Managing the Law Academic Calendar
- Roberta Roebuck
- David Schmidt
draft
The academic calendar for the School of Law is managed entirely within Cascade CMS. It feeds to the following public-facing pages:
Linked from:
Processes
There are two main reasons to make updates to the academic calendar. We’ll call these process 1 and process 2. You can click on any of the screenshots on this page to enlarge them.
Process 1: Minor Edits
The first process is to make minor edits to an already existing calendar. It’s the easiest, so that’s where this documentation will start.
Process 2: Yearly Calendar Shuffle
The second process is usually performed once a year when the “previous” year’s calendar is removed, making the “current” year become the previous year, the “next” year then takes the spot for the current year, and a new calendar year is added into the next year position.
Location of Files to Edit
All of the academic calendar files you will need to work with are located in Cascade CMS within the following directory. You can navigate to this folder if you’re already in Cascade, or simply click the following link. Note, you may need to log in before the system will let you access the page.
Step 1: Selecting the Correct Block Asset
Each of the academic calendars (previous year, current year, and next year) are controlled by “blocks” in Cascade. So there are two separate assets involved; the page which displays the calendar, and the blocks that control the data. For updating a calendar, you will only need to edit the block, and not the display page itself. Below are three screenshots detailing which display page (in blue) is controlled by which block (in red). Block assets have this icon:
For instance, if you want to edit the data on the page named “2023-24” (which, at the moment, is the “next year” page), you would start by selecting the block asset named “items-2023-24.”
Notice that the current year’s display page is always named “index.” That’s because it’s the landing page. Because of this, the current year is the only display page whose name won’t align with the block that controls it. To edit the current year’s data, look for the year range that the current calendar spans, in this case, “items-2022-23,” and select that block. This is outlined in red in the screenshot to the right.
You will know you have a block page selected because the content does not look like it does on the live site. Instead, you will see several collapsed containers labeled, “Calendar Item,” as in the screenshot to the right.
The links in the titles below should take you to the correct corresponding blocks for each of the respective display pages.
Current Year “Index” Block
Step 2: Edit the Block
With the correct block selected, click the edit button.
Step 3: Expand the Correct Container
Find the entry you need to edit and click to expand its container.
Step 4: Make Edits
Change any necessary text, or click into the Date Field and select a new date to change it. Don’t forget that if the new date would alter the date sequence, you will also have to use the container arrows to move the container up or down the list so that it appears in the correct order.
Alternatively, you can click the red X to delete the container. Warning: There is no pop-up asking to confirm your decision. Once a container is deleted, it instantly disappears. You will have to discard your draft and start over if you want to recover it.
Step 5: Preview Draft and Submit
Once all of your edits are complete, click Preview Draft, and continue with the workflow submission process as normal.
Process 2: Yearly Calendar Shuffle
This process is usually done only once a year. This process is usually performed once a year when the “previous” year’s calendar is removed, making the “current” year become the previous year, the “next” year then takes the spot for the current year, and a new calendar year is added into the next year position.
No pages are actually moved to accomplish this. Instead, display pages are renamed, re-titled, and their navigation titles are updated, and their corresponding blocks have the dates and entries modified.
Because the School of Law only shows three active academic calendar years (previous, current, next) you can easily repurpose the older calendars for newer years. This will allow you to retain all the items in the calendar, requiring you to only change dates.
The steps below will walk you through the process. In short, you will start by modifying the “previous” year block to mirror the data on the “current” year block. Next, you will modify the “current year” block to duplicate the data on the “next year” block. Then, the “next year” block’s data is updated with the dates and information for the new information for the “new next year.”
Finally, all the of pages and blocks are renamed to reflect their new updated year spans.
Note on This Documentation’s Examples
This documentation uses the following year ranges and their matching names for references and screenshots:
2021-22: Previous Year
2022-23: Current Year (Default “index” page)
2023-24: Next Year
Step 1: Edit the Previous Year Block
Select the previous year’s block and edit it.
Blocks are denoted with the following icon:
Step 2: Update Data
Expand each of the entries and proceed through them to update text, change the date, move, and/or delete each entry.
At this stage, you will be replicating all of the entries as they currently exist on the “current year” page.
Changing the Date
To modify the date, click on the small “up arrow” next to the year, then select the correct year then the correct date.
Step 3: Preview Draft
Once all of your edits to the block are complete, click the Preview Draft button. This will save all of your changes. Do not submit the changes yet. All of the changes will be submitted together, so that the calendar updates on the live sites simultaneously.
Step 4: Repeat Steps 1 - 3 for the Current Year Block
Once you have finished updating the previous year block so that it contains all of the current year’s data, then follow steps 1 to 3 above for updating the current year’s data to contain all of next year’s.
Step 5: Repeat Steps 1 - 3 for the Next Year Block
Once you have finished updating the current year block so that it contains all of the next year’s data, then follow steps 1 to 3 above for updating the next year’s data to contain all of the new year’s.
Step 6: Submit Workflows
When your blocks are ready to go live, and you have time to finish the following steps, select the previous year block then click the Submit button.
Repeat this for the current and next year’s blocks as well.
Once all of the data is updated on the three blocks, the next phase will be to update the names of the pages and blocks…
Step 7: Rename Display Pages
Now, you will make some edits to the display pages instead of the blocks. Locate the previous year page. Pages are denoted with the following icon:
Right click on the previous year page and choose More → Rename.
Please keep the same naming convention when you rename the page, then click the blue Start Workflow button.
Repeat this for the current and next year pages as well.
Step 8: Change Title and Navigation Title for Each of the Display Pages
Start by selecting the previous year display page again. Click edit.
Change the Title and the Navigation Title (optional) fields to match the new date ranges, continuing to follow the same naming conventions.
The Navigation Title is very important, as this field is what updates the links that users see.
When the Title and Navigation Title fields have been updated, click Preview Draft and submit your workflow.
Repeat this for the current and next year display pages as well.
Step 9 Rename Blocks
Every page has a respective “block” that contains all of that year’s events. It will be named the same as the display page, but with “items-” prepended.
Once the proper block has been identified, you can rename it to match the academic year you are adding.
Right click on the block and choose More → Rename. Remember, blocks are associated with the following icon:
Please keep the same naming convention when you rename the page, i.e. only change the year and leave “items-” intact, then click the blue Start Workflow button.
Repeat this for the current and next year blocks as well.
Step 10: Submit a Web Request to Update USD Academics Site
Finally, submit a web request by going to sandiego.edu/web-requests and ask the web team to “update the calendar links and names on the USD Academics site.”
Once the web team completes all of the workflows, the changes will be live.