We use WordPress as a CMS to power a lot of our college websites. Connect Magazine and CEHD News are just two examples. CEHD News is also used to display stories on dozens of other college websites through the use of custom RSS feeds. Several college academic and research projects are built with WordPress, a good choice due to ease of use and the ability to administer the sites by proxy.
Hey! This site is on WordPress!
Building on positive feedback, the college developed an even better way to quickly spin up WordPress sites that adhere to college branding, these are called innovation sites.
Innovation Sites
This is a multisite set up of WordPress and is used mainly for faculty projects and events that require a web presence. The base domain is innovation.umn.edu, easy to convey in print or verbally.
Other features are that the SEO is pretty good and people find WordPress easy to use.
Request a Site on Innovation
A communication lead can make the request to cehdweb@umn.edu for a new innovation site. We only need the following information to get the site started.
- The URL, what should be listed after innovation.umn.edu?
- innovation.umn.edu/my-site
- Cannot be changed later
- What is the site name and tagline?
- Can be changed at anytime
- Top or side navigation?
- Can be changed later, but a bit of a hassle
Add Users to Innovation Sites
An administrator can add users to their innovation site, but the interface gives two puzzling options: “Add Existing User” and “Add New User.” Which to choose?
Add Existing User
This means the user has access to some other site on innovation. Pop the UMN Internet ID or UMN email into the Username field and see what happens. No worries if they actually aren’t in the system. WordPress will tell you and then you just move down the page to…
Add New User
This means the users does not have access to any site on innovation, they are indeed new to the whole system.
UMN Internet ID: This is the first part of the UMN email before the @umn.edu. I am jeff@umn.edu so my internet ID is jeff.
UMN Email: This is the users UMN email. You can use a department account if you like, but it must be an @umn.edu email.
Role: Select from the drop-down, you can change this at anytime. Most people are added as editors if that helps to choose.
What are the roles?
Here are brief descriptions from WordPress.org, click on any role for complete details.
- Administrator somebody who has access to all the administration features within a single site, can add users, change the menu.
- Editor somebody who can publish and manage posts including the posts of other users.
- Author somebody who can publish and manage their own posts.
- Contributor somebody who can write and manage their own posts but cannot publish them.
- Subscriber somebody who can only manage their profile.
I Messed up Adding a User
It happens, we’ve all done it. Some people like Jeff have a job that revolves around messing up. Here are some common errors and fixes.
Wrong Internet ID
Added abuzz001 instead of abuz0001? Simply delete the account that isn’t working and add the user again.