Using Templates

Web Services has designed about 20 templates for the OIT site. There are two basic kinds: 1) unit-specific templates, and 2) general templates.

• Unit-specific templates should be used for all files within the /units/ directory because they can provide local navigation within each unit.
• General templates should be used for everything else. These templates are generic to provide a clean look for all sorts of pages. However, some general templates are made for specific areas of the site, such as employment listings or web applications.

The templates use server-side includes to pull in header and footer code. The templates themselves are centrally managed to preserve their consistency across the entire organization. Web Services will create new templates upon request.

Getting Started

When you create a new HTML file in DreamWeaver or another application, you should use the code below as your starting point. Delete all the code you application gives you by default in the new file, and replace it with the following code. The code marked in red needs to be changed by you for each page.

Menus

Some templates require a menu. Menus should be named simply 'menu.html' or have a functional name, like 'servicesmenu.html'. You can share one menu among many files or your entire site. The code for the menu file is below.

NOTE: Web Services is currently reworking the templates to add some additional features, such as search metadata and optional menus. We will keep all the OIT web editors posted as things change.