Getting There
Once assigned webmaster rights, you will find a Webmaster Center link in the Quick Links section of your portal homepage. The Webmaster Center is your hub for building and managing your website. Click the Webmaster Center link to get started.
Design Setup
In the Design Setup process you will select the site’s template and colors, upload your logos, and enter contact details such as address and phone numbers.
Site Structure
You can create your site’s main navigation menu from the Navigation Manager. If you need additional top level sections, use the blue Add menu at the top of the Navigation Manager and choose Top Level Nav (Section).
To move sections on the Navigation Manager, hover over the folder icon until you see the cursor change, click, hold, and drag to a new location on the map. Landing zones light up in dark green. Alternately, you can drop a folder on another folder to create sub sections.
Click the Standalone Site Map button at the top right of the Navigation Manager to manage the entire website. With the full site map, you may edit section names, drag and drop sections and pages, view page histories, and undelete pages.
Use the “Where am I” links located at the very top left of every page to navigate your way back to the Webmaster Center at anytime while working on your site.
Content Manager: Homepage
Filling the right column of the Webmaster Center, the Content Manager gives you easy access to the homepage publishing tools for News, Notes/Blog, and Events. Just click the appropriate blue Add button and follow the onscreen instructions. Files and links may be attached to news, notes, and events.
Image Albums and Resource Locker are located at the bottom of the Content Manager. Unlike the publishing tools for New, Notes, and Events, these resources are available for use on any page in any section of the website.
In addition to the Webmaster Center, each section of the site has its own image albums and resource locker. As Webmaster, you have rights to all image albums and lockers on the site. Editors and contributors only have access to the image albums and lockers associated with their assigned sections of the site.
Site Status
Near the top right of the Webmaster Center, your site’s status is indicated as either Not Live or Live. When you are ready to make your site public, use the Change button to change the site to Live. If you want to make your site unavailable to the public after it is Live, simply click the Change button again to toggle it back to Not Live.
When your site is not live, the School Loop URL you were given will take visitors to the generic Login screen. Once the site is made Live, the same URL will take visitors to your website.
Working with Sections (Mini-Sites)
Clicking a section name from the Navigation Manager will bring you to the default page for that section. If no pages exist in that section, you will be prompted to add a page. From this place, all work on the section can be accomplished using tools on the page.
At the top left of the page, you’ll find the breadcrumb style “Where am I” links that allow you to work your way back to the Webmaster Center or all the way back to your Portal.
A Series of buttons below the breadcrumbs allow you to take actions on the page (Save, Edit, Publish, etc.) or preview the live or draft versions of that page.
The navigation menu on the left of the page allows you select any page in the section. The Add and Reorder Pages buttons apply only to this section. The text “Not Pub” in red next to the page name in the navigation menu indicates a draft page.
Use the buttons near the top right to view section Activity (open and recently published pages), work with Resource Files (create image albums and upload files for use in Lockers), and assign Rights (name editors and contributors).
Adding Pages
Select Page from the Add menu on the top of the left navigation menu and complete the Add Page form. The Title/Headline you choose will appear at the top of the page and will be used as the link to the page in the navigation menu.
The optional URL Name field is used to create a friendlier address for a page such as http://ausd-ca.schoolloop.com/asb.
Note: Be sure to choose a unique URL Name. Duplicate URLs will confuse the system and you may loose access to one of the pages.
For each page created, you must also select the layout template. The choices include number of columns and whether or not to include a navigation bar in the far left column.
Click the Submit button to create the page and begin adding content.
Working with Pages
When building pages, you’ll notice several Plus Sign icons on the page. These icons and the light green bar indicate where you may insert additional content.
Click one of these icons to add any one of 10 types of elements such a Rich Text Editor, Locker, Directory, or Slideshow. While there are a few tricks to learn, working with Elements is typically quite simple.
Elements on a page can be dragged to new locations on the page. The light green bar for each Plus Sign icon becomes a landing zone. First hover over an existing element until you see the cursor change, then click, hold, and drag. You can release the mouse button when the landing zone turns a darker green as picture above.
Elements may be removed from the page by clicking on the trash can Icon. Depending on the Element, you may also see a pencil icon (edit) and/or an Add (content) button.
Next to the page title are the Properties and History buttons. Properties allow you to change the page name, URL name, and template. History is a list of all published versions of that page. Click any date link to view that version of the page.
Near the top of the page are several buttons that allow you to take action on the page (e.g. cancel or copy), delete the live page, preview your draft, or view the live page.
Note: The Cancel button will delete a page that has not been published. Deleted draft pages cannot be recovered, so it is best to publish your pages even if they are not quite finished. You can always hide the page until you are ready to make them available. Once published, the Cancel button will only delete changes made since the page was last published.
When ready, click the Publish button on the top left of the page. To save your work and continue working later, click the Save button. Pages saved but not published are stored as drafts, which you can access from the My Draft Pages button at the top of the Navigation Manager.
Linking to Teacher Websites
Teachers and other staff members can create their own web pages in their accounts that are also part of the larger school website. The best way to link to those pages is by use of the Directory Element. As staff members publish their sites, their name in the directory becomes a hyperlink to their site. It’s all automatic – no need to create pages full of links.
Web Publishing Rights and Approvals
Assigning editors and contributors allows you to distribute the work of maintaining the website. Editors have essentially all the same rights as the webmaster, except that they are restricted to working with a single section of the website. Contributors are also restricted to working on a single section of the site, but everything a contributor publishes must be approved by either an editor of that section or the webmaster.
