We would like to take this opportunity to let you know about some new updates that are now available on your ArtsCMS website, share some new resources, and inform you of some upcoming changes.
New ways to link to specific content, including news and events
In response to the desire to be able to link to more specific and relevant content for users, two additional methods of linking to content have been added to Arts CMS:
- News & Events tags – For those news and events posts that have been tagged, you will notice that by clicking on that tag at the bottom of the post, users will now be directed to the archive page with a filter applied to only display those posts that include the selected tag. By copying the URL for that page, you will now have another option for linking to specific news and events, in addition to Types and Topics
- Post archive links – Unlike other archives (e.g., News, Events, Profiles), post archives, which are designed to display additional types of content such as job opportunities or publications, previously did not have the ability generate links. This feature has now been added to ArtsCMS, so you can search and filter content such as publications, copy the link that appears in your browser, and use that link to direct users to those pre-filtered results from anywhere on your site
Ability to share draft content for review purposes
There can be times when content is being drafted for individuals who are not administrators of the site (e.g., a faculty member requesting support with a featured news story or event). In these cases, it can be challenging to gather feedback on drafted content without publishing the page or post beforehand.
To address this concern, the Public Post Preview plugin has been activated to provide the ability to share a link to draft content that has not yet been published. This will provide non-admin users with ability to view drafted content and provide feedback without the need to publish the content first. To take advantage of this feature, simply click on the “Enable Public Preview” checkbox located under the publish settings of your draft page or post to generate the link.
Improved resources and module wizard updates
To ensure documentation on Arts CMS is readily available and easy to find, a number of improvements have been made to the Arts CMS Help Site, including a revised navigation, improved page structures, and enhanced search results.
In addition, the module wizard available to users to add modules to pages and posts on Arts CMS has also been updated to reflect more commonly used modules, and includes improved workflows to make page/post editing easier.
News post templates
In response to the request for suggestions on how to create visually engaging and effective news stories, Arts Communications has prepared a number of news post templates, which are now available in the drafts section of each Arts CMS website as well as the Arts CMS Help Site. Templates for Q&A/Interviews, featured news, and more can be duplicated using the “Duplicate News” function and revised for the intended purpose.
Changes to PDF links
Due to recent privacy and security updates, externally hosted PDF documents can no longer be opened within the page using the FancyBox feature on Arts CMS. For consistency, the FancyBox feature has been disabled for PDF documents, so that all PDF links now open within the browser.
Retirement of legacy redirects
In the past, legacy redirects were setup for units moving to Arts CMS in cases where the primary domain changed. The most common example of these are “www” (World Wide Web) subdomains (e.g., www.isit.arts.ubc.ca). Such subdomains are no longer common practice and do not provide any additional value to units or their users. As such, these redirects will be disabled on May 16, 2022. This will not impact your site or search engine optimization.
Displaying social media links
We’ve added documentation on best practices for displaying social media links on your site, specifically if you have more than one account per channel.
Best practices on adding multimedia
We’ve added documentation on best practices on adding multimedia to your site, including images, videos, and audio clips.
If you have any questions regarding any of the above updates, please contact us at arts.helpdesk@ubc.ca.
