Blog Help Guide
For the person who looks after the Elysian Dental Lounge website. No coding is needed for anything on this page.
1. How it works, in four lines
You write an article in the blog editor and press save. A few minutes later the website shows it on the Blog page, on its own page, and in the Latest articles section of the homepage (the 2 newest), and on the page of any treatment you choose as its related treatment. Nothing else to upload or edit.
The Blog status page lists every article and says in plain English if one is not showing, and why.
2. First time only: signing in
The editor uses a GitHub account (GitHub is where the website files are kept). There is no separate password for the website; you sign in with a one-time “access token”, which is like a long password made just for this editor.
- Owner gives you access. The person who owns the GitHub project adds your GitHub account as a collaborator with Write access (GitHub → the project → Settings → Collaborators). You must accept the invitation email.
- Make your token. On GitHub click your picture → Settings → Developer settings → Personal access tokens → Fine-grained tokens → Generate new token.
- Name:
Blog editor - Expiration: pick the longest offered (note the date in your calendar; see “Token expired” below).
- Repository access: Only select repositories → choose test1.
- Permissions → Repository permissions → Contents: Read and write. Leave everything else alone.
- Press Generate token and copy it (you only see it once).
- Name:
- Open the blog editor, press Sign In with Token, paste the token, and continue.
Keep the token private like a password. Only sign in on your own computer or phone. If you ever lose it or think someone saw it, delete it on GitHub (same Settings page) and make a new one; nothing on the website breaks.
3. Writing and publishing an article
- In the editor choose Blog articles → New Blog article.
- Fill in the boxes (see the table below).
- When it is ready switch Show on website ON, then press Save (top right).
- Wait 2 to 4 minutes, then open the website and refresh (Ctrl+F5 on a computer). If it is not there, open Blog status: it will say why.
| Box | What to put |
|---|---|
| Article title | 5 to 100 characters. Appears as the page heading. |
| Publish date | The day it goes live. A future date schedules the article; it appears early that morning (India time) automatically. |
| Category | One of the eight categories. Decides which button on the Blog page lists it. |
| Related treatment(s) | Optional. If the article is about a treatment (for example Dental Implants), choose it. The article then also appears on that treatment’s page, newest first. You can choose more than one. |
| Short excerpt | One or two sentences (20 to 180 characters) shown on the blog list and in Google. |
| Cover photo | Main picture. Use photos you own or have permission to use. Landscape (wide) photos look best. The editor shrinks big photos; if Blog status ever says a photo is large, upload a smaller one. |
| Photo description | A few words describing the photo for people who cannot see it. Optional. |
| Author | Already filled in as Dr. Yokesh Kumar R. Change only if someone else wrote it. |
| Show on website | OFF = hidden draft. ON = patients can read it. |
| Article text | Use the toolbar: headings, bold, bullet lists, links. Never include a real patient’s name or medical details. |
Change, hide or delete an article
- Change: open it in the editor, edit, press Save. The page updates in a few minutes.
- Hide for now: switch Show on website OFF and Save. It disappears from the website but you keep the text.
- Delete: open it and use the Delete option in the editor. Its page is removed automatically. (Anyone who saved the old link will see a “not found” page.)
4. If something looks wrong
Always start with the Blog status page; it names the article and the exact box that needs fixing.
| What you see | Why it happens | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| I saved an article but it is not on the website | Usual reasons: Show on website is OFF, the date is in the future, or the website is still updating (takes 2 to 4 minutes). | Open Blog status. It lists the article under Live, Scheduled, Drafts or Problems and explains. |
| Blog status lists a “Problem” | A required box is empty or wrong (for example no category, no text, an unreadable date). | Open that article in the editor, fix the box it names, Save. |
| Blog status says the cover photo is missing | The photo file was not uploaded properly, so the article is shown without it. | Open the article, choose the cover photo again, Save. |
| The editor page stays blank or says it could not be loaded | The editor program is downloaded from the internet each time. No internet, or an ad-blocker or office network is blocking unpkg.com. | Check your internet, refresh with Ctrl+F5, try another browser or network, or turn the ad-blocker off for this page. |
| “Bad credentials”, “Unauthorized” or the editor keeps asking you to sign in | Your token is wrong, was deleted, or has expired (tokens last up to one year). | Make a new token (section 2) and sign in again. |
| “Resource not accessible by personal access token”, “Not Found” or Save fails | The token was not given Contents: Read and write for the project test1, or your GitHub account does not have Write access. | Make a new token exactly as in section 2, and ask the owner to confirm you are a collaborator with Write access. |
| A scheduled article did not appear on its day | The nightly check did not run. GitHub switches off nightly jobs on projects with no activity for 60 days. | On GitHub open the project → Actions tab → Build blog. If it says the workflow is disabled press Enable workflow, then Run workflow. |
| A red ✗ appears next to “Build blog” in the Actions tab | The automatic builder stopped. Click the red entry: it prints a plain sentence saying which article or file is the problem. | Fix what it names (usually one article) and Save again; the builder retries by itself. Otherwise send that sentence to your web developer. |
| Appointment enquiries are not reaching your email | Not part of the blog. The form sends through Web3Forms. | Sign in to your Web3Forms account, check that the email address is verified and that the access key matches, and look in the spam folder. |
5. When you connect your own domain name (for example elysiandental.com)
The blog needs no changes. The editor, the blog pages, the sitemap and the Google information all pick up the new address by themselves.
- On GitHub: the project → Settings → Pages → Custom domain. Type the domain and Save. GitHub shows the DNS records to add at the company where you bought the domain; add them there and tick Enforce HTTPS when it becomes available.
- GitHub adds a file called
CNAMEto the project. The next automatic build reads it. To do this straight away: Actions → Build blog → Run workflow. - The editor now lives at
your-domain/admin/. Sign in with your token again once on the new address (the token itself still works). - In Web3Forms, add the new domain if your key is restricted to certain websites.
- In Google Search Console add the new site and submit
your-domain/sitemap.xml. Update the website link on your Google Business Profile.
Pages that were made before the domain was connected may be saved by Google under the old github.io address for a while; this sorts itself out.
6. Good habits
- Write for patients in simple language. Do not promise results or compare with other clinics; check claims against Dental Council advertising rules.
- Do not put patient names, photos or medical details in articles without written consent.
- Use the editor for blog work only. Do not rename or delete files directly on GitHub unless your web developer asks you to.
- Bookmark this guide and the Blog status page.