Content sources

A content source is a connection to an outside service — Facebook, a calendar, Google Drive or Office 365, an RSS feed, or ParentSquare — that brings news, events, images, or files onto your site. You maintain the content in the original service; SchoolBlocks keeps the site up to date.

How content sources work

You connect a source once. Each record it brings in — an event, a news post, an image, a file — appears and updates on its own. You don't add or edit those items in SchoolBlocks; they reflect what's in the original service. (The exception is content you write on the site, such as a news post, which lives in SchoolBlocks itself.)

Adding a source

On a Terraced or SchoolFeed page, open the + button on the lower-left admin menu, then choose Manage Content Sources. On the Calendar page, click the gear icon (Manage Calendars) instead. Under Add New Source, the icons are, left to right:

Facebook
Calendar — Google Calendar and other .ics calendar feeds
RSS
Google Drive — always available
Office 365 — appears additionally if your district signs in with Office 365
ParentSquare

Each opens an Add New form (for example Add New Calendar Feed or Add New Google Drive Source): paste the source address (Google Drive also offers a File/Folder Picker; calendars add a Color), choose the language it's tagged as, set the Content Targets, and click Go. On a Terraced page, also turn on the matching terrace from the Terrace Menu.

Each service has its own requirements — see the article for the source you're adding:

The content source panel

Opening a source shows when it last updated, how many content items it holds, and a See where they appear link. From the panel you can:

Content Targets — set where the content shows (Primary Location plus Add Secondary Pages). See Sharing content to other pages.
Color — used by calendars on the Calendar page.
Copy Source URL — copy the address the source reads from.
Refresh Feed — pull the latest content now.
Delete — remove the source.

A source with a problem shows a warning triangle in the feed list and a red "Oops, there was an error!" notice with View full error when opened.

Displaying content on a page

The + menu also adds content types directly: News (or Topic, if SchoolFeed discussions are enabled), Message/Post, Image, File or Folder, Calendar, or Event. The content type sets how items display; the source sets where they come from. On Terraced pages, the equivalent surfaces are turned on from the Terrace Menu (Hero Banner, Statement, Spotlight, Shortcuts, News, About, Events, Accordion, Gallery, Files & Folders, Links, Staff, HTML, Map, Spirit Gear).

How often content updates

Each source refreshes about once an hour on its own clock — roughly an hour after it's added, then hourly — rather than all at once. Google Drive updates in near real time. Use Refresh Feed to apply a change immediately.

FAQ

A source shows an error. The message reports what the outside service returned; most file errors are sharing-permission problems. Confirm the file, folder, or calendar is shared or public, then refresh.
Content isn't updating. Changes appear on the next hourly refresh, or use Refresh Feed.
Content I removed at the source still shows. Items removed in the original service drop off on the next refresh.
What's the difference between a source and an item? A source is the connection (one Facebook page, one folder); an item is a single record it brings in (one post, one file).

Last updated: May 2026.