HOWTO: Edit the ALT website
Purpose
This how-to is for those who need to edit the ISU ALT website (https://apling.engl.iastate.edu/). Not everyone has access to edit this website by default. If you’d like to have information added/changed, you should first post your request to the #apling-media channel (or email apling-media@iastate.edu).
Providing editing access
When someone should be granted access to edit the ISU ALT website, Evgeny will email Troy Rutter (trutter at iastate.edu) to request access.
Guidance for those with editing access
- To log in, you need to be first connected to the ISU VPN. Please note that you must be connected to the VPN even if you are working from campus.
- After connecting to the VPN, you can log in at https://apling.engl.iastate.edu/wp-admin. Sign in with your ISU Net-ID and password. For more information on logging in, please see here.
Editing conference pages
This information is only needed if you create or edit pages for conference that are hosted by the ALT program. The conference pages have been slightly redesigned and reorganized to make them consistent, so there is a little more work to get them to work correctly.
Note that the conference archive page has moved to: https://apling.engl.iastate.edu/conferences/technology-for-second-language-learning-conference/tsll-archive/. This is where you will link in all of your pages.
- You will want to look at how the pages are now organized for 2019 as an example: https://apling.engl.iastate.edu/conferences/technology-for-second-language-learning-conference/tsll-2019/
- When you build the home page, you will want to set the main Technology for Second Language Learning Conference page as the Parent.
- If you look at the 2019 page and look at the code, you will see that it has 2 columns. The left-hand side is a consistent menu that will appear throughout all of the conference pages. You can edit that menu by making a new one under HTML in the Dashboard. You will see all of the previous conferences. You can even duplicate the 2019 one to get started. By copying that shortcode, you can put it in your new pages and have the same menu across all your pages.
- All of your subpages should have your main page as the parent.
By following the new structure, we can keep things neat both for the site, and also make it easier for google to determine relationships (in theory). Once the structure is complete we can create what is called a shortlink and redirect apling.engl.iastate.edu/tsll2020 or whatever to the main homepage so you can give out the short link instead of the big long one.
Directory data not accurate?
The directory information on the website pulls from the ISU directory. However, our site caches it for 30 days.
Once someone updates the information with accessplus/workday, it takes 24-48 hours to be available at which time you can click on “Fetch LDAP Info” in the apling directory profile to get the new information.
Typical Troubleshooting steps include:
- Is the correct information showing on their profile on info.iastate.edu? If so, go to the next step. If not, settings need to be changed in accessplus or workday. Recheck info.iastate.edu in 24-48 hours
- Is the correct information showing on the website? If not, go into the directory profile (admin) and click on Fetch LDAP info.