Basic Setup of the System
An introduction to the Plone Content Management System (CMS) and how we've structured it for the Oxfam America websites.
Basic Elements
Every screen in the system will have a few basic elements.
Site tabs
In the top left of the screen, under the logo, are the site tabs—quick links to different parts of the system. There are two tabs, "Home" and "Documentation."
The personal bar
The personal bar is the blue bar going across the page under the logo. In the right side of this bar, there are links relating to you, the user:
- "[Your Name]" brings you to a list of content most recently created by you;
- "preferences" allows you to change you preferences in the system, such as your email address or password;
- "undo" (when visible) allows you to undo recent actions you've taken; and
- "log out" closes your session and logs your out of the system.
Navigation
The box to the left of the screen is the main navigation for the system, providing access to different areas. It will expand as you drill down into the different folders in the system.
The search box
The search box in the top right corner of your screen can be very useful—it allows you to find any content on the system, including unpublished content and items like sidebars and photos that won't come up in a search on the public site.
Workspaces
The CMS is organized into a series of “Workspaces.” A Workspace is, simply defined, a topic-oriented content area. For example, the “Who We Are” section of the Oxfam America Web site has its own Workspace in the CMS, as does the “What We Do” page, etc. Each Workspace contains all of the folders and content for that section of the Web site, with very few exceptions. There are instances where separate Workspaces exist for content areas that would otherwise be contained within these larger content areas. (This inconsistency is a relic of Oxfam’s explosive growth, and will be phased out with future upgrades.) The most important thing to remember is that the Workspace defines what content is contained within it. Thankfully, the workspaces in our CMS are named intuitively.
A Workspace is also what's known as a "staging area"—that is, a place where you can make changes and set up new content without affecting the public site. This is a key point—changes you make to documents the Workspace are not immediately visible on the public website. None of your changes will take effect until you publish them.
Click the "Workspaces" link in the left navigation to open the list of available Workspaces.
Getting Around
You may notice that there is some redundancy in the system in terms of navigation. The primary way to get to what you are looking for is through the Navigation box on the left side of the page. When you first log in, it looks something like this:
It may look different to you depending on what permissions you have. Some staff are able to access more areas of the system than others according to their job function and/or responsibilities.
The items you see at this level are the folders at the top level of the system. There are other folders as well, but they're hidden from you unless you're a site manager—or unless you're viewing a page in the folder.
When you click on "Workspaces," the navigation will look something like this:
The navigation expands to show you the folders you're allowed to see at any particular level, plus all the levels above the current level, and one level below. The folder you're currently in is highlighted. You can generally navigate most places in the system using just the left-hand navigation.
Workspaces in Detail
The main page of each Workspace is the default "view" for that page (in most cases). So, for example, if you click the "Who We Are" Workspace link in the main navigation, you will see the contents of the main "Who We Are" page on OxfamAmerica.org. Similarly, selecting "Spanish Subsite" or "French Subsite" Workspaces will display the default layout for those sites' home pages.
Once you have clicked on a Workspace, you will notice that several tabs now appear at the top of the page, as illustrated below. By default, the "view" tab is active.
Workspace tabs
Tabs correspond to different tasks or ways of accessing the same content:
- Contents displays the contents of a workspace or folder as a list;
- View displays the contents of the page as a Web page;
- Edit allows you to edit the contents of a page (but not the contents of a folder)
- Properties allows you to designate keywords, dates, authorship, associated thumbnail images, and associated “issues,” “campaigns,” and “emergencies,” among other criteria. The properties tab is required for all content types.
- Design (an Oxfam customization) allows you to alter certain aspects of the page layout, including the sidebar elements.
- Deployment allows you to publish the workspace to the public server, either incrementally—only changes made since the last deployment will be published—or completely, whereby the entire workspace is redeployed. (Editorial staff almost always select incremental deployment.) To make the Deployment tab visible, first click the Contents tab.
- Syndication controls whether or not the contents of the workspace is available via RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. (This is never used by editorial staff.)
Action bar
The "Action Bar" is on the green band directly below and to the right of the tabs. The main links on this bar are:
- Actions - Allows you to cut, copy, delete or paste content. IMPORTANT - Use this with CAUTION! The Actions drop-down menu applies to the item currently being viewed, even if it is the Workspace itself.
- Add to Folder - Allows you to add a new content item to the current folder. Content types are restricted on a per-folder basis. In other words, every folder does not necessarily allow every content type to be added.
- State - Although currently inactive in the present implementation, this feature allows you to change the state of the content you are viewing to "public draft," "published," or "private." Oxfam's staging system is used in place of this, so any action you take with this menu will have no effect on your content except for "make private," which will make the content visible and editable in the admin only, and is useful if you are working on content that you aren't ready to publish.
Utility bar
The "Utility Bar," a set of icons directly below the Action Bar, allows you to:
- E-mail a Page - Send the current page to someone else via email.
- Print - Print the current page.
- Edit Market Interfaces - This advanced feature tells the system how to present the content within the content template. This feature should be used only by technical staff.
- Preview - Preview your content in the template.
- Toggle Full Screen Mode - View the page full-screen, which hides the left navigation.
- Edit in an External Application - Allows you to edit your page in a separate software program. This is an advanced feature that should be used only by technical staff or if an external editor has been configured for you by technical staff.
Recent changes
In the lower left portion of your screen, below the main navigation box, is a list of content that has been edited recently. This comes in handy if you are trying to access an article quickly or are working with multiple documents.