SiteGateway Toolkit Features
The SiteGateway Toolkit is comprised of a set of Web applications that facilitate the process of publishing content to the Web, managing how these applications are used on your site, and assigning permissions to trusted users who act as administrators of specific areas of your site (e.g. News, Web links, Discussion Forums). The toolkit can be integrated with your site on an application-by-application basis, meaning that you can choose to use specific modules without having to redesign and rebuild your current website. Alternatively, you may build your website from scratch using the toolkit’s website development and layout features.
The toolkit allows you to share this content with your constituents, and members of the community at large, without requiring the setup of a separate server or the support of individuals with advanced technical skills. A description of the toolkit’s features follows.
Content Management System
Authorized users can contribute and manage content using a Web browser from almost any computer connected to the Internet. The responsibility for managing content is shared by your chosen administrator(s) and content publishers.
Content can be categorized, greatly simplifying the experience of finding relevant content for your visitors. As well, you can choose to have stale content automatically moved off your site by assigning expiry dates to each content item.
The content management system contains modules for managing the following content types:
News and Feature Stories
Create and publish news stories relating to your organization and its activities. The content publishing system provides you with the ability to automatically submit your news story to the Jewish Toronto community website. Your story can thus appear in two places— on your organization’s web site, and on an overall community site.
Press Releases
Create and publish press releases on your site. Press Releases are automatically sorted by publication date, with the most recent items appearing at the top of the list.
Newsletter
Publish an online newsletter and have it e-mailed to your online subscribers. Assign the responsibility of creating and managing the various sections of the newsletter to different individuals.
Reviews
The toolkit offers the ability to publish reviews of different types, including book, video, website, and software reviews. The facility for allowing your visitors to easily submit their reviews, ratings, and comments will also be available.
Web Links Manager
Create and manage a list of categorized and annotated Web links. Visitors to your site can also recommend links for approval by one of your site administrators.
Online Trip Journal and Photo Album
Trip journals can be created for special trips or overseas missions lead by your organization. Visitors to your site will be able to follow a trip online, as it is taking place, by viewing timely postings made by your trip participants. These postings can include images, reflections, comments, and other forms of media (e.g. video clips). Additionally, visitors can post their comments to the forums area of the site.
Collaboration/Interactive Tools
Discussion Forum
Build a discussion community around issues that are important to your organization’s constituents. Postings can be moderated, and registered users can subscribe to receive e-mail notifications for particular topics when new postings are made.
Interactive Event Calendar
Maintain a searchable calendar of your organization’s events. Events can be categorized, searched by type, sponsor, and date. Additionally, visitors to your site can put your events on their personal calendars (and be sent reminders as the date approaches). They can also register to automatically be sent e-mail notifications for new events of types that are of interest to them (e.g. concerts).
E-mail Updates/Notifications
Maintain a mailing list of your constituents by allowing site visitors to subscribe to your mailing list in order to receive timely e-mail notifications.
Search Engine
Allow users to search your site for content and events by keyword, category, date, and other relevant filters. The search engine will index your entire site periodically so that recent changes to your site are reflected in your visitors’ searches.
To see sample sites that have been set up with the Jewish Toronto Web Toolkit, please visit:
