Drupal at CSE

Managing web content through Drupal is done entirely through a web browser. The main requirements are that you be authorized to use the system and are logged in. Once you have logged in, the most typical scenario is that you simply navigate to a page you wish to edit, and there you will see an Edit tab that will permit you to modify the page and save your work.

It is department policy that public-facing department information be managed by Drupal whenever possible. This ensures a uniform look and the application of the CSE brand to all official department information.

Logging In

Before using Drupal you must log in to the content management system using the "Log in" link at the bottom left of any page using your normal CSE credentials. Once logged in, you should see an administrative black menu bar across the top of all pages. Note the following:

  • After logging in, you are always directed to the front page of the web. While this can be annoying, you only need log in to the CMS about once per day.
  • All editing must be done over https. You can leverage this fact to open a page you are working on in a new tab using plain http to see how it looks to unauthenticated users.
  • If you do not see the black bar once logged in, something is wrong with your authorization to use the system. Contact support@cs for assistance.

Basic Page Editing

Once you are logged in, editing existing, regular pages is as easy as navigating to the page you wish to edit and availing yourself of the "Edit" tab you'll see Use that tab to access a web form where you can edit the body of the page.  Below the Body web control you will see a "Text format" control where you can choose to edit using raw HTML, filtered HTML, or a WYSIWYG widget.

Some pages are generated dynamically from other structured types of data.  These are not generally edited directly, although for many of these pages you will see small red [Edit] links next to an individual datum.   See the menu at left for further information about our structured content types.

Creating a Page

  1. Click "Content" on the administrative menu bar
  2. Click "Add content"
  3. Click "Basic page"
  4. Give your page a title (mandatory). This title will appear at the top of your page and will also appear in the title bar of a browser.
  5. Add your content in the Body space.  You can enter your content using a WYSIWYG editior, as full HTML, or using a simplified HTML.  You select which of these you prefer using the Text format drop-down just below the Body area.
  6. Optionally, you can assign you page to appear as a link in some menu.   Unless you know the exact name of the menu in which you wish to create a link, it's probably easier to edit the menu directly (see below).
  7. Optionally, Assign your page a URL alias in the URL path settings tab.  Keep the following tips in mind when choosing a URL:
    • This path reflects a hierarchy of information, not the structure of some underlying directory on a filesystem.   Use it to organize pages.
    • Do not include a leading slash
    • The path you select will affect which menus or blocks may appear on your page. Most menus are configured to appear on pages matching a specified pattern. For example, the undergraduate menu appears on all pages with a path like students/ugrad/*. Choose your path with this in mind.
    • You can include more than one element after your area's root string (e.g.  education/ugrad/apply or education/ugrad/academics/capstone)
    • Do not incude endings like .html for any pages you create in Drupal.
  8. Hit save.  You don't need to worry about the other tabs at this time.
  9. You should now see your page as it has been saved.  To make more changes, simply click the Edit tab at the top.  Note that you will only see the Edit tab when you are both logged in and visiting the site using HTTPS. 

Editing a Menu

If you wish to rearrange or delete any of the items in a menu, this is easily done.  If your left-hand menu is visible, you can hover over the upper-right corner of the menu until you see a small settings drop-down appear (you will see a gear icon).  Click it and select List links.   You can also choose Structure from the black admin menu, then choose Menus, and then select your menu.  Either way is equivalent.

From the list of links in your menu, you can drag links around to change the order.   Click edit in order to change the link's title, or even move that link from one menu to another.

Should you wish to add a menu link that goes to a site outside of the Drupal web (e.g. a page on the College of Engineering's web), click Add link and enter a full URL.

Styles

You can enter arbitrary HTML style information using the plain HTML text control.  We strongly recommend, however, that wherever possible you using plain, well-structured semantic mark-up.  This allows us to use a global style sheet for the entire web and maintain a uniform presentation.

No Edit Tab?

If you are visiting a page and do not see an Edit tab, it is likely that that page is being generated dynamically by listing selected pieces of structured content. Examples of this would be lists of people, scholarly publications, research projects, coruses, etc. See the menu at left for help in managing this type of content.

Last changed Wed, 2012-08-08 11:21