Table of Contents
Overview
Creating URLs
Catalog Scope
Archiving Catalogs
Defining Catalogs
Overview
Coursedog's Online Catalog offers the ability to support multiple catalogs at the same time, allowing your institution to have all of the following:
Your current academic catalog available publicly on your vanity URL (year.catalog.institutionname.edu) or a Coursedog subdomain (institutionname.catalog.prod.coursedog.com).
Last year's catalog on an archived-URL.
Next year's catalog available on a preview-URL.
All of these locations are independent of one another, accessible via web, and editable via the Coursedog platform.
Creating URLs
Overview | Institution-Based URLs | Coursedog-Based URLs
Overview
There are two overarching types of URLs available for your catalogs: institution-based (vanity) and Coursedog-based.
Every preview catalog will likely need a Coursedog-based URL.
For your public-facing academic catalog, you can choose between an institution-based or Coursedog-based URL.
Institution-Based URLs
Overview
Vanity URLs (also known as “custom” or “standalone”) include your institution’s domain as part of the URL, e.g. catalog.schoolname.edu.
If you wish to utilize a vanity URL for your current academic catalog, you will need to reach out to your Coursedog Customer Success representative for help setting that up.
Versioning
If you use a vanity URL, you can branch new URLs off of the core URL to make it easier to track/archive previous catalogs.
For example:
Core Vanity URL: catalog.schoolname.edu
Sample Version URLs: 2023.catalog.university.edu & 2024.catalog.university.edu
Coursedog-Based URLs
Overview
With Coursedog-based URLs, your catalog name is a subdomain of Coursedog.com and will indicate the product type (catalog or events) and environment (e.g. “dev” for development, “stage” for staging, and “prod” for production).
The generic format would be: institutionname.produttype.environment.coursedog.com
An example Catalog production URL would be: University.catalog.prod.coursedog.com
An example Catalog staging URL would be: University.catalog.stage.coursedog.com
Your institution’s Super Admin(s) can set up Coursedog-based URLs.
It typically takes about 30-60 seconds to generate a URL that is ready to be used, but certain scenarios can make the URL take 24 hours to be active. Please contact the Coursedog team if any URL takes longer than 24 hours for generation / becoming active.
How to Do It (Super Admins Only)
A Super Admin should follow the below steps whenever a new Coursedog-based URL is needed.
Step 1: Navigate to Admin Dashboard > Catalog URLs.
Step 2: Click “+ Add URL”.
Step 3: Select “Coursedog.com Sub-domain” in the modal.
Step 4:
Type the subdomain you wish to use in the “slug” field.
All catalog URLs will automatically end with “.catalog.staging.coursedog.com” or “.catalog.prod.coursedog.com”.
If creating a URL for archival purposes, ensure the URL follows this formula: archive-<institution>-XX-YY.catalog.prod.coursedog.com (where XX and YY indicate the catalog year, e.g. 20-21). If your institution’s name is Thoreau State, for example, and the catalog covers 2020-2021, your archive URL would be: archive-thoreau-20-21.catalog.prod.coursedog.com
If creating a URL for preview purposes, ensure the URL follows this formula: preview-<institution>.catalog.prod.coursedog.com
Catalog Scope
Overview
The "Catalog Scope" feature allows you to work on the "Default" catalog's pages and navigations in the platform, while the catalog attached to the public-facing URL per the "URLs" tab will remain unaffected.
How To Do It
Follow the below steps when you’re ready to begin working on the upcoming year's catalog.
Step One:
Go to Catalog > Settings > Catalogs.
Select “Clone” under the “Actions” column to make a clone of your current catalog.
Step Two: In the “Clone catalog” modal, give the clone a name that distinguishes it from the original.
Step Three:
Go to Catalog > Navigations.
Make a clone of your current topbar and sidebar (one each) by selecting “Clone” under the “Actions” column.
Step Four: In the “Clone navigation” modal, give each clone a name (“label”) that distinguishes it from the original.
Step Five:
Click into your newly created navigation bars (one at a time).
Assign each one to the new catalog using the "Catalog Scope" dropdown.
Step Six:
Return to Catalog > Settings > Catalogs.
Click the new catalog to edit its settings.
Under “Catalog Navbar Navigation” and “Catalog Sidebar Navigation”, assign the renamed Topbar and Sidebar, respectively, to the new catalog (you can ignore the other fields).
Step Seven:
PATH: Catalog > Settings > Catalogs > Website Settings.
Compare your cloned catalog’s website settings to the website settings of the original to ensure they match (if desired). You can do this by opening website settings for both catalogs in separate windows, making it easier to compare them side by side.
If they don’t match and you want them to, copy forward all of the website settings from your current catalog to your new one.
We recommend this step because your cloned catalog will pick up most website settings from the original. However, some (e.g. Favicon and Navigation Image) default to your global catalog settings (Catalog > Settings > Website).
Step Eight:
PATH: Catalog > Settings > Catalogs.
Select “Set as Default” under “Actions” to set the new cloned Catalog as your default.
When you set a catalog as your default, that means it will be the catalog users are brought to when they go to the pages tab (they will have to select from the dropdown menu at the top of Pages to view/edit catalogs that aren’t the default).
Step Nine: Create a preview-URL as outlined under “Creating URLs” above.
Step Ten:
PATH: Catalog > Settings > URLs.
Assign the new catalog to the preview-URL.
Simply select “+ Assign to Catalog” next to the appropriate URL and then select the new catalog from the dropdown.
Archiving Catalogs
Follow the below steps once you’re ready to archive your previous year's catalog:
Create a Coursedog-hosted archive URL following the steps and format mentioned under “URL Overview”.
Assign the archived catalog to the appropriate URL.
You can do this at Catalog > Settings > URLs.
Simply select “+ Assign to Catalog” next to the appropriate URL and then select the catalog you wish to archive from the dropdown.
Defining Catalogs
Overview
When defining which terms apply to a catalog, a user can utilize effective dating to pull in the correctly dated curriculum data.
How To Do It
Navigate to Catalog > Settings > Catalogs.
Select the catalog you wish to edit.
Under “Select Effective Dating”, input the exact dates/terms of the curriculum data you wish to pull into the catalog.
