CMS Basic Training

1
CMS Basic Training
just enough knowledge to make you really
dangerous revised July 25, 2005
2
AGENDA

• Understanding CMS
• The Publication Process and CMS
• CMS Workflow
• Tools Within CMS
• Common CMS Scenarios

3
Part IUnderstandingCMS
4
UNDERSTANDING CMS

• CMS is not
• Short for Course Management System
• Short for Comparative Media Studies
• Short for Chicago Manual of Style
• Simple (but its not so bad once you get used to
  it)

5
UNDERSTANDING CMS

• CMS is
• Officially called Microsoft Content Management
  Server 2002
• A tool for managing large-scale web content
• Managed and customized for OCW by Sapient
• A critical part of OCW publication process
• Only compatible with Windows and Internet
  Explorer
• although you can get some things done with
  Firefox on a Mac

6
Part IIThe Publication Process and CMS
7
THE PUBLICATION PROCESS CMS

• CMS is only one part of OCWs overall publication
  process
• FL19 is where you put the files you gather
• SecureFX is where you put the files you want
  the India Authoring Team to build with
• CMS is where the real work of creating OCW
  courses happens
• Staging is where we and the faculty approve
  courses (the dress rehearsal)
• Production is where the world sees OCW (with
  lots of help from Akamai)

8
THE PUBLICATION PROCESS CMS
It all looks something like this
9
THE PUBLICATION PROCESS CMS

• Where are these things anyway?
• FL19 map a network drive for \\newfl19.mit.edu\O
  CW-CMS (youll need MITs Cisco VPN client as
  well to access this from off-campus)
• SecureFX launch the SecureFX application and
  choose OCW Production
• CMS http//ocwcms.mit.edu/OcwWeb/ in IE
• Staging http//ocw2.mit.edu in any browser
• Production http//ocw.mit.edu in any browser

10
UNDERSTANDING PUBLICATION

• Staging, Production, and CMS
• Staging and Production occur outside of CMS
• Publication engine harvests standards-based HTML
  from CMS and sends it to the appropriate server
• No changes can be made directly to the published
  site(s) all changes must be made in CMS
• Changes must be republished to be made available
  on the site(s)
• All changes to courses must be staged first
  before they can be sent to production

11
Part IIICMS Workflow
12
WORKFLOW

• Understanding CMS workflow is critical
• Authoring
• QA
• Staging
• FQA
• Production
• A course can only move forward in the workflow if
  every page is ready for the next step!

13
AUTHORING WORKFLOW

• Authoring
• Course Status Waiting for Authoring
• The course is available to India Prod
• The course skeleton and section pages are
  created
• Text, tables, images, etc. are added to the
  section pages
• Files that are scrubbed and converted are
  uploaded to the Resource Gallery and linked to
  the section pages
• Waiting doesnt necessarily mean nothing is
  happening!
• Approved to the next step by India Authors

14
QA WORKFLOW

• QA
• Course Status Waiting for QA
• The course is available to Prod YOU
• Quality Assurance check for that the spec was
  followed, and files open and display as expected
• Small changes (
• Bigger changes Decline for India to fix
• Want to show it to faculty, or get a better look
  yourself? Stage it!
• Approved to the next step by FL

15
STAGING WORKFLOW

• Staging
• Course Status Ready for Staging
• Stage the Course it wont stage itself
• Course Status Scheduled to be Published in
  Staging
• Staging engine runs periodically, not instantly
• Check the Staging Agent if you think a course is
  stuck
• Course Status Published in Staging
• Verify that the course is staged, then notify
  relevant faculty and get their approval
• Approved to the next step by FL

16
PREVIEW VS. STAGING

• Seeing is not always believing
• What you see in CMS is not always what you get
• Preview is a good approximation, but nothing more
• The only way to be sure how everything looks is
  to stage it
• India is now pushing all completed courses to
  Staging so that you can proof their work better
  and faster
• Note that FQA will check the pages on multiple
  browsers/platforms, but you may want to as well
  if youre dealing with tricky style or layout
  issues

17
FQA WORKFLOW

• FQA
• Course Status Ready for Production
• The course is available to FQA Publisher
  (Sandy)
• FQA Final Quality Assurance!
• Every page and resource will be checked for
  style, consistency, and functionality
• If any non-standard styles or presentations were
  required, notify Sandy via email before
  submission
• Leave time for corrections and resubmission
• Approved to the next step by FQA (Sandy)

