EGEN CMS .NET 4.0 Client Installation and General Use Instructions

System Requirements

Windows-based Operating System (XP, Vista, 7, or Server 2003/2008)

Microsoft .NET 4.0 Framework

EGEN User Account

Internet Connection

Administrative Rights (to install software)

Installation

#1 – You may want to download and install the .NET 4.0 framework. It is required and most computers

do not have it installed by default.

Generic .NET Installation Site: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/default.aspx

.NET Web Installer: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=9cfb2d51-5ff4-

4491-b0e5-b386f32c0992&displaylang=en

#2 - Once the .NET 4.0 installer is downloaded, run the installer. If you are using Windows Vista or 7 you

may have to allow the action when prompted. Check the agreement checkbox for license terms and

install.

#3 – Let the .NET 4.0 framework installation proceed until finished. You may or may not have to restart

your computer. When installation is complete click finish.

#4 – Now you will want to download and run the EGEN CMS client installation. It can be downloaded

right now from here:

http://cmsdev.egen.net/CompareService/CMSManSetup.msi

NOTE: This download link is subject to change. Visit the Employee Portal for most recent downloader.

#5 – Run the MSI file that you downloaded. You may be prompted to allow the action to occur in Vista

and 7. When the CMS Manager setup appears, hit next to proceed.

#6 – You will want to select most of the defaults for the installation options. You may want to check to

allow everyone on the PC to use this software if it is a shared PC / student worker PC. Once you have

selected the options, hit next and next again on the confirmation screen.

#7 – Let the installer install the needed files to your system. A progress bar will indicate installation

progress. Close the resulting window that confirms the software was installed.

#8 – The EGEN CMS Manager will need to perform a download and install of updates the first time it is

run. Click the install button to download the updates. A progress bar will indicate the progress on the

download and update. Once completed, you should be given the login box and be ready to use the

software.

Using the EGEN CMS Manager

#1 – Find and launch the EGEN CMS Manager under Start Programs on your computer.

#2 – Upon launching the software the program will look for updates and download and install

automatically.

#3 – Once the update has been completed, proceed to login with your EGEN Database credentials.

Ensure on the location drop down that you are connecting to the correct website.

#4 – A status splash image appears and shows the progress as the program loads everything from the

internet. This may take 10 to 20 seconds to complete depending on your computer and internet speeds.

#5 – The program will launch, showing you a tree of folders and files to the left, and a folder contents

panel in the middle.

You will be limited to the areas you wish to update but you will see the entire site tree. All editable

pages in the system fall under the “/site/” root of the directory. So if a page exists at any URL with site

as part of its path it is likely an editable CMS page.

Find the area you’ll want to edit. Browse for the .aspx file that corresponds to the webpage you need

to edit. You’d want to right click on it and check it out for editing.

From there you’ll see a WYSIWYG editor (you can also view HTML and preview roughly how the

finalized page will look like in a browser with the header and footer).

Note the theme. This will usually need to be changed to your campus if it is a campus specific page, or a

default / generic theme for institutional or special resources not associated with a single campus.

Note the menu picker. This allows you to associate a sub-menu with the page (usually for mini-site’s like

admissions, MDiv information, etc.). You can pick an existing one, create a new one, or edit an existing

one.

Some of the most important buttons on the WYSIWYG editor are the following:

Image Manager This will allow you to insert existing images, upload new images, edit images, and

edit image properties. This is far more powerful than the old EGEN CMS and files can be uploaded in

multiples and during page edit. It even has a basic image editor which will let you do basic image

manipulations.

Flash Manager

Media Manager

Document Manager

Image Manager Template Manager

Link Manager

Flash Manager This will allow you to upload flash files. Works similar to Image Manager.

Media Manager You can upload videos and other media via the media manager icon. Works similar

to images and flash.

Document Manager Similar to images manager, however, you can link to a document that exists or is

to be uploaded. Simply select the desired text in the content of your webpage, then open the document

manager and select or upload a document. Set the properties for the link and hit insert and it will link to

the document.

Template Manager The template manager is a good tool. Same in concept to that of the ListServe

content template, it is an HTML snippet or full template of common code you’d need in a website.

Some pages may have specific HTML layouts that reused over and over. Instead of copying and pasting

from other pages that use the common template, simply insert the block into the webpage and replace

any placeholder text or images with your own content.

Hyperlink Manager You can insert absolute URLs to rts.edu pages or 3rd party pages. You can also

link to any page, document, image, or media that exists within the CMS client. You cannot currently link

to something in the different Image / Flash / Document managers though, as they must be linked or

inserted via their own mechanism. Simply select the text/content on the page you want to link at and

then open the hyperlink manager to set the URL and other properties. When selecting an existing item

in the CMS, you must double click the item from the list of files to select it. Then hit the “Insert Link”

button to insert the link.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) metadata can be filled out by clicking the “Page Metadata” button at

the bottom left of the WYSIWYG screen. For more information about SEO, visit the training document

for SEO.

When done editing the page for now, I’d hit the “Check In” button toward the bottom-right of the

WYSIWYG screen and choose the “Check in the document” option for the time being. Ask someone with

CMS access to review the page to see if it looks good for publishing. Once you feel comfortable with

approving and publishing the pages to the web you may be granted publisher level access so that you

can publish pages yourself. Checking in the document does not make the changes appear on the

website. Only once approved and then published will it replace what is currently on the website.

CMS saves the last four published pages, so if any major error or mistake happens we can roll it back to

the previous version.

Another way to upload files is via the CMS client tree. Right click on a desired folder and hit “Upload

File”. This will bring up a dialog to allow you to select a file on your computer, renew the file upon

upload, and pick whether to save it as a resource, as a site item, or both.

Uploading to the “site” folder will allow it to be accessed by the CMS database and linked to via the

Hyperlink manager. Otherwise, it will have to be linked to from either the image, document, or

flash/media managers. If you want to save as a resource as well though, you can click “Save as

Resource” and pick a folder from the image/document/flash manager in which to save the item.

A Final Word of Caution

It is unwise to copy/paste anything into any internet WYSIWYG editor if the source was an MS Office

Product, webpage, email program, or other word processing software. Copying the content and pasting

it from these mediums brings behind the scenes junk HTML into your page. Sometimes the WYSIWYG

will prompt you to try to clean up the formatting, however, it will still leave junk / unnecessary HTML

fragments in your code. This could hurt your page in how it displays. If you need to copy and paste

from some other software, copy it into a program like Notepad first, and then paste into the WYSIWYG.

This will strip all formatting and ensure the rogue HTML is not added behind the scenes.