From Tuesday 16th December you will notice slight changes to your generic templates. When you edit a generic page you will see that we have included a section for related links and documents. This means that you can present your visitors with additional pages and documents you feel are relevant to the page.
There is nothing you need to do. If you have already used the existing user templates to create links to other Canterbury Christ Church University pages and documents, we will transfer these for you into the new format.
The Web Team has created a training manual to explain how to use this new facility, and this is available on the CMSAuthors share.
The reason why we have implemented this change is that we want to improve the way content is managed and connected on the web. By using this new feature it will be easier for you to manage links across your sites. Just by adding a link onto PAGE 1, pointing at PAGE 2 it will automatically create a return link on PAGE 2. It will also automatically remove links to pages and documents that have been deleted from the CMS.
We hope that you will find this new addition helpful and easy to use.
If you have any questions, or comments, please do not hesitate to contact the Web Team or leave a comment.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
RSS what?
You may or may not have heard the abbreviation RSS. I am going to try and explain to you in a non technical way what RSS is and how you can use it.
What does RSS stand for?
It stands for 'Really Simple Syndication' or 'Rich Site Summary' as some people/sites call it. I think the first is more meaningfull in the way that we use it on the University website.
What is it?
RSS is a format, which allows sites which have content that updates regularly to almost instantly notify RSS subscribers that new content has been added to the site. Most of the time the content will be something like news, vacancies, events, blog entries, flickr photos.
How do I know if a site has an RSS feed?
Most blogs will have a link, which says something like ‘Subscribe to ….’ or you will see an orange button like the one on this blog
. Internet Explorer 7 (see image below) and Firefox (and other browsers) will display a very similar orange button in one of their toolbars at the top the window.
How do I use RSS? (How do I subscribe to a RSS feed?)
Firstly, you will need a RSS reader. There are many different types of readers. Some are desktop applications and other web based applications.
Modern internet browsers like Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) and Firefox will both have their own readers built in.
Microsoft Outlook 2007 has a built-in RSS reader, which is very easy to use. Here is a simple tutorial on how to use Outlook 2007 as a RSS reader.
The two best web based RSS readers in my opinion and I use both is Google Reader and Netvibes. You will need to signup to those two sites to be able to use them, but that is a very simple process.
Next you will need to get a RSS feed from a site and tell your reader that you would like to subscribe to that specific feed. You can just copy the RSS url (e.g. http://cccuwebteam.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default or http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_uk_edition/technology/rss.xml) and paste it into your reader.
There are many different ways for subscribing to feeds and I am not going to explain them all in detail, but if you need some assistance please leave a comment below and I will get back to you.
Current and future use of RSS feeds on the University’s website
Currently the only University site that allows users to subscribe to content is the News site. We’ve got plans to make feeds available for events, staff vacancies and sales & wants in the near future. I will publish a message here on the blog when they become available and if you subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed you will be notified as soon as they are available.
Please leave a comment if you can think of any other possible uses.
Additional information
BBC’s explanation on what RSS news feeds is - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3223484.stm
Introduction to RSS - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA012304631033.aspx
What Is RSS? RSS Explained - http://www.whatisrss.com/
What does RSS stand for?
It stands for 'Really Simple Syndication' or 'Rich Site Summary' as some people/sites call it. I think the first is more meaningfull in the way that we use it on the University website.
What is it?
RSS is a format, which allows sites which have content that updates regularly to almost instantly notify RSS subscribers that new content has been added to the site. Most of the time the content will be something like news, vacancies, events, blog entries, flickr photos.
How do I know if a site has an RSS feed?
Most blogs will have a link, which says something like ‘Subscribe to ….’ or you will see an orange button like the one on this blog
. Internet Explorer 7 (see image below) and Firefox (and other browsers) will display a very similar orange button in one of their toolbars at the top the window.
How do I use RSS? (How do I subscribe to a RSS feed?)
Firstly, you will need a RSS reader. There are many different types of readers. Some are desktop applications and other web based applications.
Modern internet browsers like Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) and Firefox will both have their own readers built in.
Microsoft Outlook 2007 has a built-in RSS reader, which is very easy to use. Here is a simple tutorial on how to use Outlook 2007 as a RSS reader.
The two best web based RSS readers in my opinion and I use both is Google Reader and Netvibes. You will need to signup to those two sites to be able to use them, but that is a very simple process.
Next you will need to get a RSS feed from a site and tell your reader that you would like to subscribe to that specific feed. You can just copy the RSS url (e.g. http://cccuwebteam.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default or http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_uk_edition/technology/rss.xml) and paste it into your reader.
