Drupal definitions

Web terms

Accessibility: Making your website usable by people of all abilities. Check out the University's standards for web accessibility on the Accessible U website. 

Alt text (alternative text): Words that describe the content of images, graphs, or charts. Alt text is typically displayed in place of an image that will not load. It should be added to every image to make them accessible for users with assistive technologies such as screen readers. For more information view the Accessible U resource on alternative text.

Analytics: Measurement and analysis of data obtained from a website. Learn how you can use web analytics on the Analytics page. 

CMS (Content Management System): A software application used to create and manage content on the web. Drupal, for example, is the CMS we use. 

Content audit: An assessment of the existing content on your website, performed in order to improve the organization of your website.

Content strategy: A plan for organizing and creating content on your website. Learn more about this process on in our content strategy guide. 

Cookies: A file stored on your computer that lets websites track your visits and preferences.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets): A coding language that defines the style of content created with other languages like HTML.

Folwell: The University of Minnesota-wide style or web theme. The current CSE website uses a combination of Folwell and our own style. Visit the Folwell website for more information.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language): Standard markup language that tells a website how to display content such as texts, images, videos, etc.

Meta Tags: Words or phrases used by search engines to describe a web page's content. You can add these to your page in the Meta Tags section at the bottom of the edit window. 

Migration: The process of moving content from your old website to your new CSE website. Learn more on the Getting Started page.

Onboarding: Becoming part of the CSE website. Learn about the steps to become part of the CSE website on the onboarding process page. 

Pixels: Units that make up digital image displays. The more pixels in an image, the higher the resolution of that image.

Responsive design: The practice of making flexible page layouts that can grow and shrink according to a user's screen size.

RSS: A content distribution feed. Drupal uses RSS to feed things like news items and headlines into a news page. 

SEO (Search Engine Optimization): The process of increasing traffic to a website by making it appear more and higher up in search engine results.

Usability: Making it easy for your audience to find information on and navigate your website. 

WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get): A text editor that allows you to edit text in the form it will appear on the webpage. Drupal's WYSIWYG editor is called the CKEditor. In Drupal, you can either edit content in the WYSIWYG window or the Source window, which displays the HTML code.

Drupal terms

Advanced page: A webpage that can achieve more complex designs and components using widgets. Learn more in the advanced pages overview. 

Banners

  • Banner Header: A design element that appears at the top of every unit landing page, comprising an image, title text, and lead-in text.

  • Banner image (hero image): The image at the top of every unit landing page. 

  • Unit identification banner: A content block that stretches above the menu on every page and displays the unit's name. For example, this website's unit identification banner says "Web Training & Resources."

  • U of M header banner: The maroon University of Minnesota-branded block that stretches across the top of every page, displaying "University of Minnesota Driven to Discover" and the search bar.

Basic page: A webpage with a static layout made up of body text, a featured image, sidebar content and links at the bottom. Learn more in the basic pages overview.

Categories: System used to group pages by subject and to feed related pages into the More About content block on basic pages. Learn more in the categories overview.

CKeditor: A WYSIWYG editor that allows you to edit content on a page. This is what you see in the "Body" sections when editing pages in Drupal.

Edit form: the screen that appears when you edit a page.

External link: A link to content that is not within the CSE website. 

Footer: Content that appears at the bottom of every page and usually includes contact info and links to popular pages.

Internal link: A link to content that is within the CSE website. Internal links are created by typing the URL alias (text after the cse.umn.edu/ in the URL) into the URL text box.

Unit landing page: The default layout for your unit's home page. Landing pages comprise a banner header at the top and customizable widgets to make up the rest of the page. Learn more in the unit landing pages overview.

Media library: Database that stores all media files (images, video, etc.) uploaded to the CSE Drupal. 

Menu link: A link to a page in the navigation bar at the top of your website. Learn more on the menu links and URLs page.

More about: A content block that displays links to pages in the same category. The More About section appears automatically on basic pages when there are multiple pages in the same category. You can use the Content Listing widget to add a More About section on advanced or unit landing pages. Learn more in the basic pages overview and the content listing widget page.

Parent item: The menu link under which a page is organized in a drop-down menu. This can be chosen when creating a menu link. Learn more on the menu links and URLs page.

Site management: An administrative home page that provides quick links to important aspects of your website, such as content, categories, media, and unit configuration. Learn more about site management on the website management page. 

Related content: A content block on the sidebar of basic pages. This can house text, images, or videos. Learn more in the basic pages overview.

Related link: A content block that displays a list of customizable links at the bottom of basic pages. Learn more in the basic pages overview.

Unit configuration: An administrative section of Drupal where you can edit aspects of your website such as the unit header, footer, and social media information. Learn more about unit configuration on the unit configuration page. 

URL alias: The second half of a page's URL (after the cse.umn.edu/). These are unique to pages and follow the general format of /unit/page-title and can be customized in the URL alias section of the edit window. Learn more on the menu links and URLs page.

Video embed: Placement of a YouTube video into a page. 

Widget: A design feature available on advanced and unit landing pages. These allow you to post text in multiple columns, create image slideshows, embed calendar events, and much more. Learn more on the Drupal Widgets page. 

Workbench: A tab on your top admin toolbar that gives you quick links to create content, look at your recent edits, or look at recently edited content. Clicking on "My Workbench" will bring you to a page that lists your most recent edits.