Sitecore: Adding faculty and staff
- Bass, Jeff
Regardless of your department, you will have to make updates to your faculty or staff directory page from time to time. This can be a tricky process in Sitecore, but we are here to guide you through it.
Adding a new member
In order to add a new person to your faculty or staff page, you must first upload their profile and thumbnail images. Profile images should be portrait orientation, at 320x400 pixels, and thumbnail images should be 200x200 pixels. It’s often helpful to look at the other images on your directory page to make sure your cropping fits. Cropping and resizing can be done either in Photoshop or in a free browser-based tool like http://birme.net .
If using Photoshop, please use these PSD templates to ensure the cropping fits the standard for the SPU website:
Faculty/staff profile
Faculty/staff thumbnail
Once you have resized and cropped the profile and thumbnail images, it’s time to upload them to the media library. After logging into Sitecore, click on the media library tab at the bottom of the page.
Navigate to your department’s folder, and click the button that reads “Upload files (advanced).” This option allows you to add multiple photos at once. Click “Choose file,” and then select the appropriate images from your computer. After choosing both the profile photo and the thumbnail, click the blue “Upload” button. The images will now appear in the “Uploaded media items” box. Double-click on each one, and add the name of the faculty or staff member to the “Alt” field, clicking “Save and close” when you are finished. After adding the alt text, click “Close.”
Now, return to the “Content Editor” by clicking the link at the bottom of the page. Open the folder that reads “Lists,” and then open “faculty-staff.” Find your department’s folder here. Right-clicking on the folder, select “Insert,” “Insert from template,” and then select “Faculty Bio Page” in SPU/Page Templates. Give the page a name in the format of first name, last name, all lowercase, separated by a dash.
Scroll down, and fill in the “Faculty Name” field with the faculty or staff member’s name. Then, click “Browse” over “Faculty Picture,” and select the profile photo you uploaded previously. Do the same for the “Faculty Thumbnail” field.
In the “Faculty Department Title” field, add the faculty or staff member’s official title. Optionally, you can also add their educational background in “Education Experience.” Fill in their contact information next, including their email, phone, and office location. If they would like to be identified as a first-generation college student, check the “First Gen” box, and their profile will display the “First Gen” logo. If you would like the faculty or staff member to have a full separate bio page, fill in the “Faculty Bio” field with biographical information. Next, fill in “Faculty First Name” and “Faculty Last Name.” This may feel repetitive, but it’s important for organizing the faculty and staff profile alphabetically on the page.
Finally, scroll down to “Additional Data.” Here, you can add a separate professional website to the “Alternate Bio URL” if they would prefer to link to that instead of a bio page in Sitecore.
If they would like, you can list their degree title in the “Degree Title” field. If you would like to simply display the faculty or staff member’s contact information in the directory and not link to a separate bio page, leave “Link To Profile” unchecked. Now, click “Save,” and in the “Home” tab, click “Edit” and then “Publish.”
Now, navigate to your department’s faculty or staff directory page in the content editor. There are two ways directory pages are organized in Sitecore, and it’s important to determine which method your department uses. One option is to use the Faculty-Staff Directory template, which displays all profiles in a grid, with optional filters. The other option is to use a standard page template, and organize profiles into sections using the “Faculty Builder” component. If you click on your faculty or staff page, it will either show “Faculty-Staff Directory” in the “Template” description, or “3 Column Builder,” which is the standard page template.
Faculty-Staff Directory option
If your page uses the “Faculty-Staff Directory” template, here are the steps to follow to add your new member to the page.
The “Faculty-Staff Directory” template pulls in a list of faculty and staff members automatically, and it finds that list within the surrounding website. Different departments organize this list differently: some departments add the list of members directly underneath the directory page, and others store this list in a folder titled something like “faculty-source.” In order to add a new member to a directory page, you have to create a new “Faculty Placeholder” item.
In the case of University Communications, I can see that all of the faculty placeholders are stored directly under the directory page. So, in order to add a new member, I’m going to right-click on the directory page, click “Insert,” and then select “Faculty Placeholder.” Give the new placeholder the same name you gave to the Faculty Bio page you created for the faculty or staff member in the previous step. Scroll down, and click “Edit” above “Faculty Contact.” Here, you can connect the Faculty Bio Page you created in “Lists.”
If your department uses filtering options like “Department,” you can assign those departments in the department field by clicking the department you want and then using the blue arrows to move the selected department into the “Selected” box. Finally, you can use the “Faculty type” dropdown field if your department organizes their directory between faculty, staff, adjuncts, and other categories. Hit “Save.”
Click your directory page, and click “Preview” in the “Publish” tab. If your new member is displaying correctly, return to the “Faculty placeholder” in the Content Editor and publish it out using “Edit > Publish” in the “Home” tab.
In order to double-check that your page has published with all of your changes, go back to the Content Editor, right-click on your page, select “Copy Item Url,” and then click “Copy Live Url.” Highlight the link and paste it in a new browser window. Here, we can see that our changes have published successfully.
3-Column Builder (Standard page template) option
If your department’s directory page uses the standard page template with Faculty Builder items to organize faculty and staff into sections, the process is similar, but with one more extra step.
In the case of the Music Department, I can see that all of the faculty placeholders are stored in a folder labeled “faculty-source.” So, in order to add a new member, I’m going to right-click on the folder, click “Insert,” and then select “Faculty Placeholder.” Give the new placeholder the same name you gave to the Faculty Bio page you created for the faculty or staff member in the previous step. Scroll down, and click “Edit” above “Faculty Contact.” Here, you can connect the Faculty Bio Page you created in “Lists.”
Now, in order to add the new member to the directory page, open the page content folder for the directory page. Select the section you would like to add the member to, and scroll down to the “Faculty Contact” section. Here, you will see all active members have been moved into the “Selected” box. Click “Lock and Edit,” and find your new Faculty Placeholder in the “All” box under “Faculty Contact.” Use the blue arrow to move the placeholder into the “Selected” box, changing the order if need be using the up and down blue arrows. Hit “Save.”
With your directory page selected, click the “Preview” button in the “Publish” tab to make sure your new member is displaying correctly. If everything looks good, return to your placeholder item in the Content Editor and publish it using “Edit > Publish” in the “Home” tab.
In order to double-check that your page has published with all of your changes, go back to the Content Editor, right-click on your page, select “Copy Item Url,” and then click “Copy Live Url.” Highlight the link and paste it in a new browser window. Here, we can see that our changes have published successfully.