There are many different ways for subscribing to feeds and I am not going to explain them all in detail, but if you need some assistance please leave a comment below and I will get back to you.
Current and future use of RSS feeds on the University’s website
Currently the only University site that allows users to subscribe to content is the News site. We’ve got plans to make feeds available for events, staff vacancies and sales & wants in the near future. I will publish a message here on the blog when they become available and if you subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed you will be notified as soon as they are available.
Please leave a comment if you can think of any other possible uses.
Additional information
BBC’s explanation on what RSS news feeds is - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3223484.stm
Introduction to RSS - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA012304631033.aspx
What Is RSS? RSS Explained - http://www.whatisrss.com/
Monday, December 08, 2008
Now we're talking.
The Web Team blog is now available in audio. Just click on listen now or subscribe to our podcast!
If you want to find out how it's done, or have any questions, please leave a comment.
If you want to find out how it's done, or have any questions, please leave a comment.
Brilliant new image galleries for your webpages!
CIS and the Web Team have now completed the development and testing of a new, exciting Contensis CMS web control. The Image Gallery.
Although the control was out-of-the-box, meaning already built by Contensis for all its users, the Web Team have done substantial work on turning it into a CCCU branded image gallery that fits into the current look and feel of the web site.
The way it works, is that the web author creates the image gallery control on his/her chosen page and "points" it at a specific image folder. The control then looks at that folder and automatically creates thumbnails, which are smaller versions of the images. When you then click on the thumbnail, it displays a bigger version of the image.
Not only have the Web Team implemented this control, but they also provide you with a choice of two gallery types. The Advanced Gallery and the Simple Gallery. And you will be able to simply switch in between them with a few easy clicks in the CMS. This new template will be released to you before the Christmas break.
There is a user manual available upon request from the Web Team. Just leave a comment or email us at cis[dot]support[at]canterbury[dot]ac[dot]uk.
Although the control was out-of-the-box, meaning already built by Contensis for all its users, the Web Team have done substantial work on turning it into a CCCU branded image gallery that fits into the current look and feel of the web site.
The way it works, is that the web author creates the image gallery control on his/her chosen page and "points" it at a specific image folder. The control then looks at that folder and automatically creates thumbnails, which are smaller versions of the images. When you then click on the thumbnail, it displays a bigger version of the image.
Not only have the Web Team implemented this control, but they also provide you with a choice of two gallery types. The Advanced Gallery and the Simple Gallery. And you will be able to simply switch in between them with a few easy clicks in the CMS. This new template will be released to you before the Christmas break.
There is a user manual available upon request from the Web Team. Just leave a comment or email us at cis[dot]support[at]canterbury[dot]ac[dot]uk.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Personalise your search with SearchWiki
If you are a Google user, and let's face it, most of us are, and you have a Google Account, you will be able to take advantage of Google's newest invention, the SearchWiki which was released on 11th November.
SearchWiki is a cool new feature that lets you customise your Google search results. You can add, remove and rearrange your search results as well as comment on them. Every time you do a search when you are logged into your Google account, you'll see your customised search results.
So how does it work?
Let's say you search for a holiday home in Spain, and you get "Results 1 - 10 of about 726,000 for holiday home in spain. (0.31 seconds)". Well the next step is to browse your search results. Inevitably, you will stumble upon pages that through clever techniques have received top rankings in major search engines, but are pretty much useless, or so cluttered and unusable that you immediately press the browser back button to get back to your search results. So you do not have to come across these pages again, you can delete them from your search results.
Similarly, if you really like the web page and think that you might find it useful in any future searches, you can promote the search result to the top of the page. You may also leave a note on individual search results. Every time you are logged into Google using your Google account, you can refer back to those comments and promoted and deleted search results.
Remember, your alterations and comments are not visible to anyone else. Only you, when you are logged on, can see the alterations that you have made.
Why would I do it?
You do have to ask yourself, "what's the point". Normally people use Google to find pages that they have not come across before. It is very unlikely that I'd need to search for the same thing again and again. I'd normally save important pages in my Internet Explorer bookmarks or del.icio.us for that matter. And if I'm searching for something different, for example another product, I'd go back to web sites that have proven to focus on products and product searches such as Amazon, eBay and the like.
What is the purpose of showing how other people have voted on a search result and their comments after you have voted and commented? By setting it up this way, Google doesn’t bias your own decision, but does Google provide the information after you have voted simply as a point of interest? Or to get you to possibly reconsider your decision?
