Adjust settings that influence how the page is displayed or used within the UBCMS. In most cases, the changes are immediate.
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Last reviewed: April 20, 2022
Please be careful when adjusting these settings. Some changes may have unexpected results, including affecting pages on other sites.
Properties has seven tabs: Basic, Advanced, Scheduling, Image, Background, Stewardship and Social.
These settings can be accessed while editing a page in the Edit Console (click the Equalizer icon then select Open Properties), or from the Sites Console (select the page then click Properties in the Command Menu).
This tab controls the main settings for the page. The Title should reflect what you entered when you created the page. You can then make additional adjustments as noted below, although no further changes are required.
Please pay attention to what comes across, in case the tags are unsuitable for this child page and to prevent this page accidentally appearing unexpectedly in lists on other pages.
The component opened for editing showing the Basic Tab main settings.
When viewed in the browser tab, search results, or bookmarks, UBCMS page titles will always end with ' - University at Buffalo'.
The component opened for editing showing the Basic Tab's More Titles and Descriptions settings.
This area allows modification of additional settings and is mostly intended for developers.
Please be careful with these options. Some, such as Vanity URL, can impact other websites if not set carefully.
The component opened for editing showing the Advanced Tab main settings.
Without extra provisions such as server-level redirects, the Alias setting will cause every page under it to have two URLs. This can be bad for SEO and can greatly complicate Google analytics.
Jumbo Top Nav settings only work when Jumbo Top Navigation is turned on in the site header's Top Navigation component, and only if this page has child pages.
> Read more about Jumbo Top Navigation.
The Private Authoring setting in page Properties.
No one is permitted to set a Vanity URL outside their own site. For authorization, contact us.
Analytics codes should be placed in your site's home page Properties, where they will then apply to your entire site. As an alternative, they can instead be placed in your site's header or footer (in an HTML Snippet), but this is less recommended and more likely to cause confusion later.
Please be careful with Google Analytics. Adding a second GTM code to your site may result in duplicate form submissions or reCAPTCHA errors.
A Flush Trigger is used to ensure the Emergency Alert Banner component displays simultaneously on all applicable sites.
This option is only available to those with Publisher permissions. For others, it will be grayed out.
Using these settings, Publishers can control when content displays in a list, and schedule page activation and deactivation (compare to Publish/Unpublish Later).
Feature Time
On/Off Time
If either of the On/Off times is in the past, you must activate the page to push the modifications over to the live site.
The component opened for editing showing the Scheduling Tab settings.
Images changes are saved immediately, regardless of whether you choose 'OK' or 'Cancel' for the dialog box.
Alt Text is generally required under state and federal accessibility laws. Read more about Alternative Text.
Adaptive Crop settings in a Photo component.
The tool approximates how your original image will be cropped for desktop, mobile and teaser (thumbnail) views, allowing adjustments to better represent your desired focus in these contexts.
The interface responds to the main Image Size setting. Set the Image Size, then drag the Adaptive Crop cross-hairs to the center of your desired focus, and adjust the three sliders as desired to highlight the three zones.
The interface approximates the final displays. After you make your adjustments, we suggest you preview the results (e.g. using the mobile device emulator). And if you realize the List thumbnail is not working out as desired, consider also loading an image into page Properties that is cropped exactly as desired, where it will be used preferentially for teasers.
The component opened for editing showing the Image Tab settings.
The component opened for editing showing the Background Tab settings.
Adjust these optional settings to guide future authors in maintaining this page. These details will be visible in Page Reports.
The component opened for editing showing the
Stewardship Tab topmost settings.
The component opened for editing showing the rest of the Stewardship Tab settings.
When UBCMS pages are shared to social media, the resulting post pulls the page's title, descriptive text plus an image. These will be pulled from the current page but can be set specially in the Properties Social tab. The image is defined by the 'Social image from' setting.
If the 'Social image from' setting is not defined for the current page, the social image is determined using the Selection Rules below. (Regular pages and Shared Content are treated slightly differently.)
The component opened for editing showing the Social tab and example details.
* Alt text is required by New York State policy for most images and is always required if the image has a link or if the zoom feature is enabled, otherwise a caption can serve instead. See webaim.org for tips on writing alt text. A period and space are added to the end of any text that does not already end with punctuation (not visible in the dialog box) to increase clarity when a screen reader reads the page. Adding just blanks or a carriage return will be blocked.
To meet accessibility requirements, every page must have an H1 heading (e.g. using the Title component).
Sometimes it is preferable for stylistic reasons not to show the main heading, especially on a home page. In such cases, a Properties setting allows the Header container to instead supply the 'Heading 1' title, and be visible to assistive technology such as screen readers.
Authors are responsible for any custom adjustments they make to their UBCMS pages. This includes code added using External Embed or HTML Snippet components, or introduced through page Properties.
Best practice: only a developer should modify the standard UBCMS code or styling, and any adjustments should be made thoughtfully, with regard for accessibility and long term maintenance.
Alternative text ('Alt text') is a best practice for all your UBCMS images and is often required for accessibility so screen readers can tell visually disabled users what they are not seeing.
Purely decorative images can be set as "This image does not require Alt text" in many components. This nullifies any Alt text that was already entered.
Captions -- Some components (e.g. Photo) support a nested Caption that can serve in place of Alt text, provided the Caption provides a meaningful description of the image.
However, Alt text is required in these contexts:
* When the image is a link, the Alt text should support the function of the link, not the image. Screen readers will treat this image as a standard link.
Alt text can be added to images in Assets. This is required for images that are then used in the Photo Gallery component, while it can also be used as an alternate source for Alt text in some components (e.g. the Photo setting 'Get Alt text from Assets').
Best practice: