensions > Blog;
4. In the 'Wordpress Import' section of the Blog settings upload XML file via 'Import file';
5. Set 'Override existing posts with the same URL' if you want the existing Magento 2 posts with the same URL overridden;
6. Click 'Import Posts' button to begin post import;
7. If imported successfully copy contents from the Wordpress folder:
   wp-content/uploads/ 
   directly to the Magento folder:
   /pub/media/wp-content/uploads/
   If this directory doesn't exist - create it manually. Make sure file permissions are set up properly.

Post migration is now complete.

RSS Feeds

To add blog post updates to your store RSS feeds go to Stores > Settings > Configuration > Catalog > RSS Feeds.

Enable RSS Feeds for Aheadworks Blog.

Blog Categories

Categories Grid

To create and manage blog categories please navigate to Content > Blog by Aheadworks > Categories. This is where you will see the Categories grid to collect the categories available in the blog.

The Categories grid will include the following columns:

• ID - identification number of the category;
• Category Name - the name of the category;
• URL Key - the uniform resource locator of the category;
• Meta title - the title of the category as shown by a search engine in search list;
• Meta Keywords - the words to tell a search engine the key ideas of the category;
• Meta Description - the description of the category as shown by a search engine in search list below the title;
• Status - the status of the category (enabled/disabled);
• Store view - the view of the store to feature the category in the blog;
• Sort order - the whole numeric to suggest order of the categories in the category tree.

You can edit categories one after another by clicking the name of the category or in bulk. The latter is possible with the Actions folding list on the left just below the table.

Create/Edit Category

Click the Create Category button to add a blog category to the store. This window will come open:

To create a new category please proceed to the three steps below:

Set-up the hierarchy - step 1

To assign a place for a new category in the hierarchy use the block on the left of the customisation fields. There you will see the Categories Tree, which you can expand or collapse via the active links in blue above the tree. Further above you will see two gray buttons Add Root Category and Add Subcategory which act out respectively to their names.

• First category created will start the hierarchy;
• To add a subcategory, choose the category which will be expected to be the root one in the tree and click the Add Subcategory button.
• To add a root category, choose the category which will be expected to be the subcategory and click the Add Root Category button.

Please note, when you do not refer to the hierarchy tree after clicking the Create Category button, and proceed straight on to the category customisation fields, the newly created category will be added as a root one to the bottom of the tree. You will later be able to sort out the order of categories in the Categories table as described in the section above.

Customize the category - step 2

Refer to the following fields:

• Name - the name of the category speaking for its content;
• URL-key - the url-key to the category (is generated automatically as you fill-in the field above, but at the same time may be adjusted manually when clicking on the field);
• Status - enable or disable categories with this field;
• Image - upload an image to visually support the category page;
• Image title - suggest the title for the image which will appear when hovering the mouse cursor over the image;
• Image text - suggest the text for the image which will appear should the picture be not displayed;
• Description - type-in a description of the category to make the page more informative.

Tweak SEO settigns - step 3

The options for configuration here come as follows:

• Meta Title - add a meta title to the category (this will be shown as a title line by a search engine in the search list)
• Meta Keywords - add keywords for search engines to know what the category page is about;  
• Meta Description - add a description as it will appear below the meta title in the search list; 
• Prefix - the text line to start the title of the category page (when left blank the Title Prefix value will be used as set in the Extension Settings);
• Suffix - the text line to close the title of the category page (when left blank the Title Suffix value will be used as set in the Extension Settings).

Once finished, click the Save button on top of the page. You will be redirected to the Categories page.

Authors

Authors Grid

To add and manage blog authors please navigate to Content > Blog by Aheadworks > Authors. This is where you will see the Authors grid to collect the authors featured in the blog.

The Authors grid will come in the following columns:

• ID - the identification number of the author;
• Image - the thumbnail avatar of the author;
• Name - the name of the author;
• Meta title - the title of the author page as shown by a search engine in search list;
• Meta Keywords - the words to tell a search engine the key ideas in the author page;
• Meta Description - the description of the author page as shown by a search engine in search list below the title;
• Twitter ID - the name of the Twitter account of the author;
• Facebook ID - the name of the Facebook account of the author;
• LinkedIn ID - the name of the LinkedIn account of the author;
• Qty of Posts - the whole numeric to tell the number of posts made by the author;
• Action - an active link to select between the two actions: Edit and Delete.

You can edit authors individually by clicking the active link in the correspondent cell of the Action column, or in bulk. The latter is possible with the Actions folding list on the left just below the table.