Web development questions.
The real question for us web developers is: "How does that affect my daily efforts to optimise the site for search engines?" How can we guarantee that your department pages, your courses, and the University still receive high ranking positions on Google? Well, it would only affect the user that has deleted the canterbury.ac.uk search results from their list. So, would this affect accidental hits to our site and therefore improve the bounce rate?
Google's SearchWiki must be an interim step towards something else. Something bigger. It is gathering your valuable information of your search preferences and behaviours. Google would not just waste these data.
Has Google found the answer to providing an intelligent way of searching?
SearchWiki is a cool new feature that lets you customise your Google search results. You can add, remove and rearrange your search results as well as comment on them. Every time you do a search when you are logged into your Google account, you'll see your customised search results.
So how does it work?
Let's say you search for a holiday home in Spain, and you get "Results 1 - 10 of about 726,000 for holiday home in spain. (0.31 seconds)". Well the next step is to browse your search results. Inevitably, you will stumble upon pages that through clever techniques have received top rankings in major search engines, but are pretty much useless, or so cluttered and unusable that you immediately press the browser back button to get back to your search results. So you do not have to come across these pages again, you can delete them from your search results.
Similarly, if you really like the web page and think that you might find it useful in any future searches, you can promote the search result to the top of the page. You may also leave a note on individual search results. Every time you are logged into Google using your Google account, you can refer back to those comments and promoted and deleted search results.
Remember, your alterations and comments are not visible to anyone else. Only you, when you are logged on, can see the alterations that you have made.
Why would I do it?
You do have to ask yourself, "what's the point". Normally people use Google to find pages that they have not come across before. It is very unlikely that I'd need to search for the same thing again and again. I'd normally save important pages in my Internet Explorer bookmarks or del.icio.us for that matter. And if I'm searching for something different, for example another product, I'd go back to web sites that have proven to focus on products and product searches such as Amazon, eBay and the like.
What is the purpose of showing how other people have voted on a search result and their comments after you have voted and commented? By setting it up this way, Google doesn’t bias your own decision, but does Google provide the information after you have voted simply as a point of interest? Or to get you to possibly reconsider your decision?
Web development questions.
The real question for us web developers is: "How does that affect my daily efforts to optimise the site for search engines?" How can we guarantee that your department pages, your courses, and the University still receive high ranking positions on Google? Well, it would only affect the user that has deleted the canterbury.ac.uk search results from their list. So, would this affect accidental hits to our site and therefore improve the bounce rate?
Google's SearchWiki must be an interim step towards something else. Something bigger. It is gathering your valuable information of your search preferences and behaviours. Google would not just waste these data.
Has Google found the answer to providing an intelligent way of searching?
Changes to CMS folder permissions
From Wednesday 3rd December we will be giving you access to view all CMS pages for the Canterbury website in your navigation tree. When you log on to the CMS you will see your navigation tree now contains more folders and files.
The reason we have done this is to help improve the way you create web links to other Canterbury web pages. It also means that those web links are less likely to get broken, as they will be managed by the CMS. The CMS will remove the link automatically if the page it links to is removed.
Currently if you want to link to a CMS web page on the Canterbury site, which is outside of your own website, then you need to create this as an external link. By giving you access to view all pages in the CMS you can now “Insert CMS WebPage” as a link.
You will not be able to edit these additional pages in any way, they are just visible so that you can link to them if you need to.
If you have any questions regarding this change, please let the web team know and we will answer them for you.
The reason we have done this is to help improve the way you create web links to other Canterbury web pages. It also means that those web links are less likely to get broken, as they will be managed by the CMS. The CMS will remove the link automatically if the page it links to is removed.
Currently if you want to link to a CMS web page on the Canterbury site, which is outside of your own website, then you need to create this as an external link. By giving you access to view all pages in the CMS you can now “Insert CMS WebPage” as a link.
You will not be able to edit these additional pages in any way, they are just visible so that you can link to them if you need to.
If you have any questions regarding this change, please let the web team know and we will answer them for you.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Microformats are coming to CCCU web
The WebTeam are currently working on including simple Microformats into key areas of the CCCU corporate web. These areas include the CCCU Home page, the Contact Us page, and the Events page in the first phase. Expansion onto faculty and department news and contact pages will be the second phase.
Micro-what?
Microformats are a way of adding simple markup to human-readable data items such as events, contact details or locations, on web pages, so that the information in them can be extracted by software and indexed, searched for, saved, cross-referenced or combined.
