Web Content Management

News

Update 2009-11-20: The University is researching and evaluating web content management systems. Learn more about the WCM Project.  

About Collage and Official CSUCI Web Sites

To ensure consistency of the University's digital brand as well as the continued accessibility of web content, all official administrative and academic content which uses the CSUCI digital brand should reside in CSUCI's official web content management system wherever possible. Exceptions shall be made for special cases as well as web sites hosted by 3rd parties per agreement with the University. Please contact Web Services for more information.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is "web content management"?

Content management is the practice of creating and publishing web page content, including text, images, links, and tables. Traditionally, this has been done with web design software (such as Microsoft FrontPage, Macromedia Dreamweaver, etc.) or by coding HTML directly to build web pages.

The traditional approach to web content management may work acceptably for small web sites but presents challenges when dealing with maintenance of large, diverse web sites with numerous editors. For managing the web content on its primary web site, www.csuci.edu, CSU Channel Islands uses Serena Collage as its official web content management system.

What is Collage and what does it do?

Collage is a web content management system which enables owners of CSUCI web content to:

• simplify web content creation, management and re-use;
• create, edit, and publish well-organized, content-rich web pages via a web interface;
• maintain visual and navigational consistency with University branding; and
• better manage web accessibility and Section 508 compliance.

Collage uses a template-based system to separate web content from web page presentation, making it easy to reuse content.

Who uses Collage, and who can use it?

Collage is used by web content owners and editors whose web sites are found on www.csuci.edu. Selected academic and other programs with other csuci.edu domains are also using Collage.

Use of Collage is available for CSUCI users whose web sites whose content resides on www.csuci.edu. Other departments, programs and areas may contact the Help Desk to determine if their web content can be managed through Collage.

How do I start using Collage?

Before you receive your access information for Collage, you must successfully complete two Web Technology workshops:

• Web Accessiblity I
• Introduction to Web Content Management with Collage

During the "Introduction to Web Content Management with Collage" workshop, you will receive a user name and password to access Collage.

Once both of these workshops has been successfully completed, your supervisor should submit a written request on your behalf to the Help Desk to request access to your organization's content in Collage.

Step-by-step instructions for using Collage may be found in the "Documentation" section of this page.

How do I get help with Collage?

Please contact the Help Desk to open a work order. A Web Services technician will then be assigned to assist you with your Collage issues and questions.

 

Help Guides and Documentation

To view the following user guides and system documentation, get Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Self-Paced Video Guide

As of January 29, 2010, a new self-paced video guide for Collage is now available.

Printable Guides

• Introduction to Web Content Management with Collage (in PDF format, 1.8MB) - the basics of using Serena Collage (updated November 2009)
• Collage II Tips and Tricks (in PDF format, 95KB) - how to accomplish basic administrative tasks in Collage (updated November 2009)
• Collage System Documentation in PDF format - complete Collage system documentation provided by Serena Software

Installation Notes

To run Collage, you must:

1. Use a computer which has internet access
2. Use only supported web browsers. Currently supported browsers are:
   1. Internet Explorer 6 and 7 for Windows. Internet Explorer 8 is currently not supported.  
   2. Firefox 1.5.0.x or Firefox 2 for Windows
   3. Mac users should access Collage via Windows using VMWare using one of the browsers listed above.
3. Install the correct Sun Java Virtual Machine (JVM) (see the "Downloads" section on this page for more information).
4. Verify that you have only one Sun JVM installed. On Windows, this can be verified by going to the Windows Start Menu > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs, and checking the list to see if there is more than one entry which begins with "Java" or "J2SE".
   1. If you have more than one JVM, all but the correct JVM must be uninstalled.
5. Run a Collage Browser Check (see instructions below). This will verify that all necessary compoents are installed on your computer.
6. Verify that your browser's popup blockers are not blocking popups for the domain collage.csuci.edu
   1. This includes built-in popup blockers in Internet Explorer and Firefox, as well as third-party popup blockers such as Google toolbar.

Collage Browser Check

This check helps you verify that all necessary components to run Collage are correctly installed on your computer.

To perform a Collage Browser Check:

1. In your web browser, go to: http://tinyurl.com/cbcheck
2. If you see a "No problems detected :) " message at the bottom of the results window, then all required components are correctly installed.
3. If you see a "Problems detected" message at the bottom of the results window, please:
   1. Click on the "Copy Result to Clipboard" link on the page
   2. Create an email and paste in the results (use Edit, Paste or CTRL + V).
   3. Send the email to the Help Desk. This will help Web Services diagnose the problem. 

Downloads

• Click to download Sun Java Virtual Machine J2SE 5.0 Update 22 (Windows EXE, approximately 16MB) - Version 1.5.0_10 or greater is the only supported Java Virtual Machine (JVM) for Collage; Java 1.6 versions are not supported. This is required to use Collage on Internet Explorer 6.0 and Firefox 1.5.0.x or later on Windows.

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Last updated: 2010-08-13