Knowledge Base

Content Authoring

Create and edit the content of a site — pages, blocks, files, and folders — then check it, link it, and publish it where it needs to go.

Where to start

Edit a page

Pages are where most content lives. Learn what makes a field editable and how in-context editing works.

Pages →

Reuse content across pages

Blocks hold content that appears in more than one place — XHTML, text, XML, index, and feed blocks each suit a different job.

Blocks →

Get it onto the web

Publishing renders your content and sends it to a destination, where it runs independently of the CMS.

Publishing →

Organising content

Structure a site

Folders give a site its shape and its URLs, and carry settings that everything inside them inherits.

Folders →

Upload and edit files

Images, PDFs, and other files live alongside pages, and can be cropped, resized, and edited in place.

Files →

Start from a template

Asset Factories stamp out new assets with configuration and content already in place, and plug-ins extend what they do.

Asset Factories →

Before you publish

Check your work

Run spelling, link, and accessibility checks on new or revised assets before they go out.

Content checks →

Keep links working

Internal links follow assets when they move. Learn when that applies and how external links are checked.

Linking →

Go back to an earlier draft

Every change is kept as a version you can preview, compare, and restore.

Versions →

All Articles

Accessibility

Cascade CMS offers a variety of features to help you create and publish accessible content. Learn more about accessibility features in Cascade CMS here.

Adding a caption to a table

Turn on the Caption checkbox in a table's properties to add a caption area above the first row, then enter your caption text.

Adding a caption to an image

Use the Advanced tab of the Insert/edit image dialog to wrap an image in figure and figcaption elements, then edit the caption text in the editor.

Adding a PDF to a page

Upload a PDF or other document to Cascade CMS, then link to it from the WYSIWYG editor using an internal link.

Adding a table header and footer

Use Row Properties to mark a row as a header or footer, which wraps it in thead or tfoot elements.

Adding an image to a page

Upload an image to Cascade CMS, insert it in the WYSIWYG editor with alternative text, and optionally set its alignment.

Adding classes to links and images

Apply a configured class to a link or image through the Styling field, and use the element path to reach a figure element instead.

Adding classes to tables

Apply a Custom Format class to a table, row, or cell, and use the editor's element path to target the exact element you mean.

Adding header cells to a table

Set a cell's type to Header cell and give it a scope so screen readers can associate data cells with the right headers.

Advanced Code Editor

The Advanced Code Editor (ACE) is Cascade CMS' built-in syntax-highlighting editor.

AI Content and SEO Suggestions

Use Cascade CMS's AI suggestions to draft metadata titles, summaries, keywords, and image alt text, and how to enable them for a site.

Asset Factories

Asset Factories stamp out new assets with configuration and content already in place, either from scratch or from a pre-configured base asset.

Asset Factory Plugins

An overview of available plugins for use as part of Asset Factories.

Asset is not set to publish. Please enable publishing for this asset and try again.

The asset you are publishing has the Include when publishing option turned off. Enable it on the Configure tab.

Asset Naming Rules

Asset naming rules allow you to enforce a consistent format for system names in Cascade CMS.

Blocks

A block is a piece of content that can be inserted (with or without styling) into any page region.

Configuring table properties

What the General and Advanced tabs of the Table properties dialog control, including dimensions, alignment, caption, and colors.

Content Checks

Check new and revised assets for spelling errors, broken internal and external links, and accessibility issues before publishing.

Content Tips

Content Tips are a new feature designed to offer real-time SEO guidance as you edit assets with visible metadata fields, including Titles and Descriptions.

Could not connect to FTPS server: NotAfter

The SSL/TLS certificate on the target FTPS server has expired. Install a valid certificate on the server.

Could not put file with path '<path>' onto server: Failure

Most often the target web server has run out of disk space. Check available storage, then the FTPS server logs.

Could not put file with path 'FILE_PATH' onto server: Permission denied

The SFTP account in the Transport lacks write permission on the target directory. Find the account via the Destination's Transport, then fix permissions on the server.

Create Resized Images Plug-in

This plug-in allows an administrator to specify that multiple resized images will be created when a user uploads a single image.

Creating an anchor link

Place a named anchor in a page, then link to it from the same page or another page using the Anchor field of the link dialog.

CSS Editor Snippets

Data Definition Field(s) to System Name Plug-in

Generate a search-engine-friendly system name from one or more Data Definition fields, and how asset naming rules interact with it.

Destinations

Destinations define the link between site content and the location to which site content can be published.

Discarding the Index Block Rendering Cache

When a page using an Index Block shows outdated information, toggling the Index Block Rendering Cache off and on forces a rebuild.

Display to System Name Plug-in

This plug-in ensures that newly-created assets are given search engine friendly system names.

Editable Fields

When viewing a page in Cascade CMS, every region will contain content.

Error occurred during FTP transport: Accept timed out

The connection is using Active FTP where the server expects Passive. Enable Use Passive FTP (PASV) on the Transport.

