Web Services Blog

Default Theme Color Updates

We previously did not have some default color theming set on particular widgets, modules, and buttons. The default color if no color is selected should now be Diploma. Please let us know if anything different is discovered.

Major Template Update on College Landing Pages

After much discussion and feedback, we will be removing the Intro Section area on the Redesign College Landing Page Templates.

We will be allowing till next Monday (23rd) to move any content previously input into this section into another content module of your choosing. Once we remove this from the data definition, your content will be lost from here. The intro section will remain on the Department Landing Page Templates.

Update to Interior template banners/mastheads

Brief:

The Interior template hero images/banners were originally designed to be more of a “masthead”, to be consistent throughout parts of a site. This is why we have the image for this section set in the options block. We have had many questions regarding some custom edits to the titles/image, which are limited here to keep this consistency across all interior pages within a folder or sub-site where a new options block is set. Previously we had an option to set the title to be either current folder’s display name OR the parent folder’s display name. This was causing some issues with multiple level items that were not intended to be sub-sites.

The Fix:

We have updated the way the titles are targeted for display. There is no longer a radio button selection for this in the options block. The titles in these banners/mastheads for interior pages are now targeted by the closest option block’s current folder. This title will trickle down throughout any sub items using the interior page template, until a folder is reached with a new options block. Any pages in that new level (along with the new options block) and deeper levels will have the new display name from the new option block’s current folder. This may be confusing to some. I will try to map it out below – in hopes i do not confuse any further. Please let me know if you have any questions.

For example:

/example-site-folder/ – has the display name – Example Site Folder.

/example-site-folder/options – options block is set here to get above display name on all interior pages

/example-site-folder/interior-page.html – display name displayed in masthead/banner – Example Site Folder

/example-site-folder/subfolder/interior-page.html – display name displayed in masthead/banner – Example Site Folder

/example-site-folder/subfolder/another-sub-folder/ – has display name – Another sub folder

/example-site-folder/subfolder/another-sub-folder/options – options block is set here to get above display name for  /another-sub-folder on all interior pages from here on out

/example-site-folder/subfolder/another-sub-folder/interior-page.html – display name displayed in masthead/banner – Another sub folder

 

Next Steps:

Publish any interior pages using the interior page template in your redesign site to catch this update.

Updated Secondary Nav Released

If you have not noticed by now, the updated Secondary Navigation is now available in the new redesign templates

** You will need to republish any and all sn-config files you may have in your redesign site to grab the updated structure.

A couple notes on this.

  1. We have extended the navigation to 3 levels instead of just 2.
  2. There is no limit on the amount of items in the 2nd or 3rd sublevels of the menu. HOWEVER, please be mindful of how long your menus get vertically filled with navigation items in regards to forcing users to have to scroll down to view the whole sub menu on smaller laptop screens. We are hoping that providing this extra level will allow everyone to take a second look at their site hierarchy and organize their material into a user friendly experience.
  3. A sub menu only kicks in if there are pages/folders (besides an index, sn-config, and options block) set to display in the nav, within the main folder at hand,
  4. The new structure removes having main level items as buttons, which forced these to be links in the submenu. A menu item that has a submenu now is directly linkable from that primary level it is on, no more need for duplicate text. A separate button still remains with only the Arrow within. This is left for accessibility purposes/functionality.
  5. Link text uses the Display Name field in the meta area of a page. There is a 70 characters limit on the nav item link text. This is NOT enforced on the Display Name field itself when entering text, but enforced on publish. PLEASE be mindful of this. If you Display Name is longer than 70 characters, it will get chopped. This limit should allow, still, a solid length of text, and keep your link text to no more than 3 lines.

Please publish, test your navigation, and let me know if you experience any issues or have any concerns.

Blog Feed – New Feature in Cascade

We have added the “Blog Feed” feature to cascade. It can be added as a module in a new row, or added as a column widget in columns 6 cells or wider. Please follow the steps below to add to your page.

  1. Select Blog Feed from the module selector or Widget Display list.
  2. Fill in the name of the blog. This is the exact name in your url. For Example: “ows” in https://blogs.clemson.edu/ows/
  3. Enter a numerical count of the amount of stories you wish to be displayed. Example: 1, 2, 5, 10, etc
  4. Choose the blog format type. Default is “Basic Blog (No Images)”. This will not display any images. Posts with featured images will display a thumbnail image next to the listing if “Basic Blog (Display Images)” is chosen. The third option is a a standard list structure only showing and linking the titles of each post.
  5. If applicable, fill in any categories. If multiple, separate by a comma.
  6. If applicable, fill in any tags. If multiple, separate by a comma.

 

Contact Module Widget Released

The new contact module is ready to implement on your pages.

**Remember, if you have used the module previously, you will have to update your pages to this new setup.

  1. Navigate to your widgets folder, then click “Add Content” in the top nav
  2. Navigate to Components > Widget.
  3. Select “Contact Module” from the widget type.
  4. Enter your desired data into the provided fields.
    1. These are the same fields in the previous set up, but your data will not be preserved from the previous setup.
    2. Recent updates to these fields were the abilities to toggle having either a custom link or a website contact and toggling on or off the social links.
  5. Save and Publish your new widget
  6. Next, navigate to your page and click “Edit”
  7. Scroll down towards the bottom of the editor window, and you will see a new group labeled “Widget Module Area”. See attached screenshot.
  8. Select Yes to display the area.
  9. Choose the recently made widget from the widget chooser.
  10. Repeat steps 6-9 per page as necessary.
  11. Publish your page/s.
    1. Once your page has this setup published once, publishing all your pages will not be required for each update. you will only need to edit and publish the widget for it to reflect updates across all the pages!

Only the Contact module widget will work here, the other widget types will not display here and only will display in the left column. And vise versa.  The contact module widget will not display in the left column. Warning messages will display on your page if you accidentally assign the wrong widget type to an area.

We hope you guys find this new addition helpful, useful, and easy to implement. Please reach out with any questions, concerns, or issues.

Contact Module Updates

We are adding the ability to turn on/off social links in the Contact Module along with the option to add a custom link in place of the web contact email to this module.

Copying folders from your old site

We found a situation where a user may copy a folder from an old site. This is great in helping get your content over, but will not give you the proper meta data on the folder. To combat this, please create all folders from your new redesign site and copy any potential files like images into the newly created folder to ensure the proper meta data is there. This meta data is needed to help build the navigation.

Interior Page Template Update – Hero Image

I wanted to make everyone aware of a recent update to the Interior Page Template Hero Image. We were brought aware of the idea that it could be difficult to find that many images for each interior page. These interior page banner images were originally meant to be more of a “masthead” for the page and be consistent throughout each of your folders/sections/departments of your site. This is why we have made the switch to set this on the folder level instead of per page. You will still set images on landing page templates, this only affects Interior Pages.

Prior:

  • The Hero Banner Image was set per page

Now:

  • The Hero Banner Image is set in the options block

**NOTE: Any built interior pages prior to this email will not carry over the set image. Please update your options block with your desired banner image to reflect the change and republish any interior pages to reflect the update.