Create/Edit Author

To add a new author, click the Create New Author button in the top right of the page. You will be redirected to the New Author page.

To complete the authors page, follow the two steps below:

Suggest general information about the author - step 1

The page has the following fields, which speak for their target content: Image File, First Name, Last Name, URL-key, Job Position, Short Bio, Twitter ID, Facebook ID, Linkedin ID. 

Fill-in the mandatory fields marked with an asterix (*). You may also opt for the ones which are not.

Use the rich-text formatting bar to make the content of the author's biography visually appealing to readers.

Tweak SEO settings for the Author Page - step 2

The options for configuration here come as follows:

• Meta Title - add a meta title to the author page (this will be shown as a title line by a search engine in the search list)
• Meta Keywords - add keywords for search engines to know what the author page is about;  
• Meta Description - add a description as it will appear below the meta title in the search list; 
• Prefix - the text line to start the title of the author page (when left blank the Title Prefix value will be used as set in the Extension Settings);
• Suffix - the text line to close the title of the author page (when left blank the Title Suffix value will be used as set in the Extension Settings).

Once finished click the Save button. You will be redirected back to the Authors page.

Blog Posts

Posts Grid

To add and manage blog posts, navigate to Content > Blog by Aheadworks > Posts. The page will feature a grid to aggregate all posts created/migrated into the blog.

The grid contains the following columns:

• ID - the identification number of the post;
• Title - the title of the post as it will appear on the frontend;
• Image - the thumbnail of the head image in the post; 
• Status - the status of the post (published, drafted);
• Publish Date - the date of publishing of the post;
• Published Comments - the whole numeric to tell the number of comments published to the post;
• New Comments - the whole numeric to tell the number of comments not yet confirmed by the admin for publishing on the frontend;
• Categories - the categories the post belongs to;
• Tags - the phrases to tell readers/customers what the post is about;
• Author - the author of the post;
• Store view - the store view the post belongs to;
• Meta title - the title of the post page as shown by a search engine in search list;
• Meta Keywords - the words to tell a search engine the key ideas in the post page;
• Meta Description - the description of the post page as shown by a search engine in search list below the title;

You may edit posts individually by clicking the active link in the Title column, or in bulk. The latter is possible with the Actions folding list on the left just below the table.

Create/Edit Post

To add a new post, click the Create New Post button in the top right of the page. You will be redirected to the New Post page.

To complete the post page, follow the two steps below:

Add content and suggest general information about the post - step 1

Refer to the block on the left.

At this step you are suggested to:

• Type-in the blog post title;
• Decide on the URL-key of the post;
• Upload an image and suggest details to it: image title (appears when hovering a mouse cursor over the image) and Alt Text (appears instead of the image when the latter is not displayed);
• Type-in the body of the post and format it to your needs and taste (the Show/Hide Editor button hides/enables the WYSIWYG editor as part of the Bluefoot Magento page builder and allows for HTML/CSS markup of the post text);

The image can be taken from the existing media files or uploaded from your device. Click the Upload button next to the Image field. With Magento 2 Blog 2.6.0, featured images are used as thumbnails for the display of blog posts in a category, recent posts, and related posts. 

Decide if your post should have a Short Content, set the post to a particular category and decide on tags.

Short Content can prove useful if your post is content heavy and takes a couple of pages. What it does is instead of displaying the whole post on a Blog page it allows displaying only the contents of the Short Content field, thus saving blog page space and making it look neat.

Tweak SEO settings for the Author Page - step 2

The options for configuration here come as follows:

• Meta Title - add a meta title to the post page (this will be shown as a title line by a search engine in the search list)
• Meta Keywords - add keywords for search engines to know what the post page is about;  
• Meta Description - add a description as it will appear below the meta title in the search list; 
• Prefix - the text line to start the title of the post page (when left blank the Title Prefix value will be used as set in the Extension Settings);
• Suffix - the text line to close the title of the post page (when left blank the Title Suffix value will be used as set in the Extension Settings).

Add products related to the post - step 3

Scroll down the page to the Related Products block to add products related to the content of the post. These will appear on the frontend behind the post.

To specify the products for relation to the post, use the Conditioning section. This is where you can set a combination of conditions to the attributes of the products, which will then be filtered for relation to the post.

Click the green '+' to add a condition, and the red 'x' to delete one. Click the words in bold to unfold the options of the condition or the options of the product attribute.  

Configure the post for publishing - step 4

Refer to the block on the right.

