CommCenter Administrative Overview

The CommCenter is Academy District 20's content management system for district and school websites. It manages website structure, reusable content, announcements, feature stories, notifications, calendars, directory information, configuration, and analytics workflows.

This page describes the administrative areas of CommCenter. Features that require administrator credentials are documented in the Administration section. Contributor-facing message editing guidance is covered in the CommCenter section of this guide.

Current System

The active CommCenter application is a Quasar 2 / Vue 3 web app. It is backed by a Postgres database exposed through Hasura GraphQL, with Azure Functions handling supporting workflows such as content quality checks, AI polish, AI summaries, image alt text generation, calendar syncing, search indexing, search analytics logging, Google Analytics syncing, RSS output, translation, and employee updates.

CommCenter is not just a page editor. It stores structured data that the public websites, search services, feeds, previews, and publishing workflows consume.

Core system areas include:

• the CommCenter frontend app, where editors and administrators manage content
• Hasura GraphQL, which provides the main data API over the website database
• Azure Functions, which run background and on-demand service workflows
• shared UI and preview components, which help CommCenter render content similarly to the public sites
• Netlify app hosting and GitHub Actions function publishing for the current deployment lanes

Access Model

CommCenter uses authenticated user profiles, roles and permissions. Route access and menu visibility are controlled by combinations of authentication, roles and permissions.

Common access patterns are:

• authenticated users can reach their dashboard and any features their roles permit
• announcement and feature/story contributors can work in their assigned content areas
• administrators can access website structure, notifications, calendar subscriptions, content taxonomy, files, analytics, RSS feeds and other global tools
• specialized permissions can grant access to configuration, role, template, organization, team and directory features

When documenting administrative functionality, assume the reader has the required role or permission unless the page states otherwise.

What Administrators Manage

Administrators can manage the following areas from CommCenter:

• website menus, pages, links, redirects and website settings
• all messages, announcements, feature stories and notification content
• notification types, including emergency, urgent, informational, floating, page and weather status notices
• calendar subscriptions and sync behavior
• content channels, categories, tags and destinations
• files and search indexing support
• schools, organizations, teams, departments, offerings and profile data
• configuration settings, inherited configurations, templates, roles and permissions
• analytics dashboards for AI search, website usage and publishing activity

Some menu items are intentionally available only to administrators even when the underlying route is authenticated. For example, the Website, Notifications, Analytics & Reporting, Files and RSS Feeds areas are admin-only in the current app menu.

Content Model

Messages are the central content type. A message can become an announcement, feature story, notification, feed item, detail page or related page content depending on its channels, tags, categories, destinations, page relationships and publishing settings.

Message editing now includes tools for:

• AI polish of message details
• AI-generated summaries
• AI-generated image alt text
• image cropping, cover image selection, captions and credits
• title and summary character count guidance
• previews that use current page and message rendering paths when supported
• quality scoring and accessibility feedback

Administrators have broader controls than contributors. Admin-only controls include global channel and destination management, some publishing options, notification configuration, deletion controls, files, and cross-organization settings.

Website Structure

Website pages are structured records that connect templates, page metadata, messages, related pages, related links, quick links, menus, files and organization configuration. Updating a page changes the instructions the website uses to assemble that page.

Website settings, menus, links and redirects are managed separately so common navigation and routing changes do not require editing individual messages.

Calendars

Calendar subscriptions are managed in CommCenter and synchronized by supporting services. Current calendar functionality includes subscription editing, sync actions, job/log details and source identifiers such as Microsoft Graph calendar IDs.

Calendar records can be searched and surfaced by the public websites and search services after sync and indexing workflows run.

Analytics

Administrative analytics are split into focused dashboards:

• AI Search Analytics for search and AI chat usage, feedback and no-result patterns
• Publishing Overview for recent publishing volume and organization activity
• Website Analytics for Google Analytics reporting by organization and content type

These dashboards are administrative tools and should not be documented as contributor-facing functionality.

Publishing Model

CommCenter stores content and configuration in the database. Public website behavior depends on how each content type is consumed:

• feed-style content, notifications, search indexes and analytics may update through dynamic data, sync or indexing workflows
• structural website changes, template changes and public app changes may require the relevant website publish workflow
• CommCenter app publishes currently use Netlify build hooks
• CommCenter Azure Functions publishes currently use GitHub Actions workflow dispatch

Because publishing behavior depends on the content type and target system, do not assume every save immediately changes every public website view.

Documentation Organization

The Administration section follows the current CommCenter administrative menu areas where possible:

• Website
• Content
• Notifications
• Directory Information
• Analytics & Reporting
• Users/Configurations

Contributor-facing instructions for creating and editing announcements, feature stories, images, links, videos and rich message content belong in the CommCenter section, not in Administration.