If you are uploading documents such as PDFs to your website, you should be using our Resources feature — it is intended for files that are linked across your website and can be used in email communications. Refer to our user guide for specific instructions on using the Resources feature.

Do not make a copy of a PDF from another 91���� website

When you need to make a document available on your website, it can be tempting to upload your own copy, but doing this will create duplicate content on our website, and your copy may become inaccurate as the website hosting the original makes changes. Instead, link to the content where it already appears.

Linking to PDFs you find on other umaine.edu websites

It is better to link to web pages and not documents. If the web address you want to use does not end with a slash ( / ), you should find a link to a page that hosts the document(s) instead.

For example, do you link directly to the Academic Calendar PDF on the ? If the link you are using ends with .pdf, it has likely become broken as a new version of this file was needed to reflect changes in the upcoming fall and spring semesters.

Right-click and copy link location for documents

In our Academic Calendar PDF example, if you click the link on the Student Records website you will view the PDF. This link should not be copied for your use, because it will change as updates are made to the calendar. Instead, you should “right-click” on the link (or use the keyboard shortcut for your system) and select “Copy Link Address” from the context menu that appears. This will give you the “resource link” that will always redirect to the current version of the document.

Commonly referenced PDFs on the 91���� website

Here are two examples of links that use resources. If you need to link to this content, please use the text below for your link (for the purpose of this email, the links will go to a page in our user guide rather than the actual PDFs to make it easier for you to copy the text).

Link to use for the current Academic Calendar PDF

https://studentrecords.umaine.edu/resource/2021-2022-academic-calendar

Link to use for the current Campus Map PDF

/blog/resource/printable-campus-map

Over the coming year, we will be working with UMS IT to create a new page editor experience that utilizes the newer “Gutenberg” content editor option that is now part of WordPress 5.x and beyond. This newsletter will continue to keep our community updated on that progress.

Bug fixes

A number of minor issues with our WordPress template have been addressed over the summer. A bug with content syndication (Repost to 91���� News, Repost to 91���� Calendar) has been addressed, and our image content block can now have a centered text overlay even when the image is expanded to the full width of the page. There have also been some minor tweaks made to the automated people directory available to 91���� websites, including the ability to designate a specific page URL for the directory and customize the name of the directory. If you utilize this feature and are interested in what is new, please get in touch with us.

Importing events into website calendar

We license a “content aggregator” feature for our events calendar software, which works to import events in a shared Google calendar as event web pages you may list in a umaine.edu calendar list content block. This feature stopped functioning for our websites in mid-January. Our team has been working with the software vendor to identify and resolve this problem, but as of this newsletter the issue is ongoing.
The workaround is to manually create events within the WordPress calendar feature.

“Repost to 91���� News” and “Repost to 91���� Calendar” feature

Our website has a content syndication feature for news and events— if you view a published news post or event detail page, the WordPress “admin toolbar” at the top of the page has a text link that states “Repost to 91���� News” or “Repost to 91���� Calendar.” This feature creates a copy of your post or event, and submits it to the appropriate website in an unapproved “incoming” state for Marketing & Communications staff to review and publish.

Recently this feature has incorrectly given an error when it is used: instead of stating “Reposted” the message is “Try again? Failed to repost to” for either 91���� News or Calendar. The content is still being copied over, but because of this error your own site will not indicate that this has been done.
The workaround is to not believe this particular error message when you see it. We hope to have this issue resolved soon.