Table of Contents
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Questions about creating a website
- Do you have a site title and site URL in mind? Can this be on an Illinois.edu domain?
- Who will be the content editors? Are they comfortable with HTML, Markdown, Github or would they prefer a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor? Will they be maintaining the entire site, or will groups be maintaining different areas of the site?
- Who will be providing the text, images, and documents for the site?
- What is the general audience and purpose of the site?
- What is the envisioned color scheme of the site? Do you have a logo? Do you have a general look and feel of the site in mind (navigation, main page structure)?
- What non-static components do you need? Search capability, resource or publication management, faculty / staff bios, Google Analytics,social media integration, news, events, login information, blogs?
- How often will the site be changing? What is the expected lifespan of the site?
- Do you have a sitemap in mind? How many pages will the site have?
Site Options
- PIE (publish.illinois.edu)
- cPanel (WordPress)
- Sitefinity CMS
- Static site
- Third-party site (Wix, Squarespace, custom server, etc.)
Use PIE (publish.illinois.edu)
- You want a site that looks like one of the pre-existing WordPress templates on campus.
- You do not want to worry about maintaining your own WordPress site.
- You do not need to import themes or extensions to the WordPress site.
- You do not care if the site exists on our Illinois.edu domain.
- You are comfortable with the WordPress experience.
Use a cPanel instance
- You are experienced with a different CMS like WordPress, or you are comfortable with maintaining your website in a Linux environment with SSH.
- You want a site that looks like one of the pre-existing WordPress templates on campus.
- You do not care if the site exists on our Illinois.edu domain.
- You are comfortable with minimal help from IT Partners in maintaining your website, or you are willing to work with IT Partners to manage a project with our student help.
Use the Sitefinity Content Management System
- You want a site that looks like one of our pre-existing Sitefinity templates or you want a template that can be used by other areas.
- You want a site that exists on our Illinois.edu domain.
- You will have multiple people that will be maintaining different parts of the website.
- The site editors prefer a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editing experience.
- You want to customize your pages to have a distinct look for each page (for example, some pages will have text in a single column, and other pages will have text in multiple columns).
Use a Static Site
- You want a very custom website that doesn’t meet our existing Sitefinity or WordPress templates.
- Only a few people will be working on this updating the site, and those people will be maintaining the entire site.
- The people editing the site are comfortable with (or willing to learn) Markdown and Github to handle basic formatting. Both systems are easy to use,and we provide training.
- You have a small set of templates that you want to use across your site, and you’ll just be updating text, images, and documents on the site.
- The site exists on our Illinois.edu domain.
- You have a static HTML site and will be manipulating the HTML directly.
- You have a site that won’t be changed, and you want it on the web for archive purposes.
Use a third-party instance
- You already have a third-party website instance or are willing to pay for the hosting.
- You want a very custom website that doesn’t meet our existing Sitefinity or WordPress templates.
- You are comfortable with the accessibility requirements surrounding the third-party website.
Choosing a third-party instance
- You will be responsible for images, documents, text, templates, and making sure the site meets university and state accessibility guidelines.
- You will be responsible for any payment for a third-party site.
- IT Partners@Education will work with you to tie the URL to your new site if the URL is being provided by campus services.
Choosing PIE (publish.illinois.edu):
- IT Partners@Education will work with you to set up the instance and tie the URL to your new site.
- You as a content editor will be responsible for images, documents, and text, and you will have full control over this. You can give editing rights to others, either inside the University system or outside the University system.
- Your website will be on a cloud platform and will be updated automatically by a combination of the cloud provider (either Azure or AWS) and Technology Services,
Choosing cPanel:
- IT Partners@Education will work with you to set up the instance and tie the URL to your new site.
- You will be allowed full access to the site, including SSH. cPanel comes with a MySQL instance which you will also be responsible for, assuming you choose to use it.
- You as a content editor will be responsible for images, documents, and text, and you will have full control over this. You can give editing rights to others, either inside the University system or outside the University system. For people inside the University system, the login process may or may not be integrated with the University single sign-on (SSO) (depending on the plugins available and option chosen).
- Your website will be on a cloud platform and will be updated automatically by a combination of the cloud provider (either Azure or AWS) and Technology Services. If you are using your own tools, you will be responsible for updating these tools.
Choosing Sitefinity or a Static Site option:
- IT Partners@Education will ensure that the site is responsive, accessible, and meets University and College branding standards where appropriate.
- You as a content editor will be responsible for images, documents, and text, and you will have full control over this. You can give editing rights to others, either inside the University system or outside the University system. For people inside the University system, the login process will be integrated with the University single sign-on (SSO).
- IT Partners@Education will give you tools to allow you to import news items, events, faculty members, programs, and other resources.
- Your website will be on a cloud platform and will be updated automatically by a combination of the cloud provider (either Azure or AWS), Technology Services, and IT Partners@Education.
- We will be responsible for adding Google Analytics and you will have access to this data.
- You will focus on the pages on the site, and we will ensure that the header, footer, templates, and menu systems work with what you need.
The Static Site Editing Experience
- Your static site will be on our University Github system, and you will have access to the text and images that make up the website.
- You can update the text using the built-in Github text editor.You create pages by adding new text files to Github.
- You will have a series of components that you can control by modifying text files.
- You can update images and documents by using the Github built-in uploader and downloader.
- All changes are stored in Github, and when you make changes, these changes are pushed to the website automatically. You can look at these changes on the website and use GitHub tools to revert to a previous version.
- If you want to have a development or preview webpage, we can set that up for you as a separate website, but this is not done out-of-the-box.
Example of Github list of pages:
Example of Github editing page (using Markdown):
The Sitefinity Content Management System Editing Experience
- Your site will be on our College Sitefinity management system and you will have access to the text and images that make up the website.
- You have a variety of widgets that allow you to add text, images, news items, blogs, profiles, and other items. Text is added through a WYSIWYG editor. You also have limited control over design (creating columns, grids, etc.).
- You create new pages by clicking a button and choosing a template.
- You can update images and documents by using the Sitefinity image and document libraries.
- You can publish, preview changes, and revert changes to a previous version.
Example of editing a page with list of widget:
Example of editing a page with list of widget:
