About the Carnegie Mellon Web Kilt

The Carnegie Mellon Web Kilt adds components to CMU's web template for sites in a CMS and web apps that need to look and feel like part of the university.

A Starting Point for App Developers

CMU's web template already includes useful widgets for building pages. The kit documents what's available, with live examples and markup you can copy, so app developers can find and use those pieces in their own projects.

It also adds a few civilizing conveniences for app development: status labels, copy buttons, file drop zones and other controls that everyday tasks call for. The aim is to make building an app in CMU's style easier, with less custom CSS and fewer pieces to reinvent.

How It Works

CMU's template supplies the page structure, navigation, typography, buttons and links. The kit uses those styles and adds components such as callouts, status labels, tabs and file drop zones.

• In a CMS, add the content stylesheet to your site's head code, then paste components into a page's HTML. In Cascade, that's a content section's Source code view.
• In an app, load the kit after CMU's template and use the components in your existing pages. Your app handles its own data and actions.
• In a hosted service that lets you add your own styles, such as a form, survey or help-desk tool, the kit's stylesheets can bring its pages closer to CMU's look. How close depends on how much of the page the service lets you change.
• Use a specific release, so your pages change only when you choose to update.

The kit is two stylesheets and a small browser script, with no build step or required JavaScript framework. The installation guide shows which files to load for your project.

The GitHub repository has the code and documentation. To report a problem or suggest a component, open an issue or send a pull request.

Building Something for All of CMU?

We’re especially interested in projects that people across the university will use, whether that’s a shared service, a campus resource or a tool many offices rely on. We’d also like to help vendor apps feel more like part of CMU, even when styling options are limited. If you’re working within those constraints, we’d love to see what’s possible and explore it with you.

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