Creator: Doc team

Audience: Course teams, Open edX community

Purpose: Communicate upcoming features to people who will be using them

Published: Partner and Open edX portals

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Two versions of the product update are published each month.

• Partner: Published on the Partner Portal.
• Open edX: Published on the Open edX Portal.

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The e-mail has the following subject line.

Please respond by <time> <day>, <date>: <month> product update content

The product team has the final say on which features the product update covers. 

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When a draft is ready, the author sends the following message to the Product Org <product-org@edx.org> and Product Advocates <product-advocates@edx.org> distribution lists.

Subject line: Please respond by <time> <day>, <date>: <month> product update

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1. On the partner (not Open edX) portal, open the previous month's product update.
2. Between the title and the first line of text, select Clone content.
3. In the Title field, replace Clone of <former month> <year> Product Update with <current month> <year> Product Update.
4. Scroll to Domain Access Options.
5. Under Publish to, select edX Partner Portal. (Do not select Open edX Portal | Open Source MOOC Platform.)
6. Scroll to the panel at the bottom that has Revision information, URL path settings, and other tabs.
7. On the Publishing Options tab, select Draft.
8. Select Save.
9. Make a note of the URL. Otherwise, you might not be able to find the draft update again.*

      *Note: The product update URL almost always follows this pattern.

https://partners.edx.org/announcements/june-2018-product-update

The URL is the same whether the update is in draft or published form. However, if for any reason the URL does not conform to this pattern, you'll need to have the URL that you made a note of in step 9 to find your draft. You cannot search for the update on the portal until the update is published. 

Transferring the Text to the Portal

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• Make sure every image has a 2-pixel wide, dark gray (Hex #414141 or RGB 65, 65, 65) border.
• Make sure the image files are no wider than 500 px. Even if you set a larger image file to be 500 px wide in the portal, the image will be the original size in the e-mail email version (which is what most people see).
  • To resize images, if possible use Photoshop, not SnagIt. Images become blurry when you resize them using SnagIt.
  • When you resize an image in Photoshop, in the Image Size dialog box, make sure that Resample is set to Bicubic Sharper (reduction).
• You can't see images in context in edit mode. You have to select Save at the bottom of the screen to view the image in context.

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1. Place the cursor where you want to add the image. This is usually immediately to the right of the last character of a heading.
2. In the toolbar, select the image icon.
3. In the Image Properties dialog box, select Browse Server.
4. In the (gigantic) screen that appears, select Upload in the menu bar, and then select Choose File.
5. In the dialog box that opens, locate and select the file on your computer, and then select Open.
6. Select Upload.
7. When the image has uploaded, it is automatically selected in the list of files. In the menu bar, select Insert File.
8. Specify settings for the image.
   1. Enter alt text for the image.
   2. In the HSpace field, enter 10.
   3. For the Alignment option, select Right.
   4. In the VSpace field, enter 10 if images are touching in the previewed output. 
9. In the Image Properties dialog box, select OK.
10. Select Save to close the editor and view the image in context.

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1. On the Partner Portal, go to the URL for the product update that you've been working on, and then select Clone content.
2. In the Title field, replace Clone of <month> <year> Product Update with <month> <year> Open edX Product Update (note the "Open edX" in the title).
3. Scroll to Domain Access Options.
4. Under Publish to, select Open edX Portal | Open Source MOOC Platform.
5. Scroll to the panel at the bottom that has Revision information, URL path settings, and other tabs.
6. On the Publishing Options tab, select Draft.
7. Select Save.
8. Make a note of the URL. The URL at this stage conforms to the following pattern.
   https://partners.edx.org/announcements/june-2018-open-edx-product-update (note that it is on the partner portal, but has "open-edx" in the URL)
   
9. Go to the two URLs that you noted to open the drafts of both updates, and then select Edit. For example, for June 2018, you would go to both the following URLs.
   https://partners.edx.org/announcements/june-2018-product-update
   https://partners.edx.org/announcements/june-2018-open-edx-product-update
   
10. In the update for the partner portal (which does not have "Open edX" in the title or URL), delete all Open edX-only information.
    1. If any, ensure that you delete the (Partner only) placeholder text in h3 headings.
    2. If any, ensure that you delete the (Open edX only) placeholder text in h3 headings.
11. In the update for the partner portal, select all applicable options in the Audience and edX Product Area lists, and then select Save.
12. Repeat steps 10 and 11 for the Open edX product update.

Publishing the Product Updates

1. Open the drafts of both updates. 
2. Select Edit.
3. Scroll to the panel at the bottom that has Revision information, URL path settings, and other tabs.
4. On the Publishing options tab, clear the Draft option, and then select the following options.
   • Published
   • Promoted to front page
   • Send subscriptions notifications
5. (optional) To change the author or date of the announcement (for example, if you create a draft on the portal on April 28 but you want the publish date to be May 1), select the Author Information tab in the panel at the bottom of the page, and then make any changes you want.
6. Select Save.
7. View the product updates to make sure they appear as you want.
   Note When you select Save to publish the Open edX product update, the OE update becomes available on the Open edX portal. The URL that you used to edit the draft, which is a partners.edx.org URL, no longer works. To view the Open edX product update, go to open.edx.org, select Announcements, and look for the update that you just published.

Notifying Ed Services

After you publish both versions of the product update, send the following e-mail to Ed Services, changing the month and year as necessary.

To: Partner Management <partner-management@edx.org>,
ES Project Coordinators <es-service-coordinators@edx.org>

Subject: The April 2018 product update is live

Body:

Hi PMs and PCs,

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