UT Shield

Editor Access, Approvals & Roles

Last Updated May 2025

Important basics:

  • Everyone logs in with their EID and therefore is accountable for his/her edits.
  • The Dashboard includes links to everything editors need to access.
  • A Test site is available for experimenting and prototyping but will be synched up to the Live site regularly, which will wipe out any work. Let us know if you are working on Test and need the work for an extended period.

On this page:

User Access Roles

Content Contributors

Usually assigned to student workers or infrequent editors. They must work with an Administrator.

  • Can create and edit Drafts of most content types.
  • Can delete content they create (their own content).
  • Can unpublish any content.
  • Cannot publish any content edits. They must ask an Admin to publish.
  • Cannot assign custom URL path aliases.
  • Cannot administer taxonomy terms in Categories.
  • Cannot create a site announcement.
  • Cannot delete content or media that is not their own.
  • Cannot administer menus.

Content Contributors work can be found on  the “Content with Drafts List” linked to from the Dashboard.

Content Administrators

The majority of our Communications staff content creators have this access role.

  • Can do everything a Contributor can do, plus;
  • Can delete and publish any content.
  • Can also add, edit and delete navigation items in the menus.
  • Can administer taxonomy terms in Categories.
  • Can create a site announcement banner.
  • Cannot manage users.

COFA Web Team User Role

Role with the ability to do anything, reserved for the college Web team.

Anonymous

Role of people who are not logged in. They have no permissions to edit the site or access unpublished content.

Content Administrators and Contributors Working Together

People with the Content Contributor User Role cannot publish. Any content they create or edit will be saved in a Draft state. A user with the Content Administrator User Role will need to review and publish their changes.

When a Content Contributor has made an edit on the site, they must notify someone with a Content Administrator user role, who can make the edit “live.”

Content with Drafts can easily be found in the “Edit Content” section of the Dashboard from the link “Content with Drafts List.” Content Administrators should check this page frequently to make sure all desired edits are Published.

Working with Stakeholders

Everyone does this differently and it may depend on how major of a change you need to make. You have options when staging content for approval by stakeholders.

  1. A lot of content creators will create a Revision saved in the Draft state, or create a Clone of the page. It is not a good idea to Publish in-progress work so you will need to take a screenshot and explain that the pink color is only because the content is not “live.” Instead of screenshots some content creators may do an in-person demo with the stakeholder.
  2. If needed, the web team can add the stakeholders as a Content Contributor user role so they are able to log in to see Drafts and Unpublished content.
  3. You may use the Test site.  But, remember to let the web team know so we do not synch the Test site and lose your edits. It’s not a problem we just need you to communicate this to us.

See more recommended workflows