Glossary

B

Browser

The program that allows you to view webpages, such as .html files. Examples include Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.

C

Code view

When editing a page, the code view, accessed by clicking on the HTML icon in TMS, shows users the hypertext markup language (HTML) code behind the webpage.

Crumbs

Crumbs (or breadcrumbs) are a trail of links (e.g. M&SC Home > Glossary) that demonstrate the file structure of a site showing users the logical navigation path to that page.

Related links

• Go to WebAccess
• More about Navigation on Web Guide

CSS or Cascading Style Sheets

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a style sheet language used to apply style properties to items in a HTML document. The .html document links to the .css file, and refers to styles by name so that a group of attributes (eg. font size, colour, style) can be applied to multiple items in webpages. This simplifies the process of editing styles and encourages consistency, as it allows styles to be specified and edited once in the style sheet rather than manually applying the styles to each item.

Related links

• Using Cascading Style Sheets
• University Template Design

D

Development server

This is where the ‘preview’ version of our website exists, ie: the site that is under development. In Dreamweaver you upload or ‘check in’ files that have been changed locally to the development server; using TMS you edit files on the development server.

Dreamweaver

Dreamweaver is website development software, available for use by existing and advanced University web maintainers as a WYSIWYG web editing tool. The majority of web maintainers use the University's preferred editing tool, TMS, to edit their websites.

F

File path

The path from one file to another within a hierarchical structure or ‘tree’ of folders.

FTP

File Transfer Protocol – using FTP software (eg. WS_FTP) you can connect from your computer (ie. the client) to remote computers (ie. the development server) to upload and download files over a network such as the Internet.

G

Global

Refers to centrally stored styles or elements used across the board in the design and structure of the website.

Related links

• Using Cascading Style Sheets
• University Templates design

GUI

Graphical User Interface (GUI) – the user friendly view on a computer that enables you see and interact with onscreen items, without requiring the technical knowledge to decipher the coding or scripting behind a presentation or function.

H

HTML

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) communicates the structure of textual data to web browsers, indicating how to display the GUI. Certain text will be tagged as headings, paragraphs, lists, etc. The HTML may also incorporate interactive forms, embedded images, and other objects.

M

Menu

The menu is the navigation system that helps users to move around the different pages and sections of a website.

Related links

• More about Navigation menus

N

Navigation menu

The navigation menu helps users to move around the different pages and sections of a website. For sites that use the University standard templates, the navigation menu appears to the left of the page and lists links to various pages/sections within that site. The navigation menu should reflect the site map of its site rather than linking to other related sites.

Related links

• More about Navigation on Web Guide

P

PDF

Portable Document File. PDF is a compact, device-independent method for exchanging fixed-layout documents, including the text, fonts, images, and 2-D vector graphics in the file.

Production server

This is where the live or public version of your website exists. Webaccess and TMS are used to upload ‘ready to publish’ files from the development server to the production server.

Related links

• Making your website live

Program Finder

Program Finder is an online database of all programs of study at the University. 'Programs' within the context of the University of Adelaide refers to all undergraduate, postgraduate and non-award degree programs and plans. Program Finder is a centralised application that allows program information to be stored and accessed centrally, and as such the content is edited directly within the live program finder.

S

Staff Directory

The University of Adelaide Staff Directory is a centralised application that allows staff information to be stored and accessed centrally, but which allows each University of Adelaide staff member to maintain their own information. Staff directory entries are edited directly within the live staff directory.

Structure

The structure of the website refers to organisation of the webpages into folders and files, which is also known as the site map. The structure of the site is reflected by the navigation menu for the site.

Site Map

The site map of a website refers to the organisation of the webpages into folders and files, which is also known as the site structure. The navigation menu should reflect the site map.

T

Tabnav menu

The tabnav menu helps users to move between related sites within the main University website. For sites that use the University standard templates, the tabnav menu appears across the top of the webpage just below the pageheader. The leftmost site listed in the tabnav it the primary site and its related subsites are positioned across the page.

Related links

• More about Navigation menus

Tags

Coded lables in HTML bracketed by less than and greater than symbols, ie: , which communicate how text and other objects should appear or behave.

Templates

University websites use templates to manage the layout of webpages. The templates separate the design and the content of webpages, which maximises consistency of appearance of the sites and allows sitewide changes to be made simply. The template is "wrapped" around the page content when a browser displays the page.

Related links

• Using Cascading Style Sheets
• University Templates design

TMS

The Template Management System (TMS) provides a means of creating and maintaining a website that separates the content of the website from the format/design using a WYSIWYG web editor to make changes to webdev.

U

Upload

Uploading is the process of transferring files from the webdev development server to the live production webserver. Once pages are uploaded they are visible on the live website. This can be done from the TMS editing toolbox or by using webaccess to upload multiple files.

Related links

• Go to WebAccess
• Making your website live 

URL

Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is another term used to describe web addresses.

W

WebAccess

The website that provides a number of tools for web maintainers to use on their websites, for example, webaccess can be used to upload pages from the webdev development webserver to the live website.

Related links

• Go to WebAccess
• Uploading using WebAccess

Webdev

The development web server. All changes to websites are made to the webdev version of the site and then when the changes have been checked they can be uploaded to the live website. Note that when viewing pages on the development server, the ‘www’ in the address is replaced by ‘webdev’.

Related links

• External connection methods (at home, abroad, etc)
• Uploading using WebAccess

Widgets

In University websites widgets are information boxes that provide additional content and add interest to a site. They can be set to randomly load a difference widget each time the page is loaded. Current standard University templates contain widgets as a default feature.

WYSIWYG

What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) – describes a system in which the content being edited appears very similar to the final product. TMS uses WYSIWYG (pronounced ‘wizziwig’) editing.