Glossary of Terms

What is XML? Or HTML, for that matter? Our glossary of helpful terms can answer those questions.

This glossary contains a list of frequently used words and acronyms related to OmniUpdate and the Modern Campus CMS system.

Analytics
The measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of web data for purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage, and to assess and improve the effectiveness of a website. Google Analytics code is placed on all sites in Modern Campus CMS.

Asset
A reusable piece of content that can be placed on multiple pages. When an asset is edited and published, all subscribing pages are automatically published with the changes. An asset may be web content, text, code, a form, or an image gallery.

Check Out / Check In
Think of it as a library: When you check out a file, that file is open only to you to either edit the content or the file properties. It remains checked out to you (even when you save changes) until the file is published (when it is automatically checked in) or until you manually check the file in by turning off the light bulb icon, either at the top of the editor screen or in the pages view.

CMS
Acronym for Content Management System, which is what Modern Campus CMS is. The system allows users to log in to their department websites via a web browser to make and publish changes any time, anywhere.

Dashboard
The dashboard view in Modern Campus CMS can be customized to display your activity, list your checked-out content, show web analytics, as well as show workflow and your system messaging inbox.

Header

The header is the top of your website, including the site title bar and subhead, if required.

Hero

The Hero image is the large, main image on your website home page. It can be a single image or a gallery of images.

HTML
Acronym for HyperText Markup Language. It is the standard markup language used to create Web pages.

OmniUpdate
A software company based in California that makes Modern Campus CMS, a web content management system for higher education institutions. Modern Campus CMS is used to manage hundreds of college and university websites, including several in the SUNY system.

Modern Campus CMS
Modern Campus CMS is a web content management system (CMS) used at Stony Brook University and managed by the Office of Marketing and Communications.

Revert
A function that allows a user to go back and publish a previous version of a web page.

Side Nav

The side navigation file is the file on the side of your web pages, which includes links to the other pages in that content section or parent section(s), if applicable. It can be turned on or off. New pages are automatically added to the sidnav unless you choose not to add them when creating the new page or by adjusting that setting in page properties.

Snippet
A snippet is a blank container for web content that allows you to present content in many different ways. A snippet is placed on a page and then filled in with specific content.

'Staging' and 'Production'

The Staging server is the server that contains all of the web page templates, web page files and supporting files. When you create a new page or are editing a page, you are working on the staging server. The staging server saves all published versions of a page.

The Production server is the server that houses the live site, the site that the world sees. When you publish a page, the staging server pushes a copy of that page from staging to the production server, where it is updated.

Templates
Concepts for web pages that follow a standard design and framework.

Top Nav

The top navigation file (topnav) is located in the _includes folder and is the file that contains the red navigation links across the top of your site, under the header.

Workflow
The process by which web pages are created, edited, approved and published. Workflow configurations can be set up in Modern Campus CMS that allow different users different levels of access to files within a site.

WYSIWYG
Acronym that stands for "What You See Is What You Get." Refers to the editor used in Modern Campus CMS that allows users to edit a web page via an editing interface very similar to a word processor, where text can be formatted and elements placed onto a page.

XML
XML is a semantic computer language, and identifies information ‘types’ and through an XML schema.