Here's a summary of the features and fixes included in the 15 December 2020 Contensis software update.
Upgrades
Move to Contensis version 14
The release has seen us move to Contensis version 14.0.1.61. Although editors will not notice any visible differences with the new version moving to the latest version will allow us to start the second part of the Cloud Migration project – to improve the website search.
New features
Addition of date pickers on main events listing page
The date pickers on the main events listing only appeared if a keyword search was performed, we have now added the date pickers on to the main search area on the Events page to help those looking for events to find relevant events more easily.
IT development and QA reference: https://www.pivotaltracker.com/story/show/175918805
Addition of event description to events listings
To help visitors to the site determine if events are of interest to them more easily we have enabled the page meta description to be pulled through on to the main listing page, which is what is also utilised in news listings. This means editors will need to ensure their meta description for their event pages are appropriate. This is added to the 'Description' field under 'Required Metadata' on the events template.
IT development and QA reference: https://www.pivotaltracker.com/story/show/175917326
Hide categories from event template and event listings
In an effort to tidy up the events listings on the site of information that is not relevant to end-users we ave hidden the categories from event pages and event listings. These are still in the CMS and can be used to categorise events in the same way as previously, they simply will no longer show on the external facing site.
IT development and QA reference: https://www.pivotaltracker.com/story/show/175917116
Addition of sharing links on events template
We have added social media sharing links to the events template so that users have the ability to share events they are interested in on social media and in messages easily. These are set at template level so editors will not need to do anything to make these work.
IT development and QA reference: https://www.pivotaltracker.com/story/show/175917496
Ability to hide 'add to my calendar' button on events
It is now possible to hide the 'add to my calendar' button which downloads an ics file into the user's calendar. This may be appropriate to hide to events that are longer than a day as in some cases currently a year long event reminder can be added to calendars. A field called 'EventHideICalLink' can be ticked if you do not want the button to appear, this is found under 'Optional Metadata'.
IT development and QA reference: https://www.pivotaltracker.com/story/show/176088714
Bug fixes
Adding media to Introduction section of staff profiles
A bug update means that media files can now be added to the first (Introduction) section of staff profiles. The option has always been available in the CMS but was not previously working.
IT development and QA reference: https://www.pivotaltracker.com/story/show/175757626
Alt text on Research Image promo
A recent update to the research image promo control meant that when editors left the alt text blank it defaulted to the Spotlight card title. This has now been fixed so that the alt text is blank when the field is.
IT development and QA reference: https://www.pivotaltracker.com/story/show/175205850
DatePickers on events search
The date picker on the events search had disappeared due to a change in the javascript build. This has now been fixed.
IT development and QA reference: https://www.pivotaltracker.com/story/show/175639352
Accessibility
Horizontal scrolling - latest publications feed on staff page
Scrolling was being caused on small mobile devices by doi urls in the latest publications feed and therefore breached accessibility regulations. This has now been updated so that slashes are treated as word-breaking opportunities and the url is spread across two lines.
IT development and QA reference: https://www.pivotaltracker.com/story/show/175303124
Alt text for UoB – Quest Homepage Featured Articles control
The Featured articles on the Quest homepage has been updated so that alt text can be added within the control.
IT development and QA reference: https://www.pivotaltracker.com/story/show/175265291
Horizontal scrolling on mobile caused by long words in headings
On small mobile devices long words in page titles can cause scrolling on mobile. Editors now have the ability to add ‘­’ to break up long words in titles. This is simply added into the heading. To do this effectively please ensure you check your pages at the lowest breakpoints – using either responsive preview on mobile (within Contensis) or by inspecting the page (right click and then inspect) and viewing it on a small screen such as an iPhone5/SE. Please note we expect this scrolling to only occur in rare scenarios where long (often scientific) words are included in headings.
IT development and QA reference: https://www.pivotaltracker.com/story/show/175303202
Horizontal scrolling caused by long heading titles
Horizontal scrolling caused by long heading titles has now been resolved by updating heading code so that dashes and slashes are treated as word-breaking opportunities.
IT development and QA reference: https://www.pivotaltracker.com/story/show/175072724
Skip to main content links
Skip to main content links were not working correctly on UG Admissions pages and on the Strategic Framework template. These have now been fixed and allow those reliant on assistive technologies to access the main content of the page more easily.
IT development and QA references:
https://www.pivotaltracker.com/story/show/174857765
https://www.pivotaltracker.com/story/show/175225413
UoB News Listing – ‘read more’ links
The UoB News Listing control pulled through ‘read more’ buttons when listing news articles which was an example of inaccessible link text as it way n descriptive or unique to each article. This causes a barrier for those reliant on screen readers. This button has now been removed from the control so those reliant on screen readers are read out the article title as the link.
IT development and QA reference: https://www.pivotaltracker.com/story/show/175352646
Ensuring controls change appearance when they are selected - 'generic' template
An update to the css means that controls on the generic template (template often used for research projects) now change appearance when you tab through them. This is very important for those who navigate webpages using the keyboard to ensure they know where on the page they are and can click on the relevant links.
IT development and QA reference: https://www.pivotaltracker.com/story/show/175798007