Journeys editor guide¶

This guide shows how to build a journey in the CMS. See Journeys for what a journey is.

Where to find it¶

Journeys is a top-level item in the CMS sidebar, next to Home. You edit a journey on one screen. The journey's own details are at the top. Its chapters are below.

Build a journey¶

1. Choose Journeys, then Add Journey.

2. Fill in the journey details:

   Field	What it is
   Name	What the journey is called, for example "Becoming Your True Self".
   Slug	A short identifier for links. It fills in from the Name, so leave it as is unless you have a reason to change it.
   Central question	The question the journey answers, in the reader's own words. Optional.
   Editorial framing	The pitch on the journey card. The app shows the first lines and a "see more".
   Colour	A design asset. If design has not supplied one, leave it blank. You can save without it.
   Emblem	The journey's picture. It is the artwork on the journey card and the picture the reader collects at the end. Upload one image, not two. The app shows it blurred, then clears it as the reader gets further.
   Emblem title, Emblem line	The words shown with the emblem once it is fully revealed, for example "Journey walked" and a line about why this picture suits this journey.
   Themes, Primary theme	Which worlds this journey belongs to. The primary theme sets its colour.

3. Add the chapters under Chapters. Add one chapter per piece the reader moves through. Drag the chapters into order. The order you set is the order the reader gets.

4. Fill in each chapter:

   Field	What it is
   The piece	The Passage, Writing, or Article the chapter is built on. Choose exactly one.
   Title	The chapter's own title. It does not have to match the piece's title.
   Slug	A short identifier. It fills in from the Title, so leave it as is.
   Opening question	The question shown before the reader sees the piece.
   Intro pages	Your lead-in to the piece, one page at a time. The reader moves through these before Lewis's words. Add a page, write it, then add another. Drag to reorder. About four pages is typical. There is no limit. Optional.
   Pause line	A short line that lets the passage settle. Optional.
   Practice	A small thing to go and do. The reader taps it to commit. Optional.
   Reveal line	The line shown as the emblem comes a little more into focus. Optional.

   You will not find a reflection question or themes on the chapter. Both come from the piece itself, so the same piece asks the same thing and sits in the same worlds everywhere it is read. To change either, edit the piece.

5. Choose Save draft while you work. Read the Publishing section below before you publish.

Choose the piece¶

Each chapter has three choosers: Passage, Writing, and Article. Use one. Leave the other two empty. If you fill in two, the save is refused.

Open a chooser to get a search box over everything of that type. Type a few words of the title to find what you want.

If the piece does not exist yet, switch to the Create new tab. Fill it in, then choose Save draft. The piece is created and linked to the chapter in one step, and you stay on the journey. This form has the same fields as the piece's own screen, themes and tags included, so you make a real piece, not a stub.

Four things are not in this window and stay on the piece's own screen: the audio, the featured image, the related-quotes list (for passages), and publishing.

A piece made this way is always a draft. Open it from the Passages, Writings, or Articles list to finish and publish it. You will do this anyway, because a journey cannot go live until every piece in it is published.

You never type a web address for a piece made this way. The CMS works it out from the title.

Publish a journey¶

A journey publishes as a whole. Its chapters go live with it and never publish on their own. The pieces those chapters point at are separate. Each piece has its own draft and live state, and you must publish it first.

• A journey stays a draft until you publish it, however many times you save.
• If any piece is still a draft, the CMS refuses to publish the journey. The error names the chapters that hold it up. Publish those pieces, then come back.
• A journey needs at least one published chapter.
• Every passage in the journey needs its interpretation. This is the "what this means" text the reader sees after the passage. Without it, publishing is refused, and the error names the passage and its chapter. Letters, essays, and articles are read whole and do not need one.
• Related journeys must be empty, or two to four. One on its own looks like a mistake on the finished screen, so publishing is refused. Add another, or remove it. Empty is always fine, which is how the first journeys get published. You cannot list the same journey twice or link a journey to itself.
• Publishing needs the publish permission, and it happens on the piece's own screen. If you can only add content, you can still create pieces from the journey. Someone with the permission publishes them.

The reason for this order: a published journey that points at unpublished pieces would show the reader chapters that cannot open.

After you publish¶

• Edit a chapter, or reorder chapters, and the live journey changes once you publish again.
• You cannot unpublish a piece that a live journey is built on. The CMS refuses and names the journey. Otherwise the journey would keep a chapter the reader cannot open. First unpublish the journey. Or point that chapter at a different piece, then publish the journey again. Until you publish, the live journey still uses the old piece, so the unpublish stays blocked.
• You cannot delete a piece that a journey uses. First remove the chapter from the journey.

What is not here yet¶

• The app cannot read journeys. There is no API yet.
• Reader progress, completed chapters, saved reflections, and collected emblems are not stored yet.
• You can edit related journeys, but the app does not use them.