College of Health and Human Development

Hello Department Webmasters!

Early in the summer, the university migrated all websites to a new server. This means you'll need to re-establish your connection to your website.

But wait: there's more! Because of the way Contribute works, if you just try to go in and replace your old connection, the program will not know to go to the new server. If you don't delete your existing connection, Contribute will tell you, "a connection already exists. Would you like to replace it?" This seems like the efficient thing to do, but it won't work.

If you simply answer "yes" to the "replace connection" suggestion, Contribute will try to connect to the old server. It's like trying to borrow sugar from a neighbor who has moved away and bringing a different measuring cup. The cup stays empty because nobody's home!

By removing your current connection and starting fresh, it's like moving to a new neighborhood (with a new measuring cup) and finding your old neighbors are already next door! And they have lots of sugar!

In late May or early June, chances are I emailed you a new Contribute key. Check your email for that key and then see the instructions and explanations below. If you get stuck, email or call me.

How to Establish a Connection to Your Department Website with Your New Contribute Connection Key:

As of summer, 2009, the department websites are on the new university's "W-Drive" web servers. To work on your site in Contribute, you'll need to re-establish your Contribute connection to it.

In late May/early June you should have received an email from Jean O'Sullivan with your new Contribute key for your department's page. Have it handy before you follow the instructions below, you'll need that key and one-time password. If you didn't get a key, contact Jean.

It is very important that you follow the instructions below exactly! The way we connect has changed a bit. If you simply overwrite (or "replace") your current connection, it won't work. You have to remove your connection and establish a new one. Here's how:

• open contribute
• select "edit" from the very top pulldown menu
• choose "my connections"
• remove the existing "HHD" connection
• close contribute (completely)
• go to the email that contains your Contribute key attachment
• double click on the attachment (your Contribute key)
• You'll be prompted for your one-time-use Contribute password (provided by phone from Jean). This activates the key and gets you to the next steps.
• you'll be prompted for your name (firstname.lastname), and email address. Go ahead and enter them in the spaces provided.
• when prompted for your university ID (UID) and password, enter your (eight character username) and your secret password (the one you use for email, logging onto the portal, etc.)
• The key will import and validate and you are ready to edit and publish your website.

Once you've done this procedure, Contribute will be active on your computer; when you login to your computer, you will automatically activate your Contribute connection.

Special note for the more advanced users who are not using contribute but are still experiencing trouble editing pages:

Establishing a connection to the new web servers (outside of contribute):

If you have experienced trouble updating web pages (making changes but they don't appear on the web) it could be that you are operating off the old U-drive connection, which is no longer where the university's websites exist. You may also have links that appear to be broken due to the need for a correction in your correction, aka, "Mapping your network drive".

You can find what you need on the new IT mapping your webdrive documentation here: http://www.csun.edu/it/training/guides/webdrive.html

(Health and Human Development department webmasters will not encounter this problem as your new Contribute key, and following the set-up instructions above, will circumvent the network mapping problem).