Web content development for web sites hosted on any Department of Medicine web server (except for the Tier 1 host with eXpress Site Builder) is performed on a staging server, sandbox.ucsf.edu. The use of a staging server allows each content developer to edit and preview content on a live server prior to updated content being copied to the production server. This will allow each division to preview any changes prior to changing the content on their production server. Once your updates are finalized and approved, the DOM IT Services staff will move the updated content to the medicine.ucsf.edu server.

Connecting with Dreamweaver

You can edit your files directly or through Dreamweaver and upload them. Here are the steps to take:

1. Select the web server you connect to.
2. You need to specify the path to your files on the server.
   
   
3. You connect to the development server using your Active Directory account (the same as your email account).

Mapping a Network Drive

If you prefer to be able to drag and drop files and folders locally on your computer, you may want to map your web site's document root as a network drive instead of using SFTP.

Connecting from a Windows XP client

1. Right-click on My Network Places and select Map Network Drive....
2. Type in the Folder path as \\sandbox.ucsf.edu\data and check the box if you want to Reconnect at logon.
• If you don't log in to your computer using your email username and password, go to step 3.
• If you log in to your computer using the same username and password as you use for your email, go to step 4.
3. Click on the Connect using a different user name link, and enter your email username and password, then click OK.
4. Click Finish.

Connecting from a Mac OS X client

1. In the Finder select Connect to Server... from the Go menu (command-k).
2. Type in the address of the server: smb://sandbox.ucsf.edu/data
3. Type in your username and password. If you want to have your computer remember your server login click the Options... button and check the box to add the password to your keychain. Keep in mind that this connection will fail the next time you change your Active Directory password.
4. To mount the data share at login open the System Preferences and click on Login Items. Click the Add... button and select the share or folder you want opened at login.

Requesting a Webupdate

Use the webupdates request form to request update of specific pages or entire directories. Your changes should go live by the start of the next business day. In case of an emergency, you can also send email to webupdates@medicine.ucsf.edu for a faster change, but please make sure you put Urgent at the beginning of the subject line.

Templates

As part of the upgrade, the presentation layer and the content layer have been split; a templating system is being implemented for all sites to allow divisions to edit their own content without having to worry about the template design.

If you are used to looking at the old pages, you will remember a lot of javascript and other code. After your site is retemplated, those lines should all disappear, and you will be able to edit your content more easily. An example of a new page:

 <?
 $title = "Page Title";
 include('/data/templates/new/top-2008.php');
 ?>

 <!-- #BeginEditable "Content" -->

 Your content goes here.
 You can edit the page title by changing the text within the quotes on the line that
 begins "$title = " in the code view above.

 <!-- #EndEditable -->

 <br>

 <?
 include('/data/templates/new/bottom-2008.php');
 ?>

Backups

On sandbox you can edit your web content and preview the changes in real time. All DOM-supported web servers are backed up nightly to ensure data integrity. Please contact the DOM Helpdesk if you ever need any files recovered from backup. For security purposes, the Department of Medicine does not allow web editors to directly access production web servers.

More Resources

We have a collection of Resources for DOM Web Editors that will help you develop great sites.