General/Layout

Optional Features

The Open Berkeley features listed on this page (below) are optional for users. They may still be in development. If you are interested in being an early adopter for any of these optional features on your Open Berkeley website, email Web Platform Services at web-platform@berkeley.edu.

About Optional Features

Some of these features have been sponsored by individual departments. With sponsored features, the requirements are driven by the...

Edit Site Information

You can edit the name (title) of your site (the text in the banner region of the page, to the right of the Berkeley workmark), or update the email address used for your site if desired.

Open Berkeley sites do not send email; because we use CalNet authentication, there is no need for password-reset messages. The site email address is for our internal records. It is not displayed publicly on your site.

The email address used for your site must be a departmental email, not an individual email address. We may use it to contact your department in cases where our...

Categories

The following taxonomy (category) options are available on the Open Berkeley platform:

FAQ categories are required and are used with the FAQ content type. When you create an FAQ, you will need to assign the FAQ item to an FAQ category, which will be organized accordingly on the main FAQ page (/faq-page). ...

Optional Styles

There are several optional HTML "classes" available that will change some of the default heading, paragraph, table, and list styling in Open Berkeley. You will need to make edits directly in the HTML source to use these classes. See...

Responsive Behavior of Widgets/Layouts

The Open Berkeley design is "responsive". This means that when you choose a certain layout for a page and add widgets to different regions within the layout, the widgets will follow a different flow based on the width of the device where they're being viewed (e.g., desktop, mobile, or tablet devices).

About Responsive Behavior of Widgets and Layouts

There are many available layouts when individual pages are customized, and depending on which layout is chosen and how many widgets are used on a page, the widgets will "stack" on smaller displays/mobile devices. See Figure 1, below, for...

Layouts and Widgets

Site Builders are allowed to "customize" pages by changing the layout of a page, and adding different types of widgets in the layout regions, in order to organize and feature content. This layout and widget functionality is available on almost every page of an Open Berkeley site.

Layouts and Widgets on Landing Pages vs. Content Pages

On a Landing page, customizing the page and using layouts and widgets is REQUIRED. On Content pages, customizing the page is OPTIONAL, and the majority of the content is contained within the "Edit" tab of the Content page (in the "Body" field)....

Manage Content

In addition to creating and editing content, site builders can delete content, and publish or unpublish content. You can do this in bulk from your Content dashboard. Go to the "Dashboard" link in the upper left corner, then select the "Content" tab. See Figure 1, below. These actions can be performed on individual pages as well. See the expand/collapse sections below for additional details.

Figure 1
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URL Redirects

Adding a URL redirect will ensure that if visitors go to an old link (e.g., a page on an old website that you are rebuilding on the Open Berkeley platform), they will be automatically redirected to the new page. You can add redirects for sub-paths (page paths) from an old website on the URL redirects administration page.

When (and Why) to Add URL Redirects

The following are common use cases for adding URL redirects:

You are rebuilding an old site on the Open Berkeley platform You are deleting (removing) a page

Old site URLs, and URLs for deleted pages, may still be findable...

Revisions

Overview of Revisions

On Open Berkeley sites, revisions are enabled by default on live sites, which means that each site keeps track of each change that is made by each user. This means that you will have a record of the previous content in addition to your edits. Each update to a page is tracked as a separate revision.

Revisions allow all Editors and Site Builders to keep track of the changes made to their Open Berkeley site, and can be especially helpful if multiple people are making changes to the same site.

Important Notes Revisions are available via the "Revisions" tab on...

Types of Widgets

Overview

There are many types of widgets available to feature content on your site! See the full menu on the left for details and instructions on how to use each one.

List of Widget Options

To add a new widget, click "Customize this page" at the bottom of the page, then click the button that looks like a plus sign in the region where you would like to add a widget (see Use and Change Layouts and...