Beyond Single Pages, The SERC Admin Interface

If you are part of a project where you have been given access to work with entire modules and create new pages you'll need to learn how to use the Administrative interface. The next couple of pages will get you started with these high-level tasks and concepts. You'll also want to review the earlier pages to learn about the lower-level tasks involved in actually editing individual pages.

To get started you'll need to go here:

http://serc.carleton.edu/admin/

This is the main administrative page for all SERC 'stuff' including Serckit. When you first visit (and every time you return with a newly started web browser) you'll need to login, providing your email address and password. Once in, the screen will look something like this:

This page will vary for each person: you'll only see elements you are supposed to access. Note across the top of the screen is an "Account" tab where you can change your password, as well as a Documentation tab that points to this documentation.

The page is organized (in a structure that mirrors the overall SERC website) into 'modules' each labeled with a bold title. Under these titles are a list of administrative elements associated with that module (email lists, submission queues, file archives, etc). In the context of the CMS we're only concerned with those labeled 'Web Pages'. It's behind these links that the website editing tools lie.

Some of the modules are prefaced with right-facing triangles. Clicking these will reveal additional modules nested beneath the top level module. These 'children' modules may in turn be preceeded by triangles which will reveal their children (the grandchildren of the top level module) when clicked. Down-facing triangle links are provided so you can fold this hierarchical structure out of the way as needed.

All this genealogical structure is used to keep things tidy and also to enforce a cohesive site structure. This hierarchy mirrors (mostly) the navigational structure actual users of the site will have to contend with.

In the end there's nothing you can actually change on the admin page. The titles, organization and hierarchy of everything on this page are managed by folks at the SERC office. All you need to do is make your way to the Web Pages link that refers to the group of pages you want to work with and click the link.