Information for web publishers who have a Plone website

The new content management system (CMS) is called ‘Site Manager’ and is provided by a company called Terminal 4. We chose this product and this supplier because we felt they best suited our requirements. All public-facing websites currently hosted in the Plone CMS will be migrated to Site Manager.

A small number of pilot sites will be migrated in summer 2013 and the owners of these sites are aware of this pilot migration. The migration of ‘real’ sites will begin later in the summer. As the project progresses we will be able to populate the migration timetable with dates and give web publishers plenty of notice and information around how and when their sites will migrate. It is hoped that all sites will have been migrated by the end of 2014.

A list of recommended pre-migration tasks (Word, 812 KB) is available for web publishers which also includes information about changes to the look of the template. While these tasks are not mandatory, doing them will make the migration of your site smoother and we recommend you try to address as many issues as possible.

Sites will be migrated in the following order:

1. Key corporate sites: Current students, Current postgraduates, Prospectus Request, Open days, Jobs, Global Bristol, Student Funding, International Office, International, News, Study, The University, Accommodation, Research and the University homepage
2. Second phase of corporate sites: Information for new students, Results, Undergraduate applicants, Centre for Public Engagement, Public Engagement Stories
3. Faculties: Medical and Veterinary Sciences, Medicine and Dentistry, Science, Arts, Social Sciences and Law, Engineering
4. Professional Services

A phased migration timetable has been established and we are now working on estimating how long it will take to migrate each site. Once this timing has been established we will be in a position to add dates for each migration. Faculty managers and publishers will be contacted in good time with their key migration dates and to discuss the process of migration in detail. Most content will be ‘automigrated’ from Plone to Site Manager so no action will be needed from web publishers unless otherwise specified by the Project. As part of the Project, site owners and publishers will be given Site Manager training. The Project team will not make improvements to the site, but will try to copy it from Plone as closely as possible. If you choose, you can make improvements and tidy your site before it gets migrated.

The Project team will keep all web publishers up to date with information relating to their site's migration: timetabling, tasks required, details of when further communications will be sent etc.

At a specified time, we will take a copy of all the public-facing content on your live Plone site and migrate it to Site Manager. (Any Intranet content hosted in Plone will be left there). We will check for any anomalies that may have resulted from the migration and tidy the site. Once this is done, you will have the opportunity to check your site before it is made live, replacing your Plone site.

The migration of sites from Plone to Site Manager will be dealt with by the Project team. However, before a site is made live, the website owner will be asked to check over their site, to ensure it has migrated successfully and to raise any issues with the Project team. The Project team will not make improvements to the site, but will try to copy it from Plone as closely as possible.

Your web presence will not be disrupted during migration. Migration involves taking a copy of your live Plone site and migrating it to Site Manager. While the Project team are tidying up any anomalies in Site Manager your existing Plone site will still be available. You should only make essential updates to your Plone site during this period, making a note of these (as you need to replicate them once you get access to your Site Manager site). You will be able to preview your migrated site before it is launched and once you have confirmed you are happy we will switch them over and your Site Manager site will be live. Please remember that the Project team will copy your existing Plone site, for better or worse, and are not able to make any improvements to your site.

You will be able to edit your site at any time. However, once the snapshot of your site has been made, any subsequent changes you make to your Plone site will need to be noted and added to your Site Manager site by you once it is ready.

Yes, you will be required to check over your new site in Site Manager before it is launched and replaces your Plone site.

1. You could wait until your site is migrated and then redevelop it.
   • Benefits: You will be in Site Manager and there is no danger you will not have a public-facing web presence at any time. You will have received training.
   • Drawback: If the rest of your faculty is migrated adopting the page template your site will be out-of-synch visually with the rest until you go live.
2. You could request to not be migrated and redevelop your site in Site Manager.
   • Benefits: You can redevelop according to your own timescale provided resources exist with PRO and IT Services. You will be able to develop from scratch providing an opportunity to delete any obsolete, out-of-date or poor content and re-structure.
   • Drawback: You will have to ensure your site is live before end 2014 as Plone will no longer host public-facing websites after this date. Therefore there is a risk you could have no web presence if your development time overruns. Migrated sites will be treated as priority and therefore demands for training and Central Web Team support will be dictated by resources available.

Training will be provided in the form of tutor-led small group courses: an introduction to Site Manager for all web publishers (i.e. those with Contributor or Moderator role) and a follow-up course specifically for publishers with Moderator role. Each course will last approximately half a day and use a training environment for hands-on practice. Courses will be delivered ‘just in time’ during the migration phase and will also be offered on a ‘business as usual’ basis through Staff Development from January 2014. Later we will roll out supplementary, self-paced online tutorials and 'Drop-in clinics'.

All those requiring training will be identified by the Project team, and invited to training on a ‘just in time’ basis, as the migration of the websites becomes imminent. Outside of migration, those requiring training will be able to book on the next available ‘business as usual’ training course through Staff Development.

If staff miss their scheduled training they will be added to the next available session. This applies to new staff as well. Post-migration training courses will be organised by Staff Development in the usual way.

Plone training will carry on as normal for the moment.

Intranet content (ie content that is restricted to UoB users and indicated as such by the padlock icon) will not be moved to Site Manager, it will stay in Plone.

The University bought Site Manager to host public-facing web content only. It is not intended to host secure content that requires authentication.

The appearance of your intranet will depend on how it is structured at the time of migration.

Intranets which are organised within a single folder at site root level, eg /chemistry/intranet, will not change their appearance, structure or navigation.

Intranet content which is organised in several folders across the site will be subject to the following changes:

• A contents page will be automatically generated, displaying a list of links to all intranet folders.
• The website’s left-hand navigation will be removed, except for a link to the intranet contents page allowing users to navigate around the intranet.
• The intranet contents page will include a link to the public-facing content in Site Manager.

There will be a link at the bottom of every page of your public site entitled ‘Intranet’ which will link to your intranet.

There will either be a link to your public site on your intranet contents page or from your intranet home page depending on your intranet structure.

Plone training will continue as normal for the time being.

Keeping intranet content in Plone is only a temporary solution. A business case to identify a longer-term solution is being developed.

Where you choose to locate your intranet content is dependent on what the content is. There are a range of alternative solutions including, Blackboard, wikis, local networks etc which may be suitable. Contact IT Services for further information.

Links to intranet content from Site Manager will work although the intranet content is in Plone.

If it is a migration problem you should contact the Project team. For any other issue, email the web editor team, web-editor@bristol.ac.uk

For the first two weeks after your site has been migrated, email the Project team t4cms-help@bristol.ac.uk for support. After this period, email service-desk@bristol.ac.uk including 'T4 Site Manager training request' in the subject line for training support, and web-editor@bristol.ac.uk for general support with publishing.