Attention staff and faculty: transition to new content management system for Whitman website

To: Whitman Staff and Faculty

Oct. 25, 2012 will mark a significant transition and leap forward for Whitman’s website – from using an outdated, open-source content management system (CMS) called FarCry to a robust, modern system called Ingeniux.

The Ingeniux CMS will provide for better website architecture and page design, and it will improve functionality and enhance the experience of those visiting the site. 

The CMS transition will involve and/or affect ALL campus community members who use the Whitman website, some more directly and deeply than others. This transition reflects the second phase of a web evolution project that began in 2011, when a new design was implemented for the home page, features were added to the admission home page and the campaign web site was launched. 

If you ARE a Whitman website content owner or editor, you will be contacted after Oct. 25 about training sessions that will enable you to readily adopt the Ingeniux CMS as the tool for updating web pages/sites for which you have responsibility. Your name should already be on the training list, following my recent outreach.

Whether you ARE OR ARE NOT a Whitman website content owner or editor, the immediate, critical action you need to take is simply to be aware of the following changes that will be effective Oct. 25 when the site converts to Ingeniux:

• A new header for the home page and site, reflected in this illustration:

• A new top-nav (blue bar) link called Offices and Services, which will provide more direct access than using the search tool and be more streamlined than the old A-Z index.
• Search People will become Find People and will link to a new directory through Ingeniux. This directory will display to the public only the basic faculty and staff contact information.
• There will be a Quick Links option.
• General content pages may now include news feeds and additional content.
• The Staff and Faculty audience line landing pages as they exist now will no longer be accessible from the home page. Here is what you need to know:

These audience line landing pages are misaligned with the rest of the Whitman site, and they represent an outdated use of technology that will be replaced by the myWhitman portal.

The familiar People Search tool as well as many of the convenient links will still be available on myWhitman, but should you find something missing that you rely on from the old pages, please contact portal@whitman.edu.

The old-school landing pages will still be available at www.whitman.edu/content/staff and www.whitman.edu/content/faculty, and you are welcome to bookmark them. However, they will not be updated or maintained. Effective Oct. 25, clicking on these links from the home page will take you to an interim page that will direct you to myWhitman.

Again, if you are not a content owner or author this is all you need to do:

• Adjust to using myWhitman versus the current staff/faculty landing pages
• If you happen to be on a web page and notice it is broken in some way, please email webteam@whitman.edu.

Thank you for your attention.

[UPDATE]: Important changes for how you log in to Whitman resources

As part of the transition to the new content management system for the Whitman website, there will be two additional changes that affect our Central Authentication Service page and myWhitman.

New look for the Central Authentication Service page

The look of the Central Authentication Service page will change, both to better align with the general Whitman web design and to work better for entering your username and password on smaller mobile devices, such as smart phones.

Immediate login prompt for myWhitman