General
WordPress is the application that is used to build and maintain NSC’s website. Box.com is the cloud storage system where files referenced from the NSC website are stored.
WordPress
WordPress is used to create the posts and pages that make up the NSC website. A post is a special type of webpage that can be displayed on NSC’s home page; NSC posts have an address that includes “blog” in the URL, e.g. https://nsc.wmtest.ca/an/blog/sailing-instructions-now-available/. Posts are used when we want the information to appear on our home page, and are generally temporary in nature. Posts appear in reverse-chronological order on our home page, with the most recent posts at the top. Often, posts may point to pages that provide more details.
Pages do not contain blog in the URL, and may follow a directory structure, e.g. https://nsc.wmtest.ca/an/racing/si/. Pages are generally used for material of a more permanent nature, and are organized in a parent-child relationship; the hierarchy of this structure is evident when looking at our site map.
WordPress uses a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editor, similar to MS Word, to create posts and pages. However, to be able to create such pages and posts, users require a WordPress account, to login here. Accounts are generally assigned to a position (e.g. commodore, nod-chair, handicapper); to get a new account, or to access an existing account, contact Webmaster.
Like any application, using WordPress involves a bit of a learning curve, but it is no more complicated to use than a word processor or spreadsheet. These WordPress instructions are based on an earlier version of WordPress, but should be enough to get you started.
For more on WordPress, see our How-to WordPress page.
Box.com
Box.com is the cloud-based storage service that NSC adopted in 2012 to store its corporate documents, and in particular, non-html documents that are referenced from NSC’s website. Such documents are primarily PDFs, but also include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, JPG, Sailwave and other files. Files in Box are saved within a directory structure, and as of 2022, there are over 7,000 files in NSC’s Box account.
To upload files to NSC’s Box account, users must have their own Box account; sometimes that account could be associated with a position (e.g. commodore, fleet), or it could be an individual’s personal account associated with their personal email address. Either way, such users are invited to collaborate on files or folders within Box. Users invited to collaborate on a folder automatically get the same privileges to any sub-folders.
Links to files within Box can be provided, and referenced within WordPress pages and posts. E.g. on the above Sailing Instructions page, a link is provided to https://app.box.com/shared/static/52q3pz5je1t75lrv500851q00wp04g4m.pdf; clicking on that link will open the pdf file that is saved in Box. A link may also be provided which opens a file, or folder, within the Box viewer, but that is used less commonly on our website. For example this link, https://app.box.com/s/52q3pz5je1t75lrv500851q00wp04g4m, will open the SIs within the Box viewer, instead of within Adobe. Note the absence of .pdf on this link.
See this list of references for Getting started with Box.com.
Page Updated: 2022-07-03.
2016-05-16, DS: Page created.
2019-12-08, DS?: Unspecified changes.
2022-06-29, HM: Added this update log. Changed publish date – was 2016. Page significantly re-written.
2022-07-03, HM: Shortened permalink.
NOTE: Update the publish date and time when updating page.