A technology that addresses the content creation, review, approval, and publishing processes of Web-based content.

From the Wikipedia:

The Wikipedia entry above effectively describes the Web Content Management System in use at UAF and UA, Roxen CMS.

• Ease of use:
  • Quick to learn. No technical background needed.
  • Fast page creation
  • Edit web pages right in your browser. (Other 'Web Design' applications are not necessary. e.g., Dreamweaver, Front Page)
  • No need to know HTML or other languages
  • Share the same content with many pages (not multiple copies of the same text...)
  • Automatic version control; All of your historical changes are automatically saved and available
• Inherently compliant with UA guidelines and web accessibility standards
• Fast and reliable, with multiple machines hosting your web site(s)
• Versatile
• Very cost effective for the institution

From the Wikipedia:

There are many reasons. Among the most significant are efficiency and economy of scale.

For example, long before Web Content Management was deployed at UAF, many departments outsourced web development and hosting at a cost of $10,000 to $40,000 plus annual fees.

In addition, many departments hired HTML-savvy “Web Masters” (a paradigm that retired with the last century...) to maintain departmental pages.

Now that Web Content Management has reduced the complications of maintaining a web presence, most of the departments that previously outsourced now rely on UAF WCMS to host their sites.

It all started in 2000 with the first deployment of Web Content Management for www.alaska.edu.

In 2002 UAF began inquiring about adopting this technology.

In 2005 and 2006 UAA and UAS deployed Web Content Management Systems.

In 2007 funding was identified at UAF, and in early 2008, Web Content Management was deployed here at UAF.

We have created a variety of web site styles for you to begin with (See the FAQ How do I Get Started for more information). Simply copying the text and images from your current HTML pages into your chosen template is the first step.

One advantage of Web Content Management is you can change the look and feel of your site whenever you like, without having to move your content each time.

If you begin with one of the many pre-designed sites we offer, you can be up and running with a couple of hours training.

The Support Center offers training, and will add classes as the demand warrants. Look for “Roxen UAF” on their online training calendar.

If your preferred training sessions are full, contact the Support Center and request the creation of additional classes.

They keep being served as always. Eventually, the old UAF Apache web server will need to be retired. That will not occur until all desired web pages and content have been converted to Roxen.

There is no planned date of obsolescence. However, it is worth noting that UAF.edu has always been hosted on a single server, which is now several years old. Therefore, we cannot expect it to last forever.

Web sites function the same in Roxen as they do on Apache.

Web applications may need to be modified or redeveloped to work within the Roxen native framework.

For example, Roxen has dedicated production status database servers, so external databases are not supported (this is a robust production environment that cannot depend upon MS Access running on someone's desktop computer. In such a case, the data would be transferred to the Roxen mySQL database for hosting instead.) In addition Roxen has its own rapid development tags (RXML) which replace CGI scripts, php, etc.

Contact the Support Center with specific questions about web applications on your site.

We began developing and hosting sites and applications on Roxen in 2000. We have yet to find any functional requirements available on the Apache server that cannot be accommodated in Roxen.

In addition, Roxen offers functionality you have never had.

Step 1: Pick a site design
Step 2: Add content to your new site
Step 3: Publish your new site (Go Live!)

When looking at the available designs, be sure to click on the images to see other sample variations of that theme.

You can do this after you publish your site at any time. Typically, all you have to do to alter the appearance of your site is modify the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS.)

Please check the UAF Web Content Management Transition Discussion Forum to see if your question has already been asked.

If not, please feel free to post it there so others may benefit.

We will respond to new questions in the forum, and add them to this FAQ page as appropriate.

Please direct all requests for support and new sites to the Support Center.

Apache: Specific web server software. Also used to describe our old UAF webserver (Apache or UAF Apache), which uses the Apache web server software.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS): From the Wikipedia: ...is a stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language.

Web Content: Typically we mean text (“intellectual material”) you are sharing on your web page. There are many other types of content including images, videos, etc. but the written word is most prevalent.