2021 Websites Migration

Unit Guidance

Unit websites should move to SiteViz.

Unit websites should be straightforward to build in SiteViz, as they generally do not use advanced features – typically only text, images, and an embedded calendar. While moving will require rebuilding from scratch, the website structure and nearly all content in pages can likely copy over.

What to do:

• Identify who will lead this project.

  • E-mail the WAWG IT project officer to let us know, if your commander hasn't

• Review the SiteViz Information section for learning info and example WAWG websites.

  • See "WAWG IT SiteViz Quick Reference" for an overview of what to find where in SiteViz.

• Review the NHQ Website Requirements section.

• Request your new CAP website.

  • See the "Request a cap web site" link on NHQ's websites page.

• Explore SiteViz and prototype your new site.

  • The in-development site URL will be NAME.cap.gov.production.premier.siteviz.com, where NAME is the website name you submitted when you requested a new site.

• Follow the instructions in the Final Publishing Steps section.

Recommendations:

• Design your new website to be oriented primarily to information for the general public.

• Consider having your site contain mostly information that need not change regularly, to avoid the need for frequent updates.

• If you need to provide information that changes, embed the document in a webpage so the site doesn't need to change, just the document. This is common with embedded calendars.

  • If you embed a document stored in a WAWG Google Drive account, be sure non-members cannot access other information. Individual documents can be shared publicly without exposing other info. See Google's sharing help page.

  • We recommend storing files for your website in a Google Drive that will exist for the long term -- for example, a squadron's Shared Drive, not an individual's personal Drive. People leave and their accounts are closed!

• Cheat - look at your existing website and other units' SiteViz websites for ideas.

• Iterate, iterate, iterate until complete with the right content (everything you need, nothing you don't).

• Review, review, review until it's correct (use people who have not worked on the site).

Activities Guidance

Activity websites should move to New Google Sites

Activity websites tend to be more involved than unit websites and change more frequently. You may be able to use Google's website migration tool.

What to do:

• Identify who will lead this project.

  • E-mail the WAWG IT project officer to let us know, if your director hasn't

• Review the NHQ Website Requirements section.

• Review the Google Sites Information section for info on New Google Sites.

• Migrate or build your new website.

• Follow the instructions in the Final Publishing Steps section.

Recommendations:

• • If on your website you embed or link to a document, calendar, form, etc. stored in Google Drive, be sure non-members cannot access other information. Individual documents can be shared publicly without exposing other info. See Google's sharing help page.

  • We recommend storing files for your website in a Google Drive that will exist for the long term -- for example, a squadron's Shared Drive, not an individual's personal Drive. People leave and their accounts are closed!

Wing Staff Guidance

How to edit the new wing members website

The current/old WAWG website will move to a new public-focused website (on NHQ's SiteViz platform) and a new members-focused website (on New Google Sites). The new members website will contain much of the information on the current/old WAWG website. This is mostly wing staff department pages, wing publications, and other info that is member-specific.

What to do:

• View the mockup new members website (a test site, will be deleted) and become familiar with its layout.

• Practice editing your department pages without affecting other parts of the site.

  • See the IT pages for examples of updated pages.

The mockup new members site will eventually be deleted, so your changes will need to be made to the final new members site when it is available at https://members.wawg.cap.gov.

• Warning: Unlike the current WAWG website, you will be able to edit the ENTIRE new members website. It's up to you to be careful and only change what you intend to.

How to edit New Google Sites pages:

• See the New Google Sites section below.

Recommendations:

• Keep published files made visible on the website in your department's Shared Drive.

  • Ensure those files are shared to members of WAWG or publicly, as appropriate.

• Avoid using files stored in a person's individual Google Drive. If that person leaves WAWG or CAP, their account gets suspended and those files may no longer be available.

• Organize the website Drive folder well to avoid a messy dumping ground of files we cannot sort out, like the current/old website.

SiteViz Information

How to use SiteViz

In short, SiteViz is an external website hosting platform that provides a structured, fill-in-the-blank template approach to building websites. The CAP national website uses it and National has provided a nearly identical template for all subordinate websites. The site homepage is rigidly structured and limited information may be inserted in defined areas via text fields and dropdown selection boxes. However, individual pages within the site are designed freeform using a visual editor.

