The WCMS selected by Trinity College is Terminal 4 (T4) Site Manager - the software is specialised for web content management in universities and higher education. It is used by peer institutions including University of Manchester, University of St Andrews, and University College Dublin, among many others.
Given the scale of TCD.ie, migration to the CMS is a gradual project conducted over three years (2021, 2022 and 2023).
We have created a Wave system to migrate the various websites and subsites. The composition of the Waves is flexible, and will to some extent be determined by readiness.
The first step for you, as liaison, is to create an inventory of the content on your website identifying content to be migrated (current), retired (it is out of date), or moved off the public website (it is suitable only for internal audience).
The Digital project team will support you in this effort, providing an inventory template and guidance on preparation. The migration process itself will be undertaken by a dedicated team.
To find out what Wave you have been allocated, please contact our Project Manager, Monica Timmins, if you have not already received an email.
If you'd like to get started, let us know when you have availability and we can organise a workshop to brief you on the inventory preparation process.
Sample Inventory Report
Tab 1 - Website inventory
For each file, select from column b – status dropdown:
For each file, select from column D – file type dropdown:
For each file, add the name of the web page owner in column F. i.e. Name of Head of School. If it’s the same person for every file, hold your cursor on the bottom right corner of the cell until cross symbol turns thin, hold down shift key and drag it down the number of rows you want to copy the answer to.
NB: If you delete any files from this inventory list from the remote server before handing this document over for migration of the site – you should remove them from the excel sheet.
Tab 2 - Sitemap
Review sitemap layout and ensure the structure is coherent.
Make sure you are not linking to an external site in your menu structure.
In column H, give an idea of the complexity of the page - if it contains media files. You don’t need to name each file.
Example: 2 images, 1 video, 2 word docs
In column I, add the name of the web author(s)
In column J, add the web page owner ( same person listed in content inventory tab)
In column K, any comments
NB: If you make any changes to the sitemap while performing the audit or before handing this document over for migration of the site – you should update this excel tab to reflect the change.
Your current sitemap can be found in your admin folder, when you click on Content Inventory Starter.
Tab 3 – Migration categories
Ignore this tab and do not edit. It is for categorising the dropdown menus.
Keep a list of any new pages to add to the inventory report. You will sign off on your inventory and sitemap before the migration begins. This version must include any pages created up to the sign-off date.
There will be a cut-off point/moratorium on adding new content or editing the site. For a short period before migration, until the migration is complete, you should not add new content or edit your site in Dreamweaver, as these changes will not be migrated.
A dedicated content officer will be assigned to your site. They will be in contact regarding the cut-off date when scheduling your migration.
SharePoint is part of the Office 365 suite. You may already be saving and sharing documents on One Drive - SharePoint is the technology behind One Drive.
If you have departmental documents on the web server which you only share internally, for example:
the best place to save these is to SharePoint.
Only keep the current document on the website, because if another website is still linking to your old PDF, it can be found in Google search.
Course and student handbooks can be kept as part of your website, as potential students may need access to these.
See further information on how to use SharePoint
Yes, this is possible. It is a browser based system, so multiple users can be given login access to the same website. You can login from any location and don't need to be on campus or use VPN. You can restrict editing rights to sections or pages to specific users.
A content approval process can be implemented before any new content is published. There is also a history log available to see what changes have been made.
Maintaining the integrity of the Trinity branding and our website is very important. In order to retain this consistency, we have created page layouts and components for our new WCMS. The migration team will assist you in migrating your microsite to the new WCMS. Content layout is based on your current site.
IT services will provide training on how to use the WCMS.
Our website is a primary platform promoting Trinity to a worldwide external audience and internal audience and only files that relate to this should be stored on the web server. Files such as teaching materials and internal documents should be stored in the relevant University provided systems such as Sharepoint, VLE etc.
Our new WCMS will make news updates much easier and more streamlined and you can use the news component in the WCMS to add news items.
Investing time now in adding an RSS news feature to your current site is not recommended. For ease of migrating your current content keep using the news page template in our handbook.
You will be able to create forms in the new system. We would need to assess the type of forms being used on your current site.
An accordion content type has been created in the WCMS so you can show/hide content in a dropdown. However, we don't recommend using this component too often on your website, as it makes it more difficult for users to scan a page for content, or use the find feature to search for a key word, phrase or document.
