Dev: How to Update the Record of Courses

This page gives instructions for adding courses for a new year to the Record of Courses page. These instructions are divided into three sections:

  • Getting ready to edit the record
  • Adding one more year (Fall and Winter terms) to the record for 2027-28, 2028-29 and 2029-30
  • Adding another batch of years to start with Fall 2031

Get Ready to Add to the Record

Start by understanding the structure of the page using the Document Overview panel of the WordPress Editor. The record of courses is contained in a series of Accordion blocks. each Accordion contains up to six Panes and each Pane lists the courses in a five-year group. The record is in reverse chronological order so that:

  • The first Accordion can list courses delivered in terms starting Fall 2000 and ending Winter 2030.
  • The empty Paragraph between the Accordions breaks the record at year 2000 to make the page easier for users to read.
  • The second Accordion lists courses delivered between Fall 1973 (our first year) and Winter 2000.
  • A third Accordion must be added above the current contents for the thirty years starting Fall 2030 and ending Winter 2060

Each accordion can contain up to 6 Panes and each Pane lists the courses delivered in a 5-year block. To minimize page length and create consistency of column width, each Pane combines five years of courses in Kadence block of type Adv Table. At the time of this writing, the top pane in the first accordion is not full. You can add add three more academic years (2027/28, 2028/29, 2029/30) to the table in this pane. The bottom pane in the second Accordion contains only two academic years: 1973/74 and 1974/75.

The Structure of the Tables

Look at first rows in the first table which, at the time of this writing, list courses scheduled for 2026-27. Like all tables in this page, it has four columns: two for the Fall term and two for the Winter term. Highlighting is applied in editor’s Settings Panel to make the first two rows for each year have the appearance of heading rows, as explained below.

  • The first or top row has a green backgrounu. Columns 1 and 3 state the term and year. Columns 2 and 4 are empty.
    Note: The font size is slightly enlarged in this row.
  • The second row as a blue background. Column 1 and 3 say Course Title. Columns 2 and 4 say Course Director.
  • The following rows have no highlighting and contain course data.
    If more courses were delivered in one term than in the other, the unused cells are empty.
    If you scroll through the courses in one academic year, each row has yellow background as you hover over it.
  • The pattern above repeats for each year. Top top row for each academic year has a bright green background as you hover over it.

Adding one year to an Existing Accordion Pane

These instructions use a duplicate-and-modify method because copying exiting rows and then modifying the content carries all the styles mentioned the previous section forward to the new rows. The images show adding 2027/28 as an example.
If you want to start over at any point up to step 7, you can undo your changes by closing the file without saving it.

How to Add One Academic year to an Existing Accordion Pane

Structure of the Record of Courses page in the Document Overview panel

Using the Guttenberg Document Overview Panel to update the Record of Courses page
  1. Open the Record of Courses page in the Editor and expand the first Accordian block.
  2. Open the Document Overview panel (partially shown to the left) to see the structure of the page to the left of the main editor panel
  3. Click the first Accordion, then first Accordian Pane labeled Fall 2026 to the Present Day and Table(Adv) block to see a list of Table Rows similar to the image on the left.
  4. Holding the Shift key, click the first 8 Table Row blocks so they are highlighted by a blue background as shown on the left. (You select what look like 2 header rows and 6 rows for the courses each term.)
  5. Right-click to open the menu shown on the left and Duplicate or press Ctrl+Shift+D.
  6. You should now see the two copies of the rows selected in step 4. Don’t worry if the styles, in particular the colour settings. do not display correctly.
  7. To get a better display of the style setting, Save the file and close the editor. When you reopen the file, the editor can pick up the correct style settings in the new rows. Save again and verify that the page displays correctly by opening the Record of Courses page as a user (not from the dashboard).
  8. When you are satisfied that the data is display correctly, you can edit the contents of the new rows by replacing the text as required.
  9. Correct the year in the row with a green background. Do not modify the row with a blue background.
  10. Delete all the titles and director names until the data in each cell in the table reads: type / to choose a block.
  11. Type the information for the new courses.
    If you need another row, select some text in the last row for the new year and locate the associated Table Row block in the Document Overview panel. Right-click on that Table Row and click Duplicate in the popup menu.
    If you end up with an empty row, select some text in extra row and locate the associated Table Row block in the Document Overview panel. Right-click on that Table Row and click Delete in the popup menu.
  12. If you want to check partial work, click Save and open Record of Courses in another browser tab. You can leave the editor open and refresh the Record of Courses tab to pick up the latest changes. You may find that some style settings do not show as expected in the editor but are correct when viewed by users.
  13. When you are satisfied, Save the file and close the editor. Test by viewing the file outside WordPress (ideally in a different browser).

Adding Another Accordion Pane to Open an New 30-Year Block