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College of Fine Arts Web Instruction | College of Fine Arts | University of Texas At Austin

University of Texas At Austin

Website Options On Campus

Which Website options is right for me?

University Blogs Service (UBS)

Pros

Cons

  • Restriction on the domain name path. As of 2019, the site must use the root URL pattern: http://sites.utexas.edu/[unique-identifier]. However,
    • the COFA Web team may be able to create a path from the parent or department website to redirect. Example, after clicking this link the path will redirect: http://finearts.utexas.edu/faculty .
    • You may also purchase a .org from Network Solutions and redirect it to your site but the COFA Web team does not assist with managing those.
  • Limited event list capabilities. We primarily rely on pulling RSS feed for events from the parent or department website, https://sites.utexas.edu/cofacareers. There may be capability to use Google calendar and ical but we have not had success with it yet. It’s unclear i it’s the software or user error.
  • Limited theme style options
  • No additional content types, except News/Blog
  • No simple way to include hide reveal/accordion or tab layouts  for content creation.

UT Drupal Kit Managed

Example: https://utmesoamerica.org/

Pros

  • The COFA Web team will help set a site up for any official college entity
  • Very reliable and fully managed by central campus ITS
  • University-branded theme that looks like the main UT website
  • Features
    • News content type
    • Events Content Type
    • Profile/Directory content type
    • Large hero image on homepage
    • Embed video and audio from multiple sources
    • Multiple responsive grid layouts with fields that you can plug your content into.
    • Hide reveal / accordion and tab layouts  for content creation.
  • Social Media links
  • Customizable footer
  • Sandbox test site for experimenting in.
  • Google Analytics enabled by campus ITS Web team
  • Adhering to all university accessibility, security and privacy requirements built into the site as long as alternate text is added to all images.

Cons

  • Cost depends on how many visitors to the site
  • Only one non-customizable theme
  • Features and functionality limited to those noted above as pros.

Pantheon Web Hosting (previously CMS Hosting Platform)

Example: https://rrk.finearts.utexas.edu/

Pros

  • For building custom Drupal or WordPress websites
  • Available distributions that includes the university-branded theme that can be customized by a developer

Cons

  • Cost depends on how many visitors to the site
  • Must have developer skills to be able to program a website. Although, hourly contract services and maintenance services are available for a fee.
  • Responsible for adhering to all university accessibility, security and privacy requirements

UT Web

Example: https://finearts.utexas.edu/ which is built by and managed by the COFA Web team

Pros

  • Free

Cons

  • Requires experience using Unix-based web technologies such as HTML, PHP, and Apache, and are required to be able to manage files using the Unix command line, SSH or SFTP tools.
  • Responsible for adhering to all university accessibility, security and privacy requirements
  • The college Web team is at full capacity and unable to build any new sites on this platform.
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