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Training & Practice

Introduction & Instruction

Welcome to the CMS Training & Practice Page!

Below are various projects to help you get into the CMS and try out the basic features included within it. Click the project name below to expand the project and see the information or steps you need to take. If you have any questions along the way, please reach out to a senior staff member (Josh/Hanna/Clarissa/Becca) for assistance.

For any project exercises that use a page, please create your pages within your assigned Content Transfer Site Sections.

Project #1 - Creating Pages & Basic Components

Welcome to the Training & Practice Site Section!

What we'll have you work on here:
  • Log into the CMS Admin Tool here
  • Navigate to your assigned Content Transfer Section
  • Create a page with the following components:
    • Text Window Component
    • Board Meetings Component
      • Select one of the existing Event Groups in the CMS
    • Downloads Component
    • Event Calendar Component
    • Files & Links Component
    • Links Component
    • News Component
      • With a news article!
    • Photo Gallery Component
    • Script Window Component
      • Add an Embed Code - it can be of anything such as a YouTube video or Google Map
    • Video Component
    • Once you're done: Link your page in the Top Navigation's Custom Drop Down Menu under "Our Team" and let Clarissa know you're done!

We'll go through the other components separately as they are a bit more in-depth! Please see the resources section of this page to find some helpful resources to get you started!

***Don't forget to practice good content management skills!
This can include:
  • Using Internal lables/names
  • Proper Alternative Text
  • Paste Plain Text
  • Table Headers

Take your time with this project! Try out all the things you can think of with each component so you get a real idea for how they all work and what their limits are. Share your ideas and see what you can create.

BONUS:
Follow the KBAs listed in the Page Component Summary List. Add a Component for each of the Component Types and try them all out!

Project #2 - Survey/Form/Quiz

Welcome to Project #2!

  • Create a Child Page under your page
    • Call it something unique and then "Survey" (such as: Playstation Survey)
  • Create a Survey/Form for that Survey page.
    • Try to use as many of the survey options as you can, it will help you to learn the limits of this feature.
    • Make sure your email is set up as the Alert notification!
  • Create a Quiz
    • This is different from the Survey/Form, but managed and set up in the same way.
    • Make sure your email is set up as the Alert notification!
  • Add both your Survey/Forms and Quiz's to your Survey Page.
  • Have someone from your team complete your survey/form
    • Each of you should be able to fill one out or complete one.

If you've set it up properly, you will receive an email notification that your survey has been completed!

Finally:
Review and manage your Survey/Forms and Quiz results! Try the export functions and viewing options.

Project #3 - Closings & Alerts

You'll be creating and managing Closing & Alerts for your assigned Site Section. I want you to Create the Alerts and then view them on the public side of the site. This way you can get a feel for how to manage them as well as how they display.

As you can only have 1 Banner Message/Pop-up per Site Section, each of you will be assigned to your own for this project.

Section Assignments:
  • Navigate to your assigned Content Transfer Site Section.

Creating the Alerts (Banner):
  • Create an Alert Banner following the instructions in the KBA.
  • Show time should be at least 24 hours so that you have time to review and play around with your banner messages.
  • Copy text from the Lorem Ipsum Website, remember to paste as plain text!
    • You can also type in your own message.
    • Try different things like adding a link to a page, an image, changing the fonts and font colors.
  • Site Section Selection: Select your site section as listed above.
  • Review your banner message on the public side of your site section.

BONUS:
Try copying the entire page of Lorem Ipsum and DON'T paste it as plain text in a Banner Message. I want you to see what this does to a website when you don't clean the text first. So once you save this, go to your site section and see what happened!

Creating/Managing the Alerts (Pop-Up):
  • Go back to Managing your Alerts
  • Edit your alert and change it to a Pop-Up Alert
  • Include an optional URL
  • Review the changes on the public side of your Site Section.
    • Interact with it and see how it looks/functions from the public side.

BONUS:
Did you know that you can have a Banner Message & a Pop-Up message on the same Site Section? Try it out! Create a Banner Message and then return to "Create Website Alert" and make a Pop-Up message for your same Site Section!

Creating/Managing the Alerts (Lockdown):
  • Edit the message again
  • Change it to a Lockdown alert
  • Review the changes on the public side of your Site Section.
    • Interact with it and see how it looks/functions from the public side.

Project #4 - Delete & Restore!

Now that you've created content, let's take a look at how to delete or restore it!

  • Go to the page you've created in Project #1
  • Delete the page or just 1 Page Component
  • Go back to the Admin Home screen
  • Click on Recycle Bin
    • Note all of the information that appears here in the Recycle Bin. You will see the name of the item you've deleted, the type of item it was, who deleted it, when, where it was and the option to restore it!
  • Restore the item you've deleted

This is a very common thing that users will call in about. They typically preface this as saying they've deleted a page and need it restored. They can go to their Admin Home screen, just as you did to restore it!

Please Note:
If you were to delete contents within the component, such as the text in a text window, this will not be something that can be restored within the Recycle Bin.

BONUS:
Did you know that the Recycle Bin holds more than just 3 months worth of data? Try searching for something! Search for something that was deleted at least 5 months ago, take a screenshot and send it to Clarissa!

Project #5 - Adding and Viewing Staff

The Staff List, or Master Staff List, is where the client can create a list of the staff within the district. Adding someone to the Master Staff List does not give them access to the CMS, however it can be tied to a CMS User Account. Some districts use a sync called AD/LDAP sync. With this sync, the staff members are synced directly into the CMS Master Staff List from the district's AD (Active Directory). In those cases, they must add the staff to their AD before they will be seen within the Staff List, but we will cover that in a later lesson.

For now, let's add someone to the Staff List!
  • Starting from your Admin Home screen...
  • Click on Master Staff
    • This option is available to Site Masters and Admins with permissions. Building Masters can add staff on the Section Management Screen.
  • Click on "Add Staff Member"
  • Add your staff member!
    • Required Field: First Name, Last Name, Title, Email Address, Department Assignment
      • Email address must be unique to each staff member!
    • Feel free to add any optional information here to see where it shows up!
  • Scroll down and Save this new staff member.

Let's find that staff member as an Admin:
  • Return to the Master Staff Management
  • Try looking up your staff member
  • Notice how their information is displayed
    • You can click "Edit" on your staff member to view or update their information.
    • We'll come back to these other options a bit later, but:
      • Bulk Import Staff - this is a bulk import template that allows the addition and update of staff members. This does not delete staff.
      • Edit Entire Staff - loads a list of all staff members for you to make changes.
      • Intranet Login Report - loads a list of system-generated Intranet Login credentials. This option appears for all CMS instances, even those without an Intranet. This is not editing access credentials.
      • Upload Staff Photos - loads a list of staff names where you can upload images for each staff member.
      • All Staff CSV Export - exports a full list of staff members within this CMS Admin instance.

Now let's set this up so our Site Visitors can find our staff:
  • Navigate to the Content Pages of your assigned Site Section.
  • Create a Child Page under the page you created for yourself in Project 1.
  • Give this page a name that indicates it is for a Staff Directory.
    • For fun, try to make it unique!
  • Add a Staff List Component
    • Don't forget to give it an Internal Name!
  • Edit this Staff List Component to complete the set up
    • This Component has a few different display modes so we'll try out all three!
  • Set this component up as a "Directory Form"
  • Set an alternative color and your show/hide options
    • Checked box = display
  • Save
  • Add another Staff List Component
    • This time use the "Bio List" option and try out the other options here.
    • Set this up with the Departments Filtering Criteria.
      • Don't forget to select a department!
  • Add one more Staff List Component
    • Finally use the "Grid List" option and try out these new options here
    • Set this last one up to use Members option.
      • Don't forget to select staff members!

Finally: View this page by clicking the "View" button on your edit page and try finding your staff member on your staff list components!

BONUS!!:
Have you found your Staff Member? Go back into the Component and select the option to Use Email Contact Form.
Go back to viewing the public side of the page and try out the Email Contact Form. You will want to put in your email address to receive the survey and see how this works from a user-standpoint.

Did you know that it is common practice to not display email addresses on websites for staff members? This is because bots and spammers/scammers will scrape websites for email addresses to send spam/junk to!

Project #6 - CMS User Accounts

Create CMS user account tied to staff created in Project 5
We're going to take some time to see how permissions effect what a user sees when they log into the CMS.

