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Questions?

Web or WebCMS Questions?

Call the EPA Call Center
1-866-411-4EPA (4372).

Computer Questions?

Call CTS
1-866-955-4CTS (4287).

Gotchas

WebCMS Use
Metadata
Template 4
Code Issues (including Javascript)

WebCMS Use

You can not start a workflow on an active file. You have to create a new version, then submit it to the workflow. Came up when we tried to apply an updated presentation file to an active file. Resolution: When you edit an active file, it becomes a new version and it goes back to the WIP phase, then you can start the workflow ApplyPresentation.

Using the Web Composer Editor, you can not save the file if one of the fields is in code view.

I've locked myself out of the WebCMS. What do I do?
Go to portal.epa.gov. Try to login. If you're able to log in, you're not locked out of the system. If you're not able to login, then you need to get the LDAP system to reset your user id and password. Call Phone: 1-866-411-4EPA (4372) to request the reset.

To overwrite an existing PDF file instead of having to recreate, export the PDF file. Import the new and improved version.

Special characters. One migration (which used a different process) created blocks in the code instead of ñ or © #174; (ñ © ®). Recommendation: Use numerical, named entities, or extended code. This is really important on pages that are coded for foreign languages.

Foreign Language Coding in the Editors: In any Windows program, including Notes mail, you can type Spanish (or any) characters by holding the alt key while you type the number with the numeric keypad. When you release the alt, the character will appear. It won't work with the numeric row above QWERTY, only the numeric keypad.
á: ALT + 160
Á: ALT + 0193
é: ALT + 130
É: ALT + 144
í: ALT + 161
Í: ALT + 0205
ó: ALT + 162
Ó: ALT + 0211
ú: ALT + 163
Ú: ALT + 0218
ñ: ALT + 164
Ñ: ALT + 165
ü: ALT + 0252
Ü: ALT + 0220
¿: ALT + 168
¡: ALT + 173

Importing XML files - XML data files have to be imported differently than other file types. This is the process to import an XML data file.

The gotchas are:

The UTF declaration has to be deleted. The import process adds the declaration so if it's already there, it won't import.
It has to be XML compliant. If the file contains non-compliant XML code the import will fail. Resolution: Open the XML file in a browser, it will fail where there's a code problem.

Large PDFs (>20MB) will need to have the metadata added after import. The import will produce an error but it will load the file. The Content Intelligence Service (CIS) which tags our files can only support files under 20MB at this time.

<img src="https://ecms.epa.gov/wcms65/../wcms65/getcontent-by-path/EPA/region8/images/bluescales.gif;jsessionid=8790FC962BE319AB5C6FAA8422087D06" height="33" width="33" alt="" />
This is the way that some links look in the WebCMS. It's OK. It's creating an internal relationship between elements and this is how it looks.

Metadata

To modify metadata on an active file:

Select the blue i icon.
Go to the metadata field you want to update and make the update.
When changes are complete, select OK.
The remaining steps can only be done by people who have the webmaster or folder adminstrator role.
- Select the green arrow workflow icon
- Select the EPA_ApplyPresentation workflow. This will add the changes to the HTML code in the WebCMS.
- To publish to the public server, select the file. Right mouse click. Choose Publish. That will move the file with the updated metadata to the public server.

Template 4

Template 3.2.1 was forgiving; you could get away with old code left over from earlier templates, or just sloppy HTML code. This is not true of Template 4. It requires stricter adherence to the rules. Our styles are designed to take advantage of these rules. If you've been meaning to clean up some of your old code, now is a great time. Here are a few of the problems we've encountered.

If you have something (e.g.; box, div, img) aligned both left and right in your current code, there will be a problem with the alignment in Template 4.

If you've used a fixed width for a table that exceeds the width of the content area of the new template, there's going to be a problem in Template 4. 760px is the max safe size for any large images or tables.

The <font> tag was deprecated ~1998. Netscape 4.0 supported style sheets. If you have <font> tags in your content, it's deprecated code and not XHTML compliant. The code will be stripped out during the migration to the WebCMS.

Code Issues (including Javascript)

Javascript is handled differently in the WebCMS
- The XML editor won't save special characters used in Javascript. (e.g. " ' < >)
  - Resolution: Create external Javascript files then link to them from the JavaScript tab
- Opening body tag <body> not available for editing
  - Resolution: change body.onload to document.onload and add to the bottom of the content section.
- <noscript> element has to be in a <div> or it doesn't function.
- Javascript links that need to be in the <head> section of the document needs to be added to the Javascript tab in the metadata information.
A leading slash is being added to the path of images on loading the XML link on some of the relatively coded images.
- Resolution: Added images to the managed link update. The managed link update (which is run as part of the migration) creates a relationship between a page and the pages it links to.
Noncompliant XML files created. The issue was eventually tracked to commented text in the <h1> element, left over from Template 2 when we right-aligned images.
Found newbieflag.js, dateurl.js, and local copies of epa-core.js and extra.js while preparing for the extract from the HTML files. newbieflag and dateurl have been superseded by epa-core.js; they will not be brought into the WebCMS. Local copies of epa-core.js and extra.js will not be moved into the WebCMS.