Content Management System

Parts of the template are configurable by the site maintainers using specially-named or formed content elements. These special content elements will be retrieved from a Storage page in the root of the Web site.

Do not delete the Storage page from your site. Doing so will break those template parts immediately (when the delete is published) and re-creating a new page called Storage will not repair the template. If this occurs, you should submit a help request to have the site template re-created.

Only footer content elements will be inserted in the Storage page by default. Additional content elements may be added to alter the template, as detailed below.

The order of elements within this page is not significant, but changing the header field of these elements from the specified labels (such as FOOTER1) will render that content element unavailable from the template. Changing the name back to the correct header will correct the problem. Likewise, if you delete the content element, you can re-create it with the same header label.

The graphic at right shows the Storage folder of the www.ndsu.edu/cms site. Note that there is an added TOPNAV content element, which contains a list of links to use as the top navigation for the site.

Depending on the site/template, the behavior or appearance of modifications to these content elements may vary. Note that in most cases, only www.ndsu.edu behavior is explicitly noted here, though it may apply to other sites as well.

To update the footer content of a site,

1. Locate the storage folder in the page tree (a page called Storage)
2. Locate the content elements named FOOTER1 and FOOTER2 (for the left and right footers, respectively)
3. Edit and save the content elements as desired
4. Publish contents or send to review
5. Once published, Clear branch cache
6. Verify the changes are visible on the site by reloading the page in your browser

Note that, per University Relations guidelines, footers must contain:
1. Site manager: (link to contact/page)
2. Published by (department/unit name)

3. Department/unit name
4. Phone/Fax: (701) 231-xxxx
5. Physical location
6. Mailing address

Last updated time will be automatically inserted at the beginning of the left footer.

Please limit each footer to 4-5 lines.

To update top navigation links if a site is configured with custom navigation (includes all www.ndsu.edu sites)

1. Locate the storage folder in the page tree (a page called Storage)
2. Locate the content element named TOPNAV. If one does not exist, create a new content element with header TOPNAV
3. Create an unordered list (a.k.a. bullet list) containing one link per list item, or update the links as appropriate (see format note, below)
   
   1. Note that link styles, such as internal-link vs. external-link, will not appear in the template
4. Preview the site to verify changes are as expected
5. Publish or send to review as normal
6. Once published Clear Branch Cache
7. Verify the changes are visible on the site by reloading the site in your browser

To revert to the default navigation, hide or delete the TOPNAV content element in the Storage folder.

TOPNAV format

The formatting of the link list is significant to its display in the site. Examples of what can go wrong include

Inserting list of links not in an unordered (bullet) list

Inserting list of links on one line separated by colons