I am delighted to tell you that I have created a Sitecore Module for integrating Google News in our Sitecore instance but unfortunately I am not able to upload to Sitecore Marketplace (https://marketplace.sitecore.net/) since there is a publishing issue on the site. Once it is resolved you will be able to see the module (Google News Integrator) on the Marketplace site. I will also share the link of the module in the comments.

So in this blog, I will try to explain when and how to use this module in our Sitecore website.

Scenario: In case your client is covered by different News agencies and there are lot of updates on Google News then this is the best module you can use. Since it is Google News, you can’t guarantee that the News will always be positive about your client, so the moderation is required before you put these News Articles on your website. Also there can be 2 things you want to achieve – only top 10-15 News on the internet to be displayed or the total articles as the time passes – both the options can be achieved using this module.

You can download the module from here – Google News Integrator-1.0

About the GNI Module:
This module is designed and developed to fetch the News articles from various authenticated sources like BBC, New York Times, Times Now, etc using the News API (https://newsapi.org).

It is very easy to use the module and it gives you flexibility to configure the settings like selecting the parent item, moderate the content in the Articles and publish, setup a scheduled task in case of fetching the articles everyday, Search terms can be modified at anytime, etc.

Installation Guide:
The module is easy to install.

Steps to Install:
1. Download the zip file(Link is shared above).
2. Install it like a normal Sitecore Package.

List of files installed with the package:
1. Config File – App_Config/Include/GoogleNewsIntegrator.config
2. Assembly File – bin/GoogleNewsIntegrator.dll
3. Image – Sitecore/Shell/darkimage.jpg
4. Test Page – Sitecore/Shell/TestNews.aspx

List of items created through this package are as below:
1. Templates – /sitecore/templates/Google News Integrator
2. Module Configuration – /sitecore/system/Modules/Google News Integrator
3. Fallback Folder to add the items – /sitecore/content/Home/Google News
4. Task Command – /sitecore/system/Tasks/Commands/Google News Integrator Command
5. Task Schedule – /sitecore/system/Tasks/Schedules/Google News Integrator Schedule

Note: In case you want to uninstall the module then you can delete the above files and items & you are good to go.

Configuring the Module:
1. Go to the Settings item (/sitecore/system/Modules/Google News Integrator/Settings)
2. We need to generate the API Key to begin. It can be generate from https://newsapi.org by clicking on “Get API Key” button.
3. Copy your API Key in API Key field of Settings item.
4. In case you want to moderate the content of the Articles created then uncheck the Auto Publish field.
5. Set the language value if you want News articles in any specific language. The default(in case the field is left blank) is English.
6. Enter the search term/phrase in Search Query field.
7. Check the First Run field if you want to fetch the News from previous 30 days (Limitation by News API) and also set the date in “From which Date the News to be imported” field.
8. There is a default folder created by the module under Home item (Google News). In case you want any other item under which the articles to be created then set the Parent item.
9. The no. of articles fetched is known as Page size. The max value can be 100 (Limitation by News API)
10. In case you will want to run this fetcher on daily basis then one day it will surpass 100 items and will degrade your Sitecore performance hence the provision of Buckets is provided. You can check the Buckets required checkbox if you wish to run the task everyday. Also make sure that you uncheck the First Run checkbox after running it for the first time.

Note:
To configure the Scheduler we need to add schedule “20200630|20210630|127|24:00:00” in the Schedule field of /sitecore/system/Tasks/Schedules/Google News Integrator Schedule item.

Known Facts:
If the First Run is checked then the subitems under the Parent item will be deleted before creating new ones.

Also you use Test page to test if the module is properly configured before you configure the Scheduled task.

URL of Test Page: https://yourdomainname/sitecore/shell/testnews.aspx.

Click on “Run News Import” button after configuring the module.

Please write to me if you have any suggestions or feedback for the module.

Thank you.. Keep Learning.. Keep Sitecoring.. 🙂