To prepare for the move, we strongly recommend that website administrators review one or more of the following resources.

Examples of migrated WAWG sites:

• https://seattle.cap.gov

• https://skagit.cap.gov

• https://bellingham.cap.gov

• https://wa091.cap.gov

  • https://renton.cap.gov.production.premier.siteviz.com (development URL)

Troubleshooting

Cannot submit a website request

If you follow NHQ's instructions for requesting a website and see information already in the form, no Submit button, and only a Clear All button, you already have a website with the domain (URL) shown.

Need a SiteViz user account

If you or someone in your squadron needs a user account on SiteViz, contact the WAWG IT project officer with the person's name. Their membership will be validated and an account created.

Google Sites Information

New Google Sites

Help topics and tips are on the New Google Sites Help page.

Classic Google Sites

To edit a Classic Google Site, go to the webpage you wish to edit and click the tiny "Sign in" text link at the very bottom of the page. Sign in with your @wawg.cap.gov Google account.

When the page refreshes, you should then see a series of icon buttons at the top right of your browser window if you have permission to edit the page.

For information on editing a Classic Google Site, see Google's Classic Sites help pages.

For information on transitioning a Classic Google Site to a New Google Site, see Google's transition help pages.

• This may be worth trying to see if it saves you some time in migrating your website. If it does not work well, you may delete the automatically transitioned site and create a new one.

NHQ Website Requirements

Before publishing your website, note the requirements for CAP websites in CAPR 120-1. We also recommend having someone other than the site builder review it.

Best practices and requirements from regulations are summarized below.

1. After creating or migrating your website, test and verify the new site is ready. Enlist others to review the site for publication readiness. More eyes are good for catching errors.

2. Google Sites only: Set permissions (click the "person with a +" icon)

• Add your unit/activity Editors

• Add the WAWG Office of IT and Office of PA groups as Editors, if not already listed

• Click Change under Links

• Change the Draft edit permission to Washington Wing (Anyone in this group with this link)

• Change the Published view permission to Public (Anyone on the internet)

3. Check for links that take the user away from the .gov domain. Per CAPR 120-1 para 5.2.3, the user must be notified.

• Examples at eServices. Since Google Sites doesn’t seem to have any way to do a pop-up or other dynamic redirect message, you may just need to have a parenthetical note in text.

4. Identify the site properly - see CAPR 120-1 para 5.3.

5. Ensure advertising/recognition of outside groups complies with CAPR 120-1 para 6.9.

• Technically, that statement need only appear if you recognize outside supporting groups. However, it’s not a bad idea to add to the site as a catch-all. Note the font size requirement.

6. Ensure "personally identifiable information" does not exist on the site. See CAPR 1-2 (I).

7. Verify hyperlinks work.

• Change links to capmembers.com to the appropriate link on gocivilairpatrol.com.

Final Publishing Steps

SiteViz only: Follow the instructions in the "Web Site Go-Live Instructions" link on NHQ's websites page.

• Before publishing your new site, we recommend contacting WAWG IT for a "once over" to verify everything is working and that all requirements are met.

• If you do not perform all of NHQ's instructions, you will not activate your unit.cap.gov URL! Do not use your in-development unit.cap.gov.production.premier.siteviz.com URL!

Units only: Update the unit website info in eServices.

• See the steps here (eServices > Membership System > Personnel > Membership System > Org. Maintenance). This will update the info shown on the CAP unit locator map.

All: Notify WAWG IT to update the Wing website.

Units

• • We will update the info shown on the WAWG unit map.

  • We will delete the unit.wawg.cap.gov redirect. (Google can't redirect outside wawg.cap.gov.)

Activities

• • We will update the link to your site. (When developing your new site, its location will be https://sites.google.com/wawg.cap.gov/yoursitename. We will change the custom URL, such as activity.wawg.cap.gov, to point to that site.)

All

• • Remember to update your website URL in other places, such as social media.