Delete a Page

Describes how to delete a page from your website. [5:30]

Two options for completing this exercise...
  1. Request a Self-Paced account on the Training Server. Then just follow the instructions as is.
  2. If you already have access to the main Author Server, adapt the instructions to fit your own site.

Scope

The UBCMS comprises two main areas, the Author environment, where pages are created and maintained, and the Publishers, with your live website. Author permissions are required to create or delete pages in the Author environment, but Publisher permissions are required to publish those pages, and copy them over to the Publishers where they are visible to the world. And only a Publisher can unpublish a page to remove it from your live website.

While the process of deleting a page is straight forward, and any Author can delete a page, you should first determine if the page is published on your live website. If so, someone with Publisher permissions will need to delete the page. And you should also determine if the page is referenced by any other UBCMS page. If so, your deletion will impact those pages, and additional steps may be required to adjust those other pages, especially if they lie outside your own website.

Instructions

1. Log into the UBCMS.

2. Open the Sites Console and navigate to your site; e.g. Sites + Self-Paced Training + {your site}.

3. Select a page you do not need. 'UB's Campuses' is probably a safe bet or you can even create a new page and then delete it for this exercise.

4. Check to see if it has been Published.

  • The page stats will show that in the Published column.
  • If it is Published, follow the directions to Unpublish the page, or choose a page that is not yet published.

5. Now check to see if it is referenced by another page.

  • Click the Toggle Side Panel button in the upper left to open the Side Panel.
  • Switch the Side Panel to References.
  • An unreferenced page has zero ‘Incoming Links’ and zero ‘Lent Content’.
  • A referenced page is being used by another UBCMS page. Deleting it without updating that other page may result in broken content. Click the References detail to see what page(s) will be impacted.

6. Now click the Delete button in the Commands Menu. And it vanishes from view.

If a page is published and someone who is not a Publisher deletes it, an orphaned copy will continue to exist on the live website even though the page is no longer visible in the Author environment. If this happens to you, contact the DCT Web Team for assistance.

You only see references to pages that you yourself have access to, such as your own website and all of Shared Content. You won’t see pages in websites you yourself cannot see. It is less likely that another site would be using your regular webpages, but your shared content might be referenced by another site. Be very careful with what you delete!

Additional Reading