For DEVELOPERS Only

For DEVELOPERS Only

Customizing the buttons, colors and layouts of your page templates is only accessible to super-users: "Developers". According to CatapultK12, developer privileges are rarely shared with school webmasters; GUHSD is unique in having several assigned developers. The reasons for restricting this kind of access are self-evident: it's very easy to break your site!
 
For quality assurance and in the course of continual improvementC, atapultK12 occasionally modifies core elements of a school's templates and in so doing, overwrites any changes a developer may have made to the original files, including the HTML, CSS, JS and image components. Until recently, Site Variables were also overwritten. While extra care is now being taken by the company to avoid resetting site variables, it is still a manual process subject to human error.
For these reasons, the following precautions are strongly advised. Failure to follow them will sooner or later mean your site will look and/or behave differently from what you intend.
General Best Practices

General Best Practices

  • Avoid adding inline CSS or JS. Control elements from separate custom files.
  • Don't simply edit the master file, download it, rename and modify the local copy, then upload it, leaving the original version intact. (When updates overwrite core files, your modified files will be left alone).
    • Example:The CBOC unattached sub-site uses a copy of the template-sub -empty template with most of the GUHSD header display removed. By appending cboc to the copy, the template is preserved and kept distinctly separate from the parent file in the event of an update that overwrites the master copy
  • To apply the changes to a page, go to Properties > Advanced and choose the new template...
  • Reference custom JS or CSS from within the custom html file.
  • Keep your own backup of SiteVariables.csv, just in case. Edit site variables from Advanced > Edit Site Variables. Don't see what you want to change? Have you scrolled through all of the variables?
  • If you're not absolutely certain of what you are doing, publish to Staging before going live with changes.
Coding

Coding

CatapultK12 takes no responsibility for what custom coding may wreak upon your site. If you must add image maps, rollover behaviors or other features that aren't yet baked into CatapultCMS, try to follow these principles...
  • CK12 uses jquery. If you are also going to add javascript, be aware that loading and calling functions that may already be in use elsewhere in the site or on the page can break or hobble one or both instances. CatapultK12 does not document jquery library versions for us, so use at your own risk..
  • CatapultCMS is a proprietary CMS, so don't expect access to a road map or technical documentation.
  • Keep backups of any files you modify