Web site information

Sitemap

This page gives an overview of the entire Web site and corresponds to the breakdown by directory. When new directories and/or sections are added to the Web site, this page should be updated.

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Page elements

Each page of the Web site contains three main sections:

1. Banner - this includes the Residential Education masthead as well as the buttons on the navigation bar.
   
   
2. Main content area - with the exception of the homepage, this is generally broken up into:
   • A. Sidebar on the left hand side - this includes the mini logo and the page title. This area also includes any desired links, especially to local anchors (sections) on the current page.
   • B. Main content window - this includes "breadcrumbs" at the top of the page indicating where in the site the current page is located and includes links back up through the Web tree (ending at the homepage). This is then followed by the page title and then the main content for the page.
   
   
   
3. Footer - this is the area at the bottom of every page (with the exception of the homepage) that includes the link for Questions/Comments/Suggestions, the mailing address and phone number of the ResEd Office, copyright information, and a timestamp indicating the last time the page was updated (this is automatically generated by the Web server).

The server-side include files for these page elements are (more on server-side includes here):

• /dept/resed/include/head.html - (not referenced in above description). Includes reference to the site's stylesheet as well as some JavaScript and HTML for the banner.
• /dept/resed/include/startbody.html - includes HTML for the banner as well as body attributes for the page.
• /dept/resed/include/footer.html - includes HTML for the footer.

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Updating the site

The Web site can be updated using a tool like Dreamweaver or by editing the HTML directly, but the most important thing to remember is to maintain the template so the page elements are kept in tact. Specifically, all of the Web pages use "server-side includes." This is a line that appears in the HTML of the Web page file that appears something like:

‹!--#include virtual="/dept/resed/include/footer.html"--›

This tells the Web server to go and get the file indicated (in the above example, footer.html) and include the contents of it when putting together the Web page before sending it to your Web browser. By the time it gets to your Web browser, the contents of the included file is already entered into the source of the Web page. Therefore, for example, this Web page uses #include directives in the code. However, if you do a "View Page Source" on this page from your Web browser, you will not see any of the #include lines because the contents of the included files have already been put in.

The benefit of using server-side includes is that when a change must be made to a page element that is common to all pages, it can be done by simply editing the included files. For example, if the location of the History section of the Web site were to change, only the included file for the banner would have to be updated with the new link. Then, because all of the Web pages only refer to the file for the banner (instead of including the HTML code for the banner in every single Web page file), the change would appear on all of the Web pages.

To keep the server-side include lines in tact, always use Fetch or another FTP program to download and upload the Web page files. Do not download files using a Web browser since accessing the file this way makes the Web server parse the #include lines.

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Creating a new page

If you are creating a new page, you can get started with this template (to download this file, right-click on a PC or hold the command key while clicking on a Mac and choose the option "Save Link As..." or "Save Target As..."). This file is also available via FTP at /Staff/StaffResources/Web/template.html.

You can copy this file to where you would like to create the new page, renaming it to the desired filename. Then, you can update it with the desired content. For more information on updating pages, click here.

If necessary, be sure to update the sitemap as well.

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Updating a page

Usually when updating a page, the only area that you need to edit would be the main content area. However, there are other elements that may need to be updated when specific changes happen:

• Location of the page - when the location of a page changes or you are creating a new page, you should make sure the "breadcrumbs" section of the main content area is updated to reflect where in the site the page is located and that the links are correct and working.
• Page title - if the title of the page changes, you should make sure the title appears correctly in the left-hand sidebar and the main content window (including the breadcrumbs section). If the page has other Web pages below it, you should also update the breadcrumbs section on all of those lower-level pages.

Also, if you are moving pages or creating new pages/sections, be sure to update the sitemap if necessary.

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Tips and Tools

• W3C Link Checker - simple enter the URL of the site you would like to check (e.g., http://www.stanford.edu/dept/resed/), set the recursion depth to "1", and click "Check."

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