Editing Web Pages on the HHP College Server (Hermes)

Introduction

The college operates two distinct web servers - the Classes server and the College server. There are different methods for working with each - this document is only relevant to pages hosted on the main college server, not those pages on the Classes site (that is any page starting with "http://classes.hhp.ufl.edu/").

The college website is managed using a server side template system. This means that what you see in your web editor will not reflect exactly what it will look like in a browser. Essentially, the template system takes the file containing the text of each page and then wraps the menus and layout around that content.

Overview Example

In this image, everything which is greyed out is provided by the template - you will not be able to edit that region.

All of the work you do will be in the bright white area labeled "EDITABLE SPACE".

If you are editing a page in Frontpage or Dreamweaver and it actually looks like what you expect the end product to look like, then you probably have a problem. We'll cover that and other common pitfalls a little further along.

How To Edit Pages

This is the core, step by step on how to edit a page - it's actually quite straightforward.

  1. Launch your editor of choice. Frontpage, Dreamweaver, InDesign and even Notepad are all possible editors to use.
  2. Use "File -> Open" and then browse to the page you wish to edit through that dialogue. In most cases, it will be under the "W:" drive.
  3. Edit the file as desired. Keep in mind that you are only editing the "EDITABLE SPACE" content.
  4. Use "File -> Save" to save the file.

Common Pitfalls

Unfortunately, as easy as I had hoped this system would be, there are a few sticky areas. Most of them are the result of unfortunate default actions from Frontpage.

  • The content appears way down on the screen.

    The editable content box is a fixed width - about 600 pixels. If the content forces itself to be "wider" than that it can cause the "way down on the screen" problem. The solution is to resize the page in your editor to be less than 600 pixels in width. I am also looking into improving the way the template handles this case, but I haven't cracked that problem yet.

  • The whole page including framework is showing in my editor!

    This is almost always caused by attempting to edit the page by using Internet Explorer and selecting "File->Edit with Frontpage". Don't do that! If this happens, just close out the editor and re-open the page following the steps listed above. If the page is still showing all the framework you'll simply need to delete everything except what goes in the content box.

  • The framework is showing twice (or more) when I view it on the website!

    This is the same problem as the previous one just viewed from the other side of the fence. Again, open the file as detailed above and delete everything except the stuff in the content box.

  • It won't let me save to the server

    If this is the first time you have attempted to work on this system, it may be a permissions issue - call Computing in that case. More commonly, this is caused by choosing "File -> Publish Web" instead of "File -> Save" under Frontpage - make sure you're doing the later.

If you have any questions or problems working with the system, please do not hesitate to contact Computing Services by email: computing@hhp.ufl.edu or phone: 392-0578 ext. 2222.