More technically, they are items of semantic markup, using just standard "plain old semantic (X)HTML" (i.e. "POSH") with a set of common class-names and "rel" values. They are open and available, freely, for anyone to use.
How can I see them?
There are several different Microformat readers available for different browsers. First of all, let's cover Internet Explorer 7. IE7 has currently one available extension called Oomph. This Add-on detects and processes microformats in web pages.
In the above example the "tagged" content is displayed in the list view over the page displaying events and contact details. Both of these can be exported directly into your Outlook, Google, Windows Life, Yahoo and/or Apple Mac calendar.
Below, the "tagged" location content is displayed on a map.
There are other solutions for Firefox and Safari including tools like TailsExport and Operator. These again convert the "tagged" content into structured information with the ability to export to various programmes including Outlook.
If you have any questions regarding Microformats or the WebTeam's implementation of these please leave a comment and we'll respond.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Is this the future ... hmm ... not quite
A small article in the most recent .NET magazine grabbed my attention and after reading the first paragraph and seeing the images on screen, I immediately came to the conclusion that an amazing technological future is upon us.
"The reason was the Sekai Camera, an iPhone application that takes the view from the phone's camera and augments it with data overlays including user-generated content. Could this be the future of social apps?" (.NET Magazine December 2008, page 52)
So, my first thought was, this application connects to the video of the iPhone, and recognises the shapes of buildings, and along with geolocation GPS gives you the right content. This would be a killer application, especially if it was to connect to existing XML datasources to provide the content that you see on the screen.
However, it is much simpler than that. It only uses the geolocation. Where you are and in which direction you point the iPhone draws the appropriate data from a demo database.
Although, still an amazing piece of social app for your iPhone it is somewhat misleading in lending too much emphasis on the video aspect of the application.
But nevertheless a step in the right direction!
Monday, November 03, 2008
Development of StudentNET Portal in full swing
The development of the new StudentNET portal is now truly under way. CIS has completed a collection of comprehensive specification documents and along with the help of external developers has set its sights for a rapid creation of a first prototype to be released within the next 3 months.
At the same time the web team's graphic designer is pushing forward original design ideas to enrich the students' experience of the new StudentNET portal.
Although still over 8 month off from completion, the StudentNET portal is taking shape as a well founded concept and is supported by state of the art web 2.0 technologies. The StudentNET framework within which students will be able to create their own homepages, is based on DropThings.com, a web 2.0 portal product that has revolutionised the way users view and collect information on the web. Students will have the opportunity to view their modules, timetable, external RSS feeds and much much more, all on one page hosted by the University.
Thoughts on developing access to facebook and external mail clients such as GoogleMail, HotMail and the like are also under way to try and enhance the students' online experience at CCCU.
All these cool services will be underpinned by online content tailored to each student. This means that students see what they want to see online as well as what they need to see to support their studies and life at CCCU.
There will be many more news about features and services, and ideas coming from this in the next few months, so watch this space!
Although still over 8 month off from completion, the StudentNET portal is taking shape as a well founded concept and is supported by state of the art web 2.0 technologies. The StudentNET framework within which students will be able to create their own homepages, is based on DropThings.com, a web 2.0 portal product that has revolutionised the way users view and collect information on the web. Students will have the opportunity to view their modules, timetable, external RSS feeds and much much more, all on one page hosted by the University.
Thoughts on developing access to facebook and external mail clients such as GoogleMail, HotMail and the like are also under way to try and enhance the students' online experience at CCCU.
All these cool services will be underpinned by online content tailored to each student. This means that students see what they want to see online as well as what they need to see to support their studies and life at CCCU.
There will be many more news about features and services, and ideas coming from this in the next few months, so watch this space!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
New CMS templates available!
We've created new templates for your sites!
You may now use a full width template, which means the page without the right-hand column to display wide tables. This new templates is called Generic - NoImageFullWidth
There is also a new flash template, Generic - Flash, which allows you to drag and drop flash media onto the page. Due to a few small "quirks" within the CMS, you might need to resize the file once it is on the page. We will be distributing some quick instructions soon. Watch this space!
And last, but certainly not least, we developed a new user template that can be dropped into the right - hand column of the generic pages. This user template, which is called AssociatedLogos and can be found within the SiteElements/userTemplates/ImageTemplate folder in the CMS folder tree. As the name suggests, this templates is to be used when you have partner logos that you would like to display on the page. You may add logo images and include a caption underneath it.
We hope you find these new templates useful! ENJOY!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)