Previously we have noticed some issues with editing pages in the CMS in Internet Explorer.
Link colour and underlining
One is that if you copy and paste links from Internet explorer and paste them into the CMS editor in Internet explorer, it brings in unwanted underline and font tags, and mucks up the existing styles which are set in the CSS.
e.g. <a href=”/path/to/example.html”><u><font color=”#0000ff”>
The only way to avoid this is to use “paste as plain text” and then add the links back in manually.
Security settings
The other issue is that every time you load a page, you get a warning saying that it contains both secure and non-secure items. If you follow the tutorial at Planet Surf, you can get rid of these messages. But you need to permit mixed content on the intranet instead of the internet.
- Open Internet Explorer, go to Tools, Internet Options, click on the Security tab
- By default Internet is selected in the Select a zone window; change it to Local intranet
- Click on the Custom Level button
- A new window will pop-up and you’ll have to scroll through those options (probably around the middle of the window) and hunt for an option called “Display mixed content” in the Miscellaneous section
- By default Prompt is selected, so change it from Prompt to Enable and click OK
- Restart Internet Explorer to ensure the settings have taken effect.
Posted in: CMS
Our first CMS site was published at least 2 years ago. Since then, academic sites plus a few others have been moved to the CMS, so it’s a good time to look at how the CMS is working for us. The University is investing in the web site so the CMS will be important in helping us to achieve our aims.
We got together for an hour to brainstorm under 5 main headings:
- What problems do non-technical users have?
- What’s good about the CMS?
- What do I want in a CMS?
- What’s bad about the CMS?
- What benefits have maintainers seen (in our opinion)?
Nine of us came up with 116 items, so we’ve got quite a lot to digest. Happily they were quite well distributed. The key will be making sure that we identify and prioritise items that will have the biggest impact for everyone using the CMS. Making these changes will be important for both Web Services Content Editors and Faculty Editors.
It’s clear that the WYSIWYG editor is a big issue for us and others creating content and almost everyone wants to edit in HTML. The interface isn’t very intuitive; it can take quite some time for new editors to get used to the way it works. On the positive side, it’s easy for us to make changes to the central template so that everyone will get updates immediately. We can also create macros that allow people to easily include complex content (videos and staff profiles).
One of the benefits of using a CMS has been to reduce the number of copies and versions of Dreamweaver across the University. As a result we’ve improved our support to site editors and can resolve problems much more quickly.
We would like to hear about your experience of using the University CMS. What changes do you think we should make?
Posted in: CMS, team, tools
We received an enquiry about the
BUCS website, which I initially built a few years ago. I planned the information architecture based on a
card-sorting exercise where users identified where they would look for specific topics.
I put each page title from the old site on a card and invited the card-sorters to organise them into categories. I allowed them to decide the categories (so it was an open card-sort).
We are using the OpenCms content management system. This allows good workflow; permissions are fine-grained, and allow some users to contribute content and others to review and publish it.
The initial re-draft of the BUCS site was done by two students; one was studying for an MSc in Science, Culture and Communication, the other for an MSc in Human-Computer Interaction. Then we handed it over to a team of five editors, who had publishing permissions, and the rest of the department were able to contribute content but not publish. Subsequently the department recruited an overall content editor who manages the site, and she has also done a lot of work on the information architecture in consultation with users and department members.
I used the strict hierarchy model from this tutorial on information architecture models as being the most compatible with the design of the template which someone else had already come up with.
From subsequent user testing and feedback, it became apparent that people ignored the horizontal menu and just looked at the left-hand menu. This is why we have opted for just having a left-hand menu in our new design. But it is still a strict hierarchy IA model.
New study website
New research website
Posted in: CMS, design
We are now offering additional courses in using the CMS.
Level 1
| Topic |
Audience |
Dates |
Times |
| Introduction to OpenCms |
All CMS users |
16 March 2009 |
2.30pm – 4.30pm |
| 1 May 2009 |
10.30am – 12.30pm |
Level 2
To book on these courses, please email it-training@bath.ac.uk
Posted in: CMS
With most of Web Services unable to get in to the University because of the snow, work still continued as normal yesterday, thanks to all the various networking and web tools available.
We used Trac to manage our projects, Instant Messenger for meetings, our wiki for report-writing, RT for answering support enquiries, remote desktopping to access our PCs, and VPN to access the CMS.
If you’re working from home today, you can also use VPN to access the CMS – just follow the instructions on the BUCS website and log in to the CMS as usual.
Most of us are working at home again today.
Posted in: CMS
December19
By: Alison Kerwin
As colleagues are packing up and leaving to start the Christmas break I thought I would reflect on my first year with Web Services at Bath…
In many ways 2008 feels like the year we got our house in order. Two teams merged, one new head, continuing cycle of maintenance and support but plenty of new initiatives and plans.
We’ve evaluated how we work together, looked at what we can do better, where we have gaps and where we do really well.
Next year will be huge for us as we embark on the development of a new external website for the University. Plans are already underway and we’re looking at significant changes with plenty of new initiatives coming to fruition. Alongside this we’ll be working in a different way – using agile development methodologies to ‘release early and often’ – we have ambitious plans in store.
For now though I wanted to focus on 2008, to look at our achievements and reflect on our highs (and lows):
The highs
- Development of an e-Prospectus; due for launch in January 09 – connecting with our Student Record System and allowing data to be output to create the print prospectus providing a much richer experience for the end user but also improve business processes for the University
- Moved the majority of our Academic sites into the CMS
- Brought in a new Web Designer – good to have you on board Liam!
- Get Creative – it was fun, it brought the team together and it introduced us to FIKA
- Put together (and had accepted) proposals for a new external website
- Delivered Web Sessions to the University community
- Moved from dSpace repository to ePrints (with the Library)
- (Soft) launched a blogging platform
- Developed a tinyurl and QR code generating service (with e-Learning)
The lows
- Sadly one of our colleagues retired in April. Jacki played a key role in the website for many years and it is regrettable she is no longer in the team
- As a new team we still have some way to go to establish ourselves and our position within the University. We believe the development of the new site will help us strengthen our profile
- Maintenance and support of the current site has prevented us from moving on as quickly as we’d have hoped but we have new arrangements in place for 2009 to allievate this
From a personal perspective it has been a challenging yet rewarding year. I have great admiration for the team and am confident we can meet and exceed our own expectations in 2009.
To all readers of this blog, best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Posted in: CMS, communication, development, team, tools, web sessions