18
PRODUCTION WORKFLOW

• Production
• Course Status Ready for Production
• Production Publication!
• The move from FQA to Approved for Production is
  business process, not a CMS function
• If course is marked as approved and signed off in
  FM, it will be Scheduled for Publication in
  Production by Publisher (Sandy)
• Course Status Published in Production
• Verify that the course is staged, then notify
  relevant faculty

19
Part IVTools Within CMS
20
RESOURCE GALLERY

• Understanding the Resource Gallery
• Think of it as CMSs own built-in FL19
• RGs directory structure parallels the site
  structure every section has its own RG
  subdirectory
• Anything file that is going to be hosted by OCW
  must be added to the RG.
• India handles the initial uploading of materials
  during the Authoring workflow step.
• Complex media like video and Java applets are
  handled separately by the Prod Team and go
  elsewhere
• Use the Resource Manager if you need to upload
  files to CMS the Resource Uploader will just
  break your heart

21
eWEBEDIT PRO

• Understanding eWebEdit Pro
• Think of eWEP as a plugin for CMS
• Makes WYSIWYG text editing possible within CMS
• Interface is very similar to Microsoft Word, with
  a toolbar across the top of the working area
• Also allows user to view and edit the HTML code
  if necessary, although it may fix it for you
  when youre done
• Styles are EVERYTHING Otherwise the OCW style
  sheet will not work correctly!

22
eWEP BUTTONS

• Not all the buttons on the eWEP toolbar do what
  their labels imply!
• Bookmark anchor tag
• New Hyperlink Link to CMS Section Page
• Hyperlink Link to external URL
• Insert Attachment Add file from Resource
  Gallery
• Do not use Insert Table things will not turn
  out well!
• If you need a table, you can grab a template for
  one at http//web.mit.edu/ocwhq/author/cmstable/ta
  bles.html

23
eWEP STYLES

• Commonly used eWEP styles
• bodycopy The normal stuff
• subhead Create a and apply
• subsubhead Create a and apply
• List Level x use for outlines create
  numbered list and apply

24
Part VCommon CMS Scenarios
25
COMMON SCENARIOS

• Things you might find yourself doing regularly
• Checking the status of a course
• Editing a section page
• Editing and/or replacing a resource
• Managing faculty FQA edits

26
COMMON SCENARIOS

• Checking the status of a course
• Course Status indicates the current workflow mode
  of the course only as good as its least
  advanced section!
• Section Status shows the current workflow mode of
  the section in question
• My Tasks is the quickest way to browse the
  statuses of several courses and/or sections
• Staging Agent will show you what courses can be
  (Approved for Staging), will be (Scheduled for
  Staging) and have been (Last Published to
  Staging) staged.

27
COMMON SCENARIOS

• Editing a section page
• If staged or published, click Decline to QA
• Use Comments to leave a record of your actions
• Click Edit, then click the edit icon for the
  part of the page you need to work on
• Make your changes in eWEP, and click the Save
  button.
• Click Save and Exit, then Approve and add
  your comments
• Click Stage the Course (comments here dont
  matter)
• If no faculty input needed, Approve for
  Production as well after the course is staged

28
COMMON SCENARIOS

• Editing and/or replacing a resource
• Major edits should be done in India!
• If you are editing a file, download that file to
  your desktop just like any other Web download and
  make your changes
• If the section in question is staged or
  published, click Decline to QA for the section
  where the resource is used
• Use Comments to leave a record of your actions
• Click Resource Manager to open its window
• Find the resource in question and click Repl
  next to it
• (continued on next page)

29
COMMON SCENARIOS

• Editing and/or replacing a resource (cont.)
• Click the Browse button to find the new file on
  your computer
• Change the display name for the file if you like
• Use the Description field to note the changes to
  the file
• Click the Okay button to close the Resource
  Manager window.
• Save and Exit the section page when youre done.
• Never use Del to replace youll delete all
  the IP and Metadata along with it!

30
COMMON SCENARIOS

• Managing faculty FQA edits
• The single most important thing to remember here
  is that any edits you make will have to be
  restaged before they can be (re)published
  theres no shortcut!

31
Thanks for your time!Please send your questions
and requests toocw-prod-request_at_mit.edu