This block opens up the following features to be configured before you complete the post:

• Post scheduling;
• Assigning an author;
• Selecting a category for the post;
• Typing-in tags relevant to the content of the post;
• Enabling comments;
• Setting-up Twitter site account;
• Selecting groups of users who will be able to see the post.

 Schedule the post for successive publishing.

Tags are one of the navigation tools provided by the Blog extension. Every post is suggested to be tagged with relevant words or phrases to simplify subsequent search performed by customers via the search field of your Magento store. Tags are gathered in a tag cloud displayed in the blog Sidebar.

The default Twitter Card tag of the shop can be customized herein. Do that with the 'Twitter site account' text-field.

The 'Enable post for customer groups' makes it possible to hide posts from particular customers when necessary.

To complete creating/editing the post, click the Publish Post button at the top of the page.

Magento 2 PageBuilder - step N

Release of Magento 2 PageBuilder has been an important landmark in store content creation. The Magento 2 Blog extension supports the PageBuilder functionality. The drag-and-drop composer is available for Magento 2 Commerce stores and can be found on the new post page in the backend.

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For the PageBuilder details, please, follow the link

Save/Preview Post

On completing the above three steps (or anytime along the process) you will be able to save the post. Do that with one of the options available in the control bar at the top of the page.

• Save as draft (save and get redirected to the Posts Grid);
• Save and Continue Editing (save and stay on the Create/Edit Post page).

Alternatively, you can preview the post. The preview page will not save the post, but will open in the new window of the browser. The Preview page will have all the main page elements. 

The Publish (Update) Post button also saves the post, at the same time confirming its publication on the front. The action redirects you to the Posts grid.

Commenting, Sharing, Relating

Once your post is ready and published, customers may see it as shown in the three pictures below. Check out the tags, social networks sharing buttons, categories field, related posts, related products, and finally the block for comments.

• Social network sharing buttons - available right after installation and do not require additional setup;
• Tags - are clickable for quick blog navigation;
• Related Posts block - is displayed below the post body and contains post selected based on similar tags

• Related Products - add the related products to the blog post page to boost your sales (the Add to Cart button will be added to each related product to motivate customers for quick response );
• Blog post category - represents a category of the post (store only);
• Disqus account login - promts your customers to log in to Disqus forums;
• Disqus forum name and link - navigates to your store forum on Disqus.

How to comment

In order to comment, customers need to have a Disqus account or log in via Facebook, Twitter, or Google+. Once logged in, they can leave comments and enter any open discussions on Disqus.

By clicking on the Disqus forum name, customers are redirected to the corresponding Disqus forum of your store. Here, all active blog posts will be represented as different forum topics that customers can join.

Customers can like, share, flag, and reply to comments. Every customer's action is reflected on the Blog page of your store.

How to manage comments

As a store admin, you can manage all customer comments to your blog posts. To do so proceed to Content > Blog by aheadWorks > Comments.

Сomment management takes place on the Disqus side. Here, you can approve, mark as spam, and delete comments along with managing the Disqus forum settings.

For more information on how to manage the comments and set up Disqus, read the Disqus knowledge base.

OpenGraph

In order to make social media sharing convenient and attractive for your customers, the extension uses both Open Graph markups.

The Open Graph markup acts behind the scenes and includes the following tags:

• “og:site_name” content="Store title" - store title;

• “og:type” content="article" - the type of marked-up object. ‘Content’ in this particular case;

• og:locale - the locale to be used;

• og:image - an image representing blog post;

• og:title - blog post title;

• og:description - blog post short description;

• og:url - canonical blog post URL.

GraphQL

GraphQL is a query language for your API, and a server-side runtime for executing queries by using a type system you define for your data. GraphQL isn't tied to any specific database or storage engine and is instead backed by your existing code and data.

GraphQL API support starts with version 2.5.0 of the Blog. The GraphQL acts behind the scenes and allows the following types and fields for markup:

• list of blog categories;
• list of blog posts in the category;
• list of tags;
• list of posts which have a tag;
• blog post and all its properties,
• and other (see module configuration).

JSON DL

JSON-LD is a way to transfer linked data (Linked Data, LD) using the JSON text format (JavaScript Object Notation).  Pages with JSON-LD markup facilitate the structuring of data by machines and the recognition of concepts, which is important for you in the context of search engine promotion. 

The JSON DL acts behind the scenes too. The support of the markup starts as of Blog version 2.7.0.

It is only one field value that you set yourself herein for JSON DL - Organisation (see Extension Settings).