Live Updates

Break has one tag for developing stories: #breaking. Tag a post with it and the post appears in three places:

• the Live updates column beside the featured post on the front page
• a flash in the top bar of every page, for 24 hours after publishing
• the /live/ page, once you have created it

Setup Instructions#

1. Go to Posts and open the post
2. Click Post settings and scroll to Tags
3. Type #breaking and press Enter
4. Click Publish or Update

To take a story off the live desk, remove the tag and click Update.

#breaking is an internal tag. Ghost hides tags that start with # from readers, so the post keeps its normal tags and its normal place in every other list.

The Live Column#

The column stands beside the featured post on a desktop and follows it when the sections stack. It shows:

• the heading Live updates
• a Live line with the time of the newest headline, for example Updated 14:05
• the three newest posts tagged #breaking, each with its publish time
• the partner slot at the foot, described below

If no post is tagged #breaking, the column shows the three newest posts instead, so it is never empty.

The column does not refresh by itself. It changes when the reader reloads the page.

If the featured post is also tagged #breaking, its status line says Live instead of Featured. See Featured.

The Top Bar Flash#

The newest post tagged #breaking that was published in the last 24 hours appears in the middle of the top bar, with a pulsing dot, the word Breaking and the post title. It takes turns with the market quotes and the clock, and a click opens the post.

After 24 hours the flash goes away by itself, even if the post keeps the tag. The post stays in the live column and on the live page until you remove the tag.

To turn the flash off for the whole site, add breaking to Disabled features. The live column and the live page are not affected. See Features and Top Bar.

The Live Page#

The live page lists up to 30 posts tagged #breaking, newest first. Each entry shows the time and date, up to two tags, the title and an excerpt. Break builds this page from a page with the slug live.

1. Go to Pages and click New page
2. Enter a title, for example Live
3. Open Page settings and change Page URL to live
4. Optionally, write a short description in the Excerpt field
5. Click Publish

The page body is not shown, so it can stay empty. The title and the excerpt open the page when Show title and feature image is on for the page.

Add the page to your navigation in ⛭ Settings → Navigation so readers can find it.

Auto-refresh#

The live page and The wire on the front page update themselves. Every 60 seconds, while the reader has the tab open in front, they check the site's RSS feed. When a new post has been published, the list is replaced with the fresh one without reloading the page. The foot of the live page says Auto-refresh 60s and links to the RSS feed.

To turn this off, add auto-refresh to Disabled features. Readers then see new posts when they reload the page, and the foot of the live page keeps only the RSS link. See Features.

The Partner Slot#

The foot of the live column holds the partner slot, a box that shows a house ad of your own or an AdSense unit.

A house ad#

The house ad is built from a page with the slug house-ad.

1. Go to Pages and click New page
2. Enter the headline as the title, for example Get the morning briefing before the market opens
3. Add a feature image. The box has a 340 by 200 shape, and the picture is cropped to fill it
4. Open Page settings and change Page URL to house-ad
5. Enter the address the ad should open in the Excerpt field, for example https://example.com/offer
6. Click Publish

With an empty Excerpt, the box links to the house-ad page itself.

AdSense#

The slot can show an AdSense unit instead. It needs your publisher ID, a unit ID for this slot, and header-ad removed from Disabled features, where it sits by default. Paying members always see the house ad, and so does everyone else when AdSense has no ad to serve. See Ads for the setup.

Notes#

• Times are shown in the site's timezone, set in ⛭ Settings → General.
• Keep breaking headlines short. The same title appears in the column, in the top bar and on the live page.
• A #breaking post also appears in the wire, in Today and in its desk, as it would without the tag.