'Newcastle University & T4 Site Manager':Paul Thompson and Mike Sales will discuss how Newcastle University have set up TERMINALFOUR Site Manager to support many small high turnover sites for research projects and conferences.The T4 API has been used to create a bespoke Handler to clone a template site, manage users and permissions, and send them documentation.

1. Fly Swatter / Box Cutter
Paul Thompson and Mike Sales
paul.thompson@ncl.ac.uk
mike.sales@ncl.ac.uk

2. 2009 Website Audit
355 websites on our main server
70
prospectus, staff, student and
service websites
70
schools, faculties, institutes
215 mysterious
websites…

3. 2010 Website Moving
355 websites on our main server
other hosted
domains
32%
70
70
prospectus, staff, student and
service websites
teaching.ncl.ac.uk
1%
schools, faculties, institutes
215 mysterious
websites…
conferences.ncl.ac
6%
research.ncl.ac.uk
27%
www.ncl.ac.uk
34%

4. other hosted
domains
32%
www.ncl.ac.uk
34%
teaching.ncl.ac.uk
1%
conferences.ncl.ac
6%
research.ncl.ac.uk
27%

5. Choose a template site with
some level of customisation
Create users and provide
training and documentation.

6. Drag the finished site onto
the live server when
complete
Copy the template site
Branch to the dev server.
Choose a template site with
some level of customisation
Create users and provide
training and documentation.

7. Drag the finished site onto
the live server when
complete
Copy the template site
Branch to the dev server.
Choose a template site with
some level of customisation
Create users and provide
training and documentation.

9. Some navigation objects and link
sections continue to refer to the
template when copied :-(
We based out structure around
two navigation objects that
collect relatively located
content:
• Related Content Advanced
• Related Content Branch
These are included when found,
and have a naming convention
that we hope is easy to follow…

10. Slide Heading
Research grants and contracts awarded in ????:
•
•
•
•
Research Councils: £?? million
European Commissions: £?? million
UK-based Charities: £?? million
Other: £?? million

11. We have a small number of
content types used for creating
stylesheets… this is the main
one.

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100
90
80
70
internal.ncl.ac.uk
60
www.ncl.edu.my
www.ncl.ac.uk
50
Hosted Domain Websites
conferences.ncl.ac.uk
research.ncl.ac.uk
40
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20
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0

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internal.ncl.ac.uk
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www.ncl.edu.my
www.ncl.ac.uk
50
Hosted Domain Websites
conferences.ncl.ac.uk
research.ncl.ac.uk
40
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100
90
80
70
internal.ncl.ac.uk
60
www.ncl.edu.my
www.ncl.ac.uk
50
Hosted Domain Websites
conferences.ncl.ac.uk
research.ncl.ac.uk
40
30
20
10
0

17. We’re increasingly using these
kinds of structures (rather than
Site Syles) to hold our template
html and css.

18. This gives us flexibility to swap
in and out components rather
than having a new style for each
page type.

19. as an aside, we
think a navigation
object with an
xpath like notation
for collecting
content pieces
would be splendid…
Maybe we can
figure this out
ourselves with the
new javascript
formatters 

20. 100
90
80
70
60
internal.ncl.ac.uk
www.ncl.edu.my
50
www.ncl.ac.uk
Hosted Domain Websites
conferences.ncl.ac.uk
40
research.ncl.ac.uk
We're averaging
5-6 live sites and a
12 users per month,
and are even starting
to retire old sites.
30
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10
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0

21. All of these steps required:
• Channel Reset
• Publish
• Transfer
There are some navigation objects
we’d like to use, but they need
repointing when copied.
Copied branches now
drop to a pending state.
We wanted to synch the structure
of the Media Library and its
permissions at the same time as
cloning the template.
We have to add the users to the
right group in our directory and
do a user import.

22. Many pauses.
All of these steps required:
• Channel Reset
• Publish
• Transfer
Too much knowledge.
There are some navigation objects
we’d like to use, but they need
repointing when copied.
Lots of steps.
Copied branches now
drop to a pending state.
Fractures customer
communication.
We wanted to synch the structure
of the Media Library and its
permissions at the same time as
cloning the template.
It’s scriptable for our
helpdesk, but…
We have to add the users to the
right group in our directory and
do a user import.