Author Archive for Matthew Levy

CMS Migration

For anyone interested in the CMS migration timeline from the EduWeb 2008 presentation “50 Web Sites in Six Months”, this is it. Of course, there were more minor milestones, but this will give you a general idea of the  process.

CMS Migration

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Update Faculty/Staff Web Bios

With the end of the school year, please take a few minutes to look over your bio page on your department’s Web site and ensure that it is up-to-date. You can include most anything that is currently on your CV or resume, as well as links to your blog or personal Web site.

To make a change or addition, simply send me changes via email. If you have substantial changes, feel free to send a Word document. The Dean’s office will make the changes over the summer.

A few good examples are at:
http://prelaw.richmond.edu/faculty/McGarvie_Mark.html
http://chemistry.richmond.edu/faculty/Downey_Wade.html

If you have questions about what can go on your bio, please see the faculty/staff bio page.

Upgrade to curriculum pages

I hope most of you have had a chance to check out the new undergraduate catalog web site (http://undergraduatecatalog.richmond.edu). Thanks to the hard work of Web Services, the Registrar’s office and Marketing/Communications we have the beginnings of a fully-searchable online catalog that also feeds our print version. This means that we are on the verge of having consistent information across all of our curriculum sources.

The next step in this process is an upgrade to the A&S sites to fully capitalize on the catalog infrastructure. Over the next week or two, Rachel and I along with our counterparts in Web Services will be upgrading all pages on the A&S sites that utilize catalog information. For most departments/programs this is simply the major/minor page. Some departments have other pages, such as honors programs or concentrations, that will also be upgraded to utilize catalog information.

The good news about this upgrade is that we can not only feed the catalog copy into the department sites, we can also add other information as needed to meet the specific needs of the department/program. For example, if you need an additional paragraph about your honors program that isn’t in the catalog, we can easily add that to your site and not the catalog.

This process will involve us reconciling the current copy on the A&S sites with the information in the catalog. We have already made strides to coordinate changes between the catalog and the department sites since the site launch in December, so we are hopeful that we can move through this process quickly. We are going on the assumption that the catalog information is the most up-to-date source of curricular information available for your program as it has been vetted by the Registrar’s office. In the event of any conflict between requirements, we will use the catalog information. Please review your department’s information in the catalog site (http://undergraduatecatalog.richmond.edu) to ensure that it is accurate. If a problem arises, please let me and Kristen Ball know. Be assured that we will have backup copies of every page that receives an upgrade, so if anything is lost in the process, we can easily retrieve it.

In order to perform this upgrade smoothly, please refrain from editing any file in your site’s “program” folder until the upgrade is complete. If a special circumstance arises where a file needs an edit before the upgrade is complete, please contact me via email.

Training Schedule

Web Services has announced that they have resolved the workflow problem and will begin scheduling training sessions. Initial sessions will be held March 18 - 27. Kenyada Jones will contact you with your meeting time. It is important that as many contributors as possible attend their scheduled session so that we can efficiently train our 60+ content contributors.

As always, thanks for your help and patience with the web project.