First create the CMS User Account for your staff member from Project 5.
  • Starting from Admin Home
  • Select CMS User Security
  • Click to add a new CMS User
  • Select "Staff Member User"
    • As we are creating an account for someone listed in our Master Staff, we'll be linking them together this way. This gives them access to Staff-Only features and options.
    • Custom Users will be like a stand-alone user that isn't in the Master Staff List.
  • Create the Username and Password
  • Keep "Force Password Reset" option checked - this is great security practice.

Try out the Practice set-ups below. To check what this User can see you have two options:
1) Log in as the user on a separate browser
2) Use the "Login As" or "User Other CMS User Account"  feature found at the very bottom of "CMS User Security screen"

Practice One:
Set them as a "Building Standard User" account. Don't give any permissions to this new account, but instead log in and look at system as if you are this user. What can you do?

Practice Two:
Give them permissions ONLY to 1 page that you've created, but don't give them any Admin perms at all. To give permissions, select what Site Section they should have access to and if only for "Content Pages" make sure that your "Site Section Admin Options" are set to "Content Pages"!

Practice Three:
Now give your new user Building Master permissions with access to 1 or 2 Site Sections and look at CMS as if you are this user. Look around the Admin Home Screens, Section Management Screens and Content Page Screens. Notice anything new on these screens? What type of access do you have that you didn't have as a Basic User with access to specific pages?

Practice Four:
Edit your CMS User again and update them with Site Administration permissions. Don't give them ALL Admin options, instead select just a few like CMS Users, Master Staff, Master Calendar and Recycle Bin. When you log into this user, notice anything different with the tile names or what they have access to?  

Practice Five:
Finally, update this user to be a Site Master User. Did you notice that now that they're a Site Master, you no longer need to select any specific permissions? (Login As feature will not allow you to sign in as a Site Master).

Tips for Success & Important Info:
As a Support Agent, you will not be making CMS User Accounts for clients due to security concerns. In most cases, clients will be directed to contacting their Site Masters. Please reach out to a Senior Team member for how to best handle these situations. 

Make sure to look around the CMS and compare what the user has access to per each permission level. This is important to know as it will help you in troubleshooting and assisting clients!

BONUS:
Create a CMS User Account that has the following access ONLY:

Project #7 - News Articles

Click the following link to view the News Articles Webinar:

Now put what you've learned into practice! Create a new page in your assigned Content Transfer Site Section and make four News Articles.

Note: Be sure to check your work as you go! After creating each article, check them on the public-facing site. Also, see how they look in the list of articles on the editing screen and pull them up in the article archive on the public-facing site.

Article 1
This should include:
  • Basic text
  • Basic formatting
  • Save
  • Put in a thumbnail and an embedded image in the Images tab
  • SKIP attachments
  • SKIP placement
  • Set a display date of the current date
Article 2
This should include:
  • Basic text
  • Basic formatting
  • Save
  • Attach a photo gallery
  • Add thumbnail and embedded images using the Images tab
  • SKIP placement
  • Add two attachments - One PDF and one RTF
  • Set an expiration date of one year from current date

Article 3
This should include:
  • Basic text
  • Basic formatting
  • Save
  • Skip attaching a photo gallery if you want
  • SKIP placement
  • Use as many features as you can in this article. Experiment!
  • Set an expiration date of current date

Article 4
This should include:
  • Basic text
  • Basic formatting
  • Save
  • SKIP placement
  • Again, use as many features as you can and experiment!
  • Visibility of one year from current date

After you've made your fourth article, practice changing placements! Go back to your article list and pick one of your articles. Under the Placement tab, what do you see on that screen? Add your article to the Shared News page on the Training and Practice Site Section and click Save. Bring up the Shared News page on the public-facing site and see what the News looks like.

Project #8 - Calendars

Click the following link to view the Calendar Webinar:

Quiz time! When finished with the webinar, test your new knowledge by clicking on the following link and taking the Calendars Quiz.

Your results will be reviewed by Clarissa.

Project #9 - Clean Up Content

Click the following link to view the Cleaning Up Pages Webinar:

Go to your assigned Site Section, find the pages with the same titles in the video under the hidden parent page "CMS Practice - Messy Pages", and follow along with the presenter to fix them.

When you're done, it's time to try out fixing some messy pages on your own. While still under the "CMS Practice - Messy Pages" parent page in your assigned Site Section, clean up the other pages not covered in the video. Experiment with different components and see what you come up with to make the page look cleaner and easier to read.

Once you're done, please notify Clarissa for review.
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