Website Customization for Designers

How to get started

• All customizations to Emerald Websites are done by logging in to the Site Admin
• Most, if not all, input fields and textareas in the Site Admin allow HTML
• Minimalist Site Style is the most flexible style to work with in customization
  (Site Basics > Site Style)

Stored Files

• Files are uploaded on the Stored Files page
  (Site Basics > Stored Files)
• Files uploaded to Stored Files reside in the same folder, so when referencing images in CSS you will use root references
• If you upload an file with the same name as file currently in Stored Files, the Site Admin will append the name with a "~001"
  Example: image.jpg will be renamed to image~001.jpg
• When embedding files into content, model the SRC after "/files/{User ID}/fileName.xyz". Replace the {User ID} in the SRC with the User ID from the site being worked on
  (Site Basics > Website Options > User ID)

CSS

Most elements in the site framework have ID's and/or classes making it very easy to target them with CSS. Also, every page has a unique class on the BODY allowing for targeting specific pages.

The Site Admin recognizes two file names for rendering custom CSS. These two files bypass the compliance renaming and can be uploaded over the old one in Stored Files

File names

• preview-custom.css - Affects only the preview site
• custom.css - Affects only the live site

These files are rendered at the bottom of the head giving them the highest priority trumped only by inline styles.

Uploaded Images

• JPG's have dimension limitations based on chosen style and will be resized upon upload if they exceed the limit
• JPG's also get optimized which can sometimes lower the quality of the image.
• GIF's and PNG's bypass the JPG processing
• The Site Admin recognizes favicons named as "favicon.ico"

Javascript

• Javascript is not allowed to be uploaded into the site admin. Although, you can link to JS files from another server
• Emerald Websites have a "AC_RunActiveContent.js" file built into the head to deal with Flash elements

Questions?

1. Is there any FTP upload on your site?
   We do not have FTP upload for our clients.
2. Can your developers furnish us with the code of the site?
   It is not within our policy to provide outside designers with any code of the site.
3. Can we use your tools or content (calculators, newsletters, research articles, etc) and use it within another website outside of Emerald (such as within an iFrame?)
   All Emerald tools and content must be used within an Emerald website. You can however, place a hyperlink of an Emerald article on another site but the link must lead back to the Emerald website.