ITSS home : Web Services : WebDev Guide

1 - Getting started

This section covers topics to help you make some decisions about your web site, including:

• Considering a web site?
• Personal vs. official web pages
• Doing it yourself vs. contracting out
• Opening a web development account
• Requesting a URL
• Requesting a link from the UMD web site
• UMD's web server specs
• University policies
• ITSS contact information

Considering a web site?

Before putting any material up on the Web, take a good look at what you want to accomplish. The Web is an electronic medium. The format that works best for print may not be as effective in an electronic form. If you find yourself saying, "I'll just slap it up on the Web!" then you have a pretty good idea at how effective it will likely be.

Even when you have a good idea of what you're trying to accomplish with your Web based stuff, you have several other factors to consider:

• Who will design and implement the site (or page)?
• How much time will I have to devote to managing the site?
• How much time will it take to properly manage the site?
• Is this creating a better educational or informational experience?

Take your time in evaluating what you want and expect from a Web project. Like any resource it is neither inherently good nor evil.

It just
is.

Personal vs. official web pages

There are two types of web pages you can have on the UMD web server: personal and official. The following table explains the main differences between the two types of pages.

	Personal web pages	Official web pages
URL	http://www.d.umn.edu/~username	http://www.d.umn.edu/dept/...
Intended use	Personal web pages for students, faculty and staff.	Official web pages of colleges, schools, and departments. May also be used for student organizations if they have a sponsor.
Requesting web space	Your personal web space is automatically created with your University Internet ID (email account username)	You must request web space for official sites by completing the: UMD Request Form to Store Official Web Pages on the UMD Web Server
Links from UMD home pages	Not available for personal web pages	If you would like your official web page linked from the UMD home page or one of the secondary pages, complete the: UMD Request Form to Link Official Web Pages
Included in "Search UMD"?	No	Yes
Must meet UMD WebDev Checklist?	Not required, but recommended. For details, see: Checklist for UMD web pages.	Yes. For details, see: Checklist for UMD web pages.

Doing it yourself vs. contracting out

You have several options for creating your web site:

• Create it yourself - If you like web development and have the time and skills to create and maintain a site, this may be the best option for you. Use the WebDev Guide as your reference tool.
• Use your department's student workers - Many departments have chosen this route in the past, with varying success. Problems most often occur when the student leaves, and a new student must relearn what was previously done.
• Hire an external vendor - If you choose this option, ITSS staff will work with the vendor to ensure compliance with University policies.
• Hire ITSS web developers - ITSS offers web development services to the campus that include design, maintenance, custom programming, and more. ITSS staff have detailed knowledge about the UMD web site, web server, and Univerisity policy and procedures. In addition to design skills, our staff are well-versed in accessibility and usability issues, and have extensive web programming experience (forms, databases, e-commerce, etc.)

  For details on this service, see: Web Development Services

Opening a web development account

If you are creating a department or other official web site, ITSS recommends that you open a central system account that is specifically used for web development (and not email, Novell, Peoplesoft, etc.). This account allows you to transfer files to the web server, and is the account that is billed for web server disk storage. To request an account, see:

Open or close a central systems account

Requesting a URL

If you are putting up a personal web page, you do not need to request a URL. Your personal web space is automatically created when your UMD Internet/email account is opened; your URL will be:

If you are putting up an official web page, you can request a URL by completing the online request form: Requesting Storage on the UMD web server

The guidelines for URLs on the UMD web server are as follows:

• Colleges and departments:
  
  http://www.d.umn.edu/dept/
  http://www.d.umn.edu/college/
• Student organizations:
  
  http://www.d.umn.edu/orgs/organization_name/ or
  http://www.d.umn.edu/~organization_name/
• Faculty and staff pages:
  
  http://www.d.umn.edu/dept/username/ or
  http://www.d.umn.edu/~username
• Special events, outreach, misc:
  
  http://www.d.umn.edu/outreach/name/

Shortcut URLs (GOTO)

Warp is a service available from ITSS that allows you to "shorten" a URL on the UMD web server by creating a /goto/ shortcut to your site. For details on how it works and to request a /goto/ URL, see:

• What is "http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/?"

Requesting a link from the UMD web site

Official UMD web pages serve to carry out official University business. Requests to include a link on the UMD site are reviewed by the Campus Web Committee and are subject to approval. Personal web pages are not linked from the UMD web site. For details and to request a link, see:

• Request to link official web pages

UMD's web server specs

The UMD web is not a single machine serving the web, but is a collection of systems with multiple web servers and technologies on them. Sometimes a single web application can span several servers and systems.

If you are planning to create a web presence on the UMD web server, the following information may prove helpful.

Main web server

Our main web server (www.d.umn.edu) is an Apache server running on Solaris (SunOS) operating system. Both HTTP and HTTP + SSL are supported on www.d.umn.edu.

Web development technologies

Web developers at UMD can incorporate the following into their web site:

• Java
• PHP
• MySQL for department projects (ITSS will create the database and access; web developers can then create tables, queries, etc.)
• CGI scripts (a number of public CGI scripts are available at Public CGIs )

University policies

The University and UMD have specific policies regarding web publishing, the use of URLs, domain names, and linking to the UMD home page. For details, see the following:

• UofM: Publishing Information on the WWW
• UofM: WWW Publishing Guidelines
• UMD: Creating, Storing and Linking Pages to the UMD Web Site

ITSS contact information

If you have questions about web services at UMD, please contact the ITSS Help Desk, and they will direct your question to the correct ITSS staff person: