Glossary/Terminology

Here is a glossary of some commonly used terminology in the CMS.

Block
The boxes visible in the regions of a Drupal website. Some example blocks include the social media module, the KU Visitor module, or other custom modules such as related links.

Cache
A cache stores recently accessed information in a place where it can be accessed extremely fast without needing to regenerate the content. Drupal uses caching extensively.

CMS
Acronymn for "content management system."

Content Type
Content types define what consitutes a piece of content. Some examples include a general content page, faculty profile, and web form.​

Contributor
An authenticated KU user who has the ability to add or edit content and submit it for review, but not publish.

Draft
An unpublished piece of content not yet ready for review.

Drupal
The software that runs the KU content managment system (CMS).

Editor
An authenticated KU user who has the ability to add/edit/delete/approve content and publish it.

Eyebrow, KU
The top-most header bar (blue with a red line) on all KU CMS Pages, content in this area is centrally managed by Public Affairs.

Feed Aggregator
​A core Drupal module that allows data to be pulled in from an external RSS or XML feed.

Footer, Unit
The grey footer region at the bottom of the page, content in this region is managed by website owners through the KU Site Settings configuration form.

KU Eyebrow
The top-most header bar (blue with a red line)on all KU CMS Pages, content in this area is centrally managed by Public Affairs.

KU Footer
The bottom-most bar (blue with a red line) on all KU CMS Pages, content in this area is centrally managed by Public Affairs.

KU Sidebar
The right-most region (in 1280px view) on all KU CMS Pages, content in this area is centrally managed by Public Affairs. Currently it includes the Why KU block, the Apply and Give buttons, and the KU News block.

Main Navigation
Navigation bar appearing directly below the site title and background image.

Module
Software (usually PHP and CSS) that extends Drupal features and functionality.

Needs Review
An unpublished piece of content that has been flagged for review to be published.

Node
A single piece of content that is published on a Drupal site. Examples: a general content page, a faculty profile page, a single image, a pdf, etc.

Published
A published/live piece of content that is available to site visitors.

Region
​Defined areas of a page where content can be placed. Main regions used in the KU Template include: Content, Unit Sidebar, KU Sidebar.

Responsive Design
The approach that suggests that design and development should respond to the user's behavior and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation. For example, automatically adapting to mobile devices. The KU Template was created using a responsive design.

Rules & Triggers
A module that causes a specific action to be performed following another action.

Sidebar, KU
The right-most region (in 1280px view) on all KU CMS Pages, content in this area is centrally managed by Public Affairs. Currently it includes the Why KU block, the Apply and Give buttons, and the KU News block.

Sidebar, Unit
The region directly to the right of the main content area (in 1280px view), where were website owners can place their own blocks and additional content.

Site Administrator
An authenticated KU user who has site configuration and setup ability, as well as all other content authoring rights.

Tags
Keywords that allow content managers to categorize/group content data.

Taxonomy
The science of classification. In Drupal, Taxonomy is a powerful core module that gives your sites use of “terms”, organizational keywords known in other systems as categories, tags, or metadata. In Drupal, these terms are gathered within “vocabularies.”​

Unit Footer
The grey footer region at the bottom of the page, content in this region is managed by website owners through the KU Site Settings configuration form.

Unit Sidebar
The region directly to the right of the main content area (in 1280px view), where units can place their own blocks and additional content.

URL Alias
A URL that points directly to a page on a website.

URL Redirect
A URL that redirects to another web page.

Views
A contributed module which allows site developers a simple graphical interface for modifying the presentation of content. Views permits selection of specific fields to display, filtration against various node attributes, choice of basic layout options (i.e. list, full nodes, teasers, etc.), and other more advanced features.

WebForm
A module and content type that allows Site Administrators and editor to easily create forms for email and/or database submission.

Weight
Order in which the element or link appears in relation to the other elements. Lower weights appear first. Most commonly used in menus.

Workbench
A menu item that allows you to view all of your content and to manage workflows.