As most people who have created web pages know, web pages can be confusing to create as what you are trying to say gets confused with the presentation as the html commands are intersperced with the content.

With a Content Management System (CMS), the content is separated from the presentation so that people writing the content don't have to worry about html and allows the look and feel of a website to be changed with minimal difficulty. Modern CMS implementations add additional features such as page expiry and approval processes to ensure that the content does not get out of date and does not appear on the web until it has been checked by an appropriate person.

If you have received an email telling you that a page is about to expire then you should be able to use the link included in that email. Otherwise the steps that you have to follow are as follows. Go to https://cms4.comms.unsw.edu.au and log in as an "author". To do this you use s followed by your staff number and your unipass. If you need a new unipass, you can obtain one by going to e-spot or level 2 of the library.

Once you have logged in you will see several directories. The one that is of most interest (i.e. the only one you will be really using) is the "htdocs" directory. This is where you navigate to the page you wish to change and also where images and other files are uploaded. In this directory you will see what is essentially a full copy of our web site. The only difference is that the pages may not yet have been approved.

If you know the location of the page that you want to edit, then you can navigate to that directory and then click the word edit located on the right hand side of the page.

An easier way of navigating around the files is to click on the school home page, that is the file homepage.html in the htdocs directory. This will then open this page up with the addition of a small control window which hovers over the page. To edit a page, simply navigate through the pages until you reach the one that you want and then click edit in the control window.

You can also bookmark directories by clicking the box next to a directory and clicking on the "Add to Favourites" icon at the top. The list of favourites can then be access by clicking on "Browse" then "Favourites".

Once you have opened the DCR, you should be aware of the following. The page begins with a page heading that is taken from the navigation and you then have the option of adding a section heading. The section heading can be left blank without concern. If you wish to change the page title (as they are initially the same as the navigation entry) you should contact the webmaster.

Another thing to note is that unlike in LaTeX and "normal" html, spacing and hard returns make a difference when you are editing a DCR.

 

To import an image, go into the htdocs directory then change into the user directory. Now if you click on file then upload you will be able to upload an image to the server and it is available to use. This image is available for use in a document immediately and will be copied to the webserver when the document containing it has been approved.

Similarly if you have a non-html file (for example a PDF document) it can be uploaded in the same way and it will be copied to the webserver when the document that links to it is approved.

To save a file that you are editing you should click on the save button at the top of the page. When you are happy with the changes that you have made to the DCR (or you want to stop), you click on the close button (you can combine these two operations by just using the "Save & Close" button if you want). At this stage you may be asked if you want to regenerate the page. If you are, you must select cancel.

You will then be asked if you want to send the page for approval. If you are happy with the page in its' current form and want it to become live, you should select ok, otherwise you can select cancel and come back to it later.

When you click on cancel a new window appears asking you what sort of job you wish to start, either News or Content. You should select Content (unless you are working with a news item) and click on "Start a Submit Job". This in turn brings up a new window with several items that need to be filled in.

You can also send a collection of (previously edited) pages for approval at the same time by checking the boxes next to them and then clicking the submit button.

Firstly there is the "Job Description" You should type in "MATHS (Your Name)" and then a short description of the changes that you have made and the page(s) that you are submitting. The prefix is so that we can easily identify our jobs and who created them when looking at all of the jobs on the system. The description then provides the initial information about the job to the person that you want to approve your content. This information is also used to create a record of the reason behind any changes that have been made to the page. Thus descriptions of the type "Please approve this page" or "Updated page" should be avoided.

Secondly, you are asked to select someone to approve the content. Do not select "Maths Site Approver" as it will not be approved. The next line allows you to select how long you will give the approver to approve the content. The reason behind this is that once you have sent a file for approval, you have no control over it until it is approved, rejected or the time expires and ownership is given back to you. If the content is not approved within the timeframe you set you will receive and email saying that the task has timed out. Then by clicking on the “Tasks” tab at the top of the page you can cancel the job or assign it to someone new.

Finally, you are asked when you would like the content to expire and how long before content expiry you wish to be emailed with a reminder. This email will go to your university email address.

The detail of creating a News or Event item will be added later.

When you submit a page (or a group of pages) for approval things can go wrong if the files are locked for some reason. This can happen if someone else has started to edit a file and then left it or if a page has previously been sent for approval but not yet been approved.

If there is a problem you will be sent an email explaining what the problem is and you will have to figure that out. As an initial measure, if you forward any such errors to the helpdesk someone will look at them for you.

If you receive an email telling you that you have a page requiring approval, then you need to log on to the CMS.

After you have logged on click on the "Tasks" tab at the top of the page. On this page is listed all tasks that have been assigned. Most of the jobs that you will see will be "QA Review". This simply means that there is a page that has been submitted for approval.

You can select which task you want to work on by clicking on the task description.

The bottom pane of the window should now be on "Task Files". You can select "Task Details" and "Task Comments" to find out the history of the document and the comments by the person who has changed the page.

If you want to look at the page, you can click on the html file whilst the "Task Files" tab is selected. Probably of most use however is the "List Changes" button which opens a new window where you can compare the new and the old web page and have any changes highlighted for you.

When you are happy (or unhappy) with the changes, you go back to the upper pane and click on Finish.
This will open a new window and you will be asked to accept or reject the changes and prompted for a comment. As for the comments when you initiate a task, you should make an informative comment and include your name.

As soon as you approve a change the process of copying the files to the webserver starts. In most cases this will be almost instantaneous however it may take longer if there are a large number of files.