Documentation for Web Editors

The AFT.org website has been rebuilt in Drupal 9. On the front end, most things will look the same to site visitors. On the backend, you will notice that there is a completely different editing experience.

Logging in

If you are logging in for the first time, you will have to reset your password. If you need an account created, please contact Barbara or Mike.

Content types

The new website has the following content types. Other types of content have been retired because they were underutilized or do not support the current digital content strategy.

Basic page
Biography
Column
Event
Issue Area
News Article
Periodical Article
Periodical
Position
Press Release
Resolution

Components

The Drupal 7 website used the Panels system to allow editors to create custom panes and place them into regions on pages. The Drupal 9 website uses Components (under the hood, this is the Drupal Paragraphs system). This is likely the largest difference that content editors will notice.

Rather than going to a separate tab to manage panel content, there is only one Edit tab. While editing content, you will have the ability to place components into specific regions of the page - Top, Main Content, Bottom, or Sidebar. Some content types won't have all the regions. And some components aren't available in every region.

Components that need to be reused on several pages can be saved to the Component Library.

This table summarizes the components available on the new site, what they are for, and what Drupal 7 components they replace. In some cases we have combined or renamed components to streamline the experience for content editors.

New Component	Old Name	Purpose
Action List	Action List (curated)	Invite members to take action. Boxes with a heading, description, and prominent call to action button.
Banner Ad	Banner Ad	Graphics placed in the sidebar.
Cards	Cards Thumbnail listing (curated)	Lists of links with headings, descriptions, and optional images. Select from white or blue backgrounds and one-, two-, or -three column layouts.
Contact Box	Contact Box	Contact information placed in the sidebar.
Email Sign-up	Join the Movement	Invite visitors to subscribe to Action Network email list.
Flexible Promo	Flexible Promo (AFT President's corner style) Flexible Promo (membership card validation style) Flexible Promo (Take action style) Flexible Promo (Your Benefits style)	Uses color and graphics to draw attention to an item. There are several different styles to choose from in this single new component. Editors can switch between Take Action (muted), Take Action (bold), Image Top (dark blue), Image Top (light blue), and Banner (light blue). Most are used in sidebars. The Banner style is frequently used in main content.
Image Carousel	Hero Image Carousel	Large slides used on the front page.
Content Listing	Content List (automated) various	Automatic lists of content that can be filtered by certain criteria, such as issue area or date. Select from Columns, News Articles, Periodical Articles, Positions, Press Releases, or Resolutions.
Events Listing	Calendar	List of upcoming or past events. Can be filtered by issue area and shown in main content or sidebar.
Periodical Author Index	Periodical author index	Alphabetized list of article authors.
Periodical Issue Listing	n/a	List of past periodical issues. Parent could be the periodical itself (American Educator) or a year (2022).
Periodical Subject Index	Periodical subject index	List of periodical articles grouped by subject.
Text Area	Rich text area	Rich text area. May contain embedded images, videos, and links.

Content syndication

The new website does not bring in syndicated content from Leadernet or other sites. Once other AFT sites are upgraded to Drupal 9, there will be a new strategy for sharing content between sites that will leverage the modernized technology.