To define the site, aid navigation, and provide deeper content to site users, the Administrator can add content throughout the site using the content management tools. The main areas to be populated are:

• The Site's Home Page
• The About page
• Each Tab's Welcome/Landing pages

Click on each tab to access the page. Each page is configured with content areas which you can edit by clicking on the link which reads 'Add Content Here'. Users without the content editing permissions do not see unused content areas. You may want to access the site as a logged-out user using a different web browser so you can edit in one browser and review the site in another.

Creating New Web Pages

The web site allows you to create new tabs and give them names in the Admin module. You can also create tab-less pages (floating pages, landing pages, etc.). Those pages use a default page template layout with several content areas which you are free to use to enter content.

1) Creating a new page is easy… just use any page name and have it end in .shtml; just by accessing a new page does not create it in the database, content must be added. The website comes with several predefined pages which already have content areas and dynamic content areas.

2) When using a new url, if no content exists on the page, then users and visitors to that page see a 404. There’s nothing for search engines like Google to index either. Once someone with content editing permissions adds even a single line of content, then the page will no longer return a 404. The page doesn’t exist in the database until there is at least some content. Just add content and the page is live.

3) You can create Tab sub-pages, so that the tab is still highlighted even though the floating page may not be the main tab page. For example, on the site you have this url:

/groups.shtml

Maybe you want to put a link to some Groups documentation, or have a Facebook promo link to that page for analytics… to give the user an experience so that they think they are in the Groups area, your URL would look like this:

/groups-documentation.shtml

Notice I just use the tab’s name and put a "-" after it.

4) Once the page has content, you can now link to that page from your other pages, or link to it from a new Tab in the Admin module.

5) When you create a floating page and then realize you would like some dynamic content displayed, then a customization file is done in XML. This is a little more complicated, but the capability exists outside of the web-based editing. In fact, all of the pages of the application were done in XML so there is quite a bit of flexibility.

Creating Drop-Down Menus

In the Admin module there is an option to "Download the Web Site Map Excel Template." This Excel template allows you to add Menu Items to appear under the Tabs. An Excel file is used because there are also columns to configure page descriptions, keywords, and to map URLs. This Excel file allows for very large sites with lots of sub-navigation.

Once the file is complete, it is uploaded to the site's file system for use.

Migrating From Another Web Product

If you already have an established website and you are migrating to ConcourseConnect, then it's possible to map all of your existing URLs to new ConcourseConnect URLs.

For large sites the process the process begins by using software to export all your existing URLs to a file, then continuing with the next step...

Go through the Excel file to map existing URLs to new URLs. You can map hidden URLs too.

You might also use this file when reworking portions of an existing ConcourseConnect site.

Once the file is complete, it is uploaded to the site's file system for use.