How Links Function on UBCMS Pages

Explore how hyperlinks behave in the UBCMS. [5:53]

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

In many ways, pages in the UBCMS Author environment are like regular webpages. As you edit content, you can navigate to other parts of your website, or leave the UBCMS entirely to follow a link to an external website. (Another tutorial will explore how to add links to UBCMS pages.)

In the Author environment, you will need to switch to Preview Mode to follow links.

And while you are clicking around, you may occasionally click a link that acts as if it is broken but is perfectly valid -- there is an easy trick to get around this. (This only impacts Author, not your live 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. Choose a page on your site such as 'UB's Research' or 'UB Events Upcoming' that has links on it.

4. Select that page and click Open in the Commands Menu that now appears.

5. To observe how links function in the UBCMS, you must switch from Edit Mode to Preview Mode.

  • Click the Preview button in the upper right of the window.
  • You can now easily move to another part of your website simply by clicking the navigation.
  • Try clicking around your site using the navigational links.
  • Then click back to your original page in the navigation, or use the browser back button.

6. You can also follow links that go to external websites, outside the UBCMS.

  • Look for one of these links and try clicking it.
    • e.g. 'UB's Research' has a link labelled "Integer in arcu ultrici"
    • e.g. 'UB Events Upcoming' has four links: 'Special Events', etc.
  • Did a new page open..?

If that link did not load a new page, here's why.

(Links on your live website should all act normally.)

  • Occasionally links on UBCMS Author pages to external websites will not load, even though they are not broken.
  • This occurs when the link goes from the secure Author environment (URL begins "https...") to a non-secure webpage (URL begins "http" with no "s").

This sounds confusing. How would you know the link is ok unless you publish the page to your live website?

Power User Tip - Check Links in Preview Mode

  • If you are in Edit Mode, switch to Preview.
  • Now right click the link and select Open in new tab, or hold the Control (or Command) key and click the link.
  • The link should open its target page in a new browser tab. (If this fails, confirm the link is valid!)
  • Your Author page is still open in the original tab.  

Now confirm the culprit was a link to an insecure page:

  • Look in the browser location bar for your UBCMS page. Notice the URL begins "https://..." and there is a little lock icon to the left of that URL that is 'locked'. This means your Author page is secure.
  • Now hover over the link you tried to follow. In the bottom left of the browser, there should a corresponding URL should be displayed. (When you shift off the link, it vanishes.) Is that URL "nytimes.com" (or perhaps "http://nytimes.com")? That means the page is insecure.
  • You can also examine the location bar of the new tab that opened. See if it says "insecure" and that any URL that is displayed is NOT "https...". (Some websites automatically redirect http to https, so this step may not always work.)

Power User Tip - Bookmarks

You can save a bookmark to any part of the Author environment that will take you directly back to a page to make more edits, although if you are returning on another day you may need to login as you follow the bookmark. You can also share those bookmarks, but anyone using that link must have the right permissions to view the page.

Additional Reading