- I made an edit, but the change isn't showing up. Did I do something wrong?
- The Open Public Meeting Act (OPMA) requires us to post agendas for faculty meetings on our website. How do you suggest we handle this?
- I want to replace a file that was uploaded to the website, without having all the links break. How do I do this?
- Can we have an intranet on our site?
- We have a new staff member who needs to work on the website. How do I give them access?
- A media outlet (Seattle Times, Washington Post, UW Today, A&S Perspectives) has written an article about one of our faculty or students. Can I add it to the website?
- We want to set up appointment calendars for our advising staff. Is that something we can do on the website?
- We want to set up calendars for reserving rooms or checking out equipment. Is that something we can do on the website?
- I want to update the funds listed on our Support Us page. Can you change them for us?
- I am working from home and suddenly I can't access my department website. Is the server down?
1. I made an edit, but the change isn't showing up. Did I do something wrong?
Most likely, you haven't waited long enough for the site's caches to clear. Your site's pages are held in memory for a period of time so that they can be served up quickly to visitors. It may take up to ten minutes for the changes to show up, particularly if you are logged out. In the case of course-related information, it may take up to six hours. If it's been longer than that, go ahead and contact our team.
Common mistakes that cause content to "not appear":
- Profiles: forgetting to check the Display in Directory box, Status, and/or Departmental Role fields
- Events: incorrectly checking the Academic Calendar category (only true academic calendar dates like holidays and dates of instruction should receive this designation)
2. The Open Public Meeting Act (OPMA) requires us to post agendas for faculty meetings on our website. How do you suggest we handle this?
Departments approach this in two ways. Some of them post the Faculty Meetings as events on their calendar, so they add the agenda to the event description or attach it as a PDF. Others create a special page for Faculty Meeting Agendas (often located in the Resources menu or in a section specificly for faculty and staff) and attach all the agendas there.
3. I want to replace a file that was uploaded to the website, without having all the links break. How do I do this?
Follow the steps for replacing a file outlined on Adding Document Files.
Or, go to the Manage Content screen and go to the Files tab. Find the file in question and click the "edit/replace" link. From there, use the "Replace File" option to upload a new file. This will completely replace the original.
4. Can we have an intranet on our site?
Department Web Framework sites are designed to be public-facing websites. At this time there are no controls to limit access to pages or files. Often information that lives in a department intranet isn't truly private, so it may be ok to build the information into your website. If you wish to restrict access, then we suggest looking at UW IT Collaboration Services to build a private department site or host the files that need access control.
5. We have a new staff member who needs to work on the website. How do I give them access?
Write to asweb@uw.edu and request a training session. Provide the person's UW NetID and explain what role they will have in editing the website. Will they need access to everything? Will they only be responsible for news and events, or for course information? This will help our staff set up the correct editing roles and training documents.
6. A media outlet (Seattle Times, Washington Post, UW Today, A&S Perspectives) has written an article about one of our faculty or students. Can I add it to the website?
Yes, but you shouldn't copy and paste the entire article. That will create duplicate content, which lowers your ranking in search results, and could violate copyright ownership. It's also not good to post an article where the entire contents consist only of a link. Instead, write a few sentences summarizing the article and end with a link to the original story. Or, copy the first few sentences (enclose them in quotation marks) and end with a link "Read more at [link to the story]." You might want to vary your article's title too. Instead of copying the original headline, say something like, "Professor Husky's research on medieval knights featured in the Seattle Times".
If you request us to enable the College News Importer on your site, these kinds of articles will be added automatically with the College's marketing team adds them to the main College site.
7. We want to set up appointment calendars for our advising staff. Is that something we can do on the website?
Department Web Framework sites do not include calendars for personal scheduling. Your department may want to use a service like CalendarSpots or Acuity Scheduling. We can then link to those calendars from the website.
8. We want to set up calendars for reserving rooms or checking out equipment. Is that something we can do on the website?
Many departments use Google Calendars to manage resource scheduling. These calendars can be embedded in your website to make them easier to find, and you can use UW Groups to control access. Depending on your needs, you might also look into OneDrive or the UW Events Calendar.
9. I want to update the funds listed on our Support Us page. Can you change them for us?
Your website's Support Us page is embedding a form provided by University Advancement. To make changes to the funds associated with your department, please contact the College of Arts & Sciences Advancement Services team at casadser@uw.edu. This includes adding, removing, reordering, changing the name, or changing the description of funds. The web team doesn't have any access to the fund tools.
Note that the top of the page is editable, so department editors can change the introductory text at any time. See our recommendations for content on departmental giving pages.
10. I am working from home and suddenly I can't access the department website. Is the server down?
The College's web servers are running security software to prevent attacks from spammers and hackers. Occasionally when a web editor is working from home or off-campus, they are moving around the site so quickly that their activity appears suspicious to our servers and they get blocked. To prevent this from happening, or to regain access if you have been blocked, editors can use Husky OnNet to secure their remote connection and appear as a trusted user to our web servers. When running Husky OnNet, choose the "All Internet Traffic" option to ensure you appear as a trusted UW visitor to the College's web servers. See Web Services: Working from Home for more information.