Web Biography Widget

This widget was designed so that one or more professional biographies can be displayed on a page. The web biography (web bio) widget is perfect for highlighting people on a staff, team, in a class or as part of a teaching or research group.

Design

There are six different ways to display the web bio widget. Below are your template display options:

Web bio

Web bio accordion 

Web bio full

Web bio grid

Web bio simple list

Web bio table

How to

In order to display web biographies, you need to import them into Sitefinity using one of two methods. You can find instructions for each below. 

Import internal users

The internal import process is for university faculty and staff. Biography information is pulled from the HR system. Once imported, you can change any imported information as well as add additional information. 

To complete an internal import, please do the following: 

1. Ensure you are working in the proper multisite.
2. Click the Content tab and select Web bio import.
3. Enter in your website and click Import from IDM.
4. Enter email address, title, first name, last name or both.
5. Select the School or College associated with the person. Use Any School to search all departments.
6. Select checkbox for the person you wish to import.
7. Repeat as necessary.
8. Hit Start.

Import external users

The external import process is for people affiliated with the university but do not have information in the HR system. This process will import the full name and email of your people. Once imported, you can add additional information. 

To complete an internal import, please do the following: 

1. Ensure you are working in the proper multisite.
2. Click the Content tab and select Web bio import.
3. Enter in your website and click Import from CSV.
4. Download a copy of the CSV format spreadsheet,
5. Fill out the spreadsheet. Be sure to leave the headers in the first row as is.
6. Save to your computer.
7. Choose the file from your computer.
8. Hit Start.
   

Add content to user bios

Once your people are imported, you can add additional information to the individual biographies. 

To add content to a biography, please do the following: 

1. Ensure you are working in the proper multisite.
2. Click the Content tab and select Web bios.
3. Find the person and click their email address.
4. Fill in the applicable fields. 
5. Publish.
   

Use the widget

Now that your content is ready, you can the biographies to your webpages using the web bios widget. 

To complete add content, please do the following: 

1. Go to the page you would like to display the bio(s) on in edit mode.
2. Find the web bios widget and drag and drop it on the page.
3. Click Edit.
4. Select the biographies would would like to display under the content tab.
5. Under list settings, choose limits if need and the sort order.
6. Expand the drop down menu under List template to choose the design template you want to use.
7. Click List Options, enter a title if needed and check the fields you would like to display. 
8. Click Back to widget settings.
9. Select Single items settings choose whether you would like to open bio details on the same page (auto-generated) when selected or a designated (existing) page. If you are not sure which option you need, click here for more information about setting up an existing page. 
10. To enable text search and/or filtering, click "Filter" and select your preferences. 
11. Save.

Search and filtering

The web biography widget allows optional text search and filtering at the top of the widget for a more simplified user experience. 

These options give site visitors the ability to type in names and select categories in order to pare down the list of biographies displayed by applicable criteria. To enable search and/or filtering, please do the following: 

1. While editing the page, click Edit on the Web Bios widget and select Filter at the bottom.

2. Select which options you would like to implement. 

3. Save. 

Additional information

Replacing the people widget

Those who are currently using the people widget on their website(s) will need to switch out the people widget with the new web bio widget. The people widget will no longer be available in Sitefinity starting March 2021 so it is imperative that site builders complete the switch. 

To replace the people widget, please do the following:

1. Use the provided spreadsheet to locate existing People Widgets, the spreadsheet will provide guidance on which widget list template was used. For example, in the image below, there is a “Faculty Directory” page using a people widget with the Contact info card template.

    

   

 

2. In the Dashboard, switch to the proper multisite, ex. College of Nursing
3. Locate and Edit the Page
4. Locate the People widget on the page
5. Edit the People widget and make a note of the display criteria the widget is using. We suggest taking a screenshot.  

    

   

 

6. Add a Web Bio Widget
7. Save as draft
8. Add the same criteria to the Web Bio widget under “Which web bios to display?”. Because the Web Bio data is now local to just this site, it may not be necessary to use as much criteria to filter results. For example, it may be possible to get the same results by just selecting the role as “faculty” since the data is already limited to the College of Nursing site.

    

   

 

9. Save as draft
10. Edit the Web bio widget and select the template and fields. Instead of re-creating all eight templates of the People widget, we have made few templates in Web Bio – but they can be configured to show the desired pieces of contact info.
    • Go to the List Settings of the Web Bio widget.
    • Change the “Sort web bios” dropdown to “Last name, first name”
    • Use this table to help select the appropriate template
    • To add or remove which fields are displayed, Click the list options button
    • Use the checkboxes to select the desired info to display. Please note Full Profile views like Web bio accordion and Web bio full will display all fields regardless of the selection. 

    Original People Template Name	New Web Bio Template Name	Select These Fields To Match
    Accordion list of full profiles	Web bio accordion	Not necessary – fields should match without configuration
    Basic list	Web bio simple list	Not necessary – fields should match without configuration
    Contact info card	Web bio  or Web bio grid	·       Job Title ·       Preferred Email ·       Phone
    Department contact info		·       Job Title ·       Primary Department (or Secondary Department if preferred) **this may require additional info to be added to the web bio ·       Preferred Email ·       Phone
    Full Profile	Web bio full	Not necessary – fields should match without configuration
    Overview card	Web bio or Web bio grid	·       Job Title ·       Primary Department (or Secondary Department if preferred) **this may require additional info to be added to the web bio
    Simple card	Web bio or Web bio grid	·       Job Title ·       Primary Department (or Secondary Department if preferred) **this may require additional info to be added to the web bio
    Person	Web bio	Not necessary – fields should match without configuration

     

11. Save widget.
12. Save the page as a draft.
13. Preview the page.
14. Adjust the Web bio widget as needed.
15. Edit the People widget once more and go to the Single Item Settings tab, make a note of how this is configured.
16. Edit the Web bio widget, go to the Single Item Settings, set configuration up to match what was in the people widget.
17. Save the widget.
18. Save as draft.
19. Remove the People widget.
20. Publish the page.