External Links

An external link is an asset that points to a website hosted outside of Cascade CMS.

Feed Blocks

Feed blocks pull XML from a web location, which is useful for aggregating outside RSS or the output of a dynamic script.

File Limit Plug-in

This plug-in allows administrators to place restrictions on the size and type of file created using a specific asset factory.

Files

Files are content typically created by external programs and imported for use in Cascade CMS.

Folders

You can use folders and subfolders to contain and organize your Site Content assets.

Friendly Page Name Plug-in

This plugin limits the system name of new page assets to configurable regular expression.

How can I generate a cron expression for my scheduled publishes?

Cascade CMS uses Quartz, whose cron syntax differs slightly from other tools. Sample expressions and recommended generators.

How can I tell who edited or published a page?

Check the asset's audit trail under More > Audits — or, if the asset is gone, the audit trail of a Group whose members could edit it.

How do I configure 301 Redirects?

Cascade CMS has no native redirect feature — maintain your web server's .htaccess or web.config in the CMS and publish it to the server root.

How do I create a "calling page" Index Block?

Settings for the most commonly used Index Block in Cascade CMS, and how to preview one that needs a context page to render.

How do I determine where assets will be published?

The final path combines the Transport's Server Directory, the Destination's Directory, and the asset's folder path in the Site.

How do I edit content or find out where to edit a certain region?

Learn how to edit page content in Cascade CMS and find out which Block or Format is responsible for a particular region.

How do I publish changes to a block?

Blocks aren't publishable on their own — use Relationships to find the pages that use the block and publish those.

How do I rename an asset?

Rename from More > Rename or the context menu — then republish, because renaming unpublishes the asset from every Destination.

How do I unlock a page or asset?

Switch to the Working Copy, then commit or break the lock — or, if someone else owns it, have them reassign it to you.

How do I unpublish an asset that no longer exists in the CMS?

Recreate the asset as an empty placeholder File at the same path and name, unpublish it, then delete the placeholder.

How do I upload a folder?

Zip the folder first, then upload the archive and choose whether to unpack it into individual assets.

How does the Max Asset Versions setting affect existing versions?

Lowering Max Asset Versions doesn't trim existing version chains immediately — each asset is trimmed the next time it's edited and submitted.

I won't open a connection to <ip address 1> (only to <ip address 2>)

The Transport is set to Active FTP but the target server only supports Passive. Enable Use Passive FTP (PASV).

Image Resizer Plug-in

This plug-in allows an administrator to specify that an uploaded image be resized to particular dimensions.

Index Blocks

An index block is a special type of block that returns a listing of assets from the CMS directory structure in the form of XML data.

Inserting a video

Add a video to page content with the Insert/edit media dialog, using either a direct URL or embed code from the hosting service.

Invalid privatekey error when publishing via SFTP

Cascade CMS needs the SSH key in PEM format. Regenerate the key pair with ssh-keygen -m PEM and upload it again.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Cascade CMS features keyboard shortcuts in the following areas.

Linking

The ways Cascade CMS manages links — asset links, external links, and link rewriting — and which to use for a given asset and target.

Native On-Page Accessibility Checker

The Native On-Page Accessibility Checker is an on-demand page-level tool for checking page content for WCAG 2.0, 2.1, 2.2 compliance (Level A, AA, and AAA).

Pages

Page assets represent the combination of Template, content, scripts, and/or Formats to produce one or more rendered outputs for publishing.

Permissions issues when publishing to Filesystem Transports

Tomcat's default UMASK of 0027 can leave published files unreadable by the web server. Override it in cascade.sh.

Problems connecting via SFTP to Solarwinds Serv-U servers

Serv-U 15.3.2 changed its SSH protocol exchange, which blocks Cascade CMS. Apply hotfix 1 and allow non-RFC compliant exchange.

Publish Sets

A publish set is a group of publishable assets that can be published either on-demand or on a schedule. They may contain files, folders, and/or pages.

Publishing

How the publishing engine renders and sends content to one or more destinations, and what makes an asset publishable.

Publishing Related Content

Often times, assets you're working on will affect other content in your site. Cascade CMS offers multiple ways to publish related content.

References

A reference makes one asset appear in several locations at once while a single copy is maintained — how they behave and where they break down.

Rendering Metrics

Rendering metrics show how long each region of a page takes to render, so you can find the blocks and formats slowing a page down.

Scheduled publishing for individual assets

Start Date versus Optionally Publish Later — which to use for a brand new asset, and which for an update to an existing one.

Set Start Date Plug-in

This plug-in sets the metadata field "start date" to the current time for newly created assets, with an optional configurable offset.

SFTP: java.net.SocketTimeoutException: Read timed out

The SFTP server's concurrent connection limit is too low for Cascade CMS's parallel publishing. Raise it to at least 25.

System Tags

Cascade CMS recognizes specific XML elements called system tags that are used for dynamic content insertion.