Best Practices: Publish As Names
What is a Publish-As name?
A Publish-As name is an intuitive name for an ICMS page which is used in the URL in place of the x-number designation that is automatically assigned by the system when each page is created. Thus you can call on the same page in two different ways:
- http://www.bates.edu/academics.xml
- http://www.bates.edu/x291.xml
It is much more likely for someone to remember to add "academics.xml" to the end of www.bates.edu than it is to assume they'll remember "x291.xml."
When is a Publish-As name needed?
Not all ICMS pages need a Publish-As name. It really only makes sense to add a Publish-As name to pages that need to be accessed outside of the normal navigational structure of the site. For example:
- "academics.xml" or "dining.xml" where users might want to jump in to the middle of the Web site for convenience, rather than clicking through from the home page
- you want to create a stable URL that can be bookmarked or publicized in print or email
Please give us feedback at http://www.bates.edu/suggestion-box.xml- NOTE: if you ever need to delete a page and replace it entirely, you can give it the same Publish-As name as the previous version, but you cannot give it the same x-number
If neither of these situations apply you might as well save a step, and leave it out.
What are the Publish-As name guidelines?
- as succinct as possible while still being descriptive
- try not to use more than two or three words
- start the name with the section/area, then a definition/description of the page
- dining-den.xml
- all lower-case letters with dashes to separate words
Good examples: Bad examples: campus-tour campustour bates-now bates-now.xml bates-daily BatesDaily monthly-calendar monthly calendar
How do I add a Publish-As name to a page?
For how-to instructions, visit:
/webguide/basics/getting-started.html#publishAS