SITECORE FAQS

Requests for CMS access should be made/approved by management. Once your request has been approved, you must complete the Sitecore Fundamentals training course. When the course has been completed, there is a short feedback form to fill out. Once you have submitted this form, you will be directed to a short form to request your Sitecore login details. The Digital Team will then review this request and get back to you with your Sitecore Login details, along with a few guides on setting up your new account.

If you have forgotten your Sitecore username or password, please email bc.digital.marketing@northumbria.ac.uk and we will reset this for you. 

Reporting Website Issues

If you encounter a bug or technical issue while using the university website, please report it by submitting a ticket through the Digital Team's service desk. Providing comprehensive details will enable our team to diagnose and resolve the issue efficiently.

Examples of Common Issues:

• Broken or non-functioning links that lead to error pages
• Pages that fail to load correctly or display formatting errors
• Missing images, documents, or multimedia content
• Accessibility issues affecting screen readers or keyboard navigation
• Search functionality returning incorrect or no results
• Mobile responsiveness problems on specific devices

Information to Include in Your Report:

To help the Digital Team resolve your issue quickly, please provide the following details:

• URL/Page location: The complete web address where the issue occurred
• Description of the issue: A clear explanation of what went wrong and what you expected to happen
• Browser and device: The browser you're using (e.g., Chrome, Firefox, Safari) and your device type (desktop, tablet, mobile)
• Steps to reproduce: A numbered list of actions that led to the problem
• Screenshots if applicable
• Error messages: Any error codes or messages displayed on screen
• Date and time: When you first encountered the issue

All reported bugs are reviewed and addressed regularly by the Digital Team in collaboration with IT Services.

Unsure of how to do something in Sitecore? Here is how you can find the help you need:

• If you already have access to Sitecore but would like a refresher on some of the basics, we would also recommend taking the Sitecore Fundamentals e-learning course. This has been created specifically for Northumbria staff offering an introduction to the CMS and basic content editing.

• Contact the Digital Team - If your query is urgent, you can submit a ticket via the Digital Team’s service desk.

Whether you are new to Sitecore or just need a refresher, our new Sitecore Fundamentals course is available to provide you with all the information you need to successfully edit and publish content on the University Website. The course has been created specifically for Northumbria staff, offering an introduction to the CMS and basic content editing.

You can also visit our Training page within the Sitecore Support Hub for further details on training and support.

We welcome suggestions for new training topics and opportunities. You can submit a ticket via the Digital Team’s service desk.

The process of setting up staff members, Academics and PGR Students with new staff profiles has previously been completed manually by the Digital Team in Marketing. However, with the launch of the Pure system (11/03/19) when a new Pure profile is created, it will automatically create a profile on the corporate website. This also means staff can now update their own profiles as and when they need to using Pure.

This also means that when a member of staff leaves the university when their pure profile is deactivated, this will automatically remove their profile on the corporate website.  This will ensure that we are only showing profiles for people that currently work here.

If you would like to learn more about Pure, you can access related tutorials on the dedicated Pure Support section on the staff intranet. If you have any queries as to how to update or create your profile you can also contact the Pure team directly via puresupport@northumbria.ac.uk.

The name that you give a page when it is created becomes the page URL on the site, therefore it must not contain any special characters (for example '" ? ! % £ / ).

You should re-name the page to include only alpha numeric characters. 

Once you have created the page, you can change the page title and navigation title within the content editor. This is what will display on the main page content and within the site navigation.

You can also visit our Accessibility Guidelines document within the Sitecore Support Hub for further details on how you to ensure your pages are compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standard 2.1.