Website Basic Training

The following documentation will be used during your basic training session and is here for reference only. To book a training session, please email the Webteam.

» Webhelp

Website training resources http://webhelp.tyndale.ca

» Website Overview

A quick look through the structure of the Tyndale website looking at editable regions, menus and URL patterns.

» Understanding Content Types

The Tyndale website contains many types of content, such as basic pages, courses, events, persons, programs, webforms etc. Each one of these content types have been described inside of Drupal and will allow you to insert the pieces required for that specific type of content.

Some content types are designed to store specific information (ex. courses, events, persons) while others are designed to provide specific functionality with some flexibility in the content (ex. basic page, webform, audio page.)

» See Understanding Content Types Documentation

» Understanding URLs

URL = Universal Resource Locator

https://www.tyndale.ca/about/location

  • Creating URL – no proceeding slash (/) (ex. about/location)
  • Linking to an Internal URL – start with slash (/) (ex. /about/location)
Note: Some content types will auto-create URLs for you based on template and content type (ex. events [events/[title]], person [person/[first-name]-[last-name]])

» See Naming URLs Documentation

» Understanding Menus

Menu Types:

  • Main Segment Navigation (same across the each specific segment (general, university, seminary))
  • Local Navigation (local to the context of the content)

Parent/Child Menu Item Placement
<Menu Title>
– Menu Item Title
— Child Menu Item Title

Menu Weights Position/order on the menu

The lower the number, the higher on the menu. The higher the number, the lower on the menu. Lower number have less weight and float to the top of the menu higher numbers have more weight and sink to the bottom of the menu.

Note: The Webteam can visually reorder your menu for you if you are having difficulty getting items into the right position.

» See How to create a menu link Documentation

» Understanding Roles & Permissions

Roles: Groups of users with specific privileges on the website. All Tyndale staff website editors may will the role of Editor. Additional Roles may be assigned as required (ex. Alumni Manager, HR Manager, IT Staff, Syllabi Manager.)

Permissions: Each Role is given specific permissions to accomplish tasks on the website. Roles may also be stacked to add extra permissions. For example, a user with the roles of Editor + Alumni Manager has all the privileges of and editor and can also create content for the Alumni section of the website (Alumni Newsletter, Alumni Updates)

Permissions to Edit Existing Content

General roles and permissions grant you the right to create new content and edit the content that you have created. Editing content that you did not create requires additional permissions.

On department specific content types such as Alumni Newsletter or Library eResources, additional roles will be granted to those responsible to manage this content.

General content types such as Basic Page, Events or Webform use an additional access control mechanism called Site Sections. When this type of content is created, you will add the content into a Site Section. The Site Sections you have available to you is based on your editing responsibilities or department and are added to your user account at creation. Any other user who also has access to that Site Section will be able to edit content posted in that Site Section.

» See Roles and Site Sections documentation

» Understanding Workflow

For content to be published live onto the Tyndale website it must go through a basic technical review. This is managed by a process called Workflow.

New content can be created on the Tyndale website at anytime. New content is automatically set to “Draft” when created. This is the first state in the content Workflow. When your content is in the Draft state you will be able to view your content and edit it as much as you like.

When you are happy with your content you can move it to the next workflow state » “Ready for Review.” At this point a member of the Webteam will review the content for technical accuracy ensuring it is in the right menu and that it follows the correct URL patterns. Other technical issues such as using appropriately sized images etc. will also be reviewed.

Once your content has been reviewed, the Webteam will move the content into the Workflow state of “Published.” At this point your content will be available to be viewed publicly on the website and the menu item (if applicable) will appear on the selected local navigation menu.

Once items are live you will be able to edit them without going through the workflow states.

» See Workflow Documentation, Technical Audit Documentation and Technical Audit Checklist

» Understanding Revisions

When you edit a piece of content that is already published, your edits will go live right away — there is no additional workflow steps to take. This can be quite intimidating, but there is a safety net in place, it’s called Revisions.

Each time you save your content, a new revision (or version) of your page is created. You can view the older revisions by clicking on the “Revisions” button which will appear along side the “View”, “Edit” and “Workflow” buttons after you make your first edit to your content.

You can also revert your content back to an older version if you didn’t like the changes you made or find yourself in a bit of a mess.

TIP: another great way to work on complicated pages is to create a new page and then copy/paste the content from your current page into the new one. You can work on the changes you want to make in draft mode on the new page, and when you are happy with it, copy/paste the new page content into your currently published page.

» See Content Revisions Documentation

» Understanding Caching

The Tyndale website is build on a robust content management System (Drupal) that generates your webpage for you based on the content you entered into the form. While this is quite magical, it can take a long time to generate your page each time a visitor wants to see it. To solve this problem we have implemented caching.

Caching generates your content on a regular basis and stores (caches) the created pages for a set period of time, usually about 6 hours. The cached version of the content is the delivered to the visitor rather than generating a new version each time. This drastically speeds up the website.

When you edit your live page, visitors may not see the new version until after the cache has been cleared. If you need the changes to go live immediately, please contact the Webteam by phone and we can manually clear the cache for you.

» See Understanding Caching Documentation | Caching Explained (image)

» Some Comments on Website Accessibility

Millions of people have disabilities that affect their use of the web. Most websites, including Tyndale’s, have accessibility barriers that make it difficult for many people with disabilities to use them. Please review the blog post that will discuss what website accessibility is, why it matters and what we need to do to make tyndale.ca more accessible.

» See Website Accessibility Documentation

» Hands on…