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Web Services Availaibility

Site Naming Options:

  • Standard Domain
    • GRIT can internally provide and manage subdomain names within any of our departmental domains
      • grit.ucsb.edu
      • eri.ucsb.edu
      • geog.ucsb.edu
      • msi.ucsb.edu
      • isber.ucsb.edu
    • eg: mycoolproject.grit.ucsb.edu
  • Vanity Domains - Custom domain names for a more personalized feel
    • Within ucsb.edu - (ie: oceancolor.ucsb.edu)
      • Read docs at: https://www.it.ucsb.edu/websites/subdomain-guidelines-and-requests
      • Request form is at bottom of that form
      • It takes some time (weeks?) to get approval for a domain
        • process may be complicated if the name has any ambiguity or might be confused with another department or entity on campus.
        • Once approved, GRIT can be designated to manage DNS.
    • Outside of ucsb.edu - purchasing a domain name through a registry - (ie: oceancolor.com) 
      • GRIT recommends against doing this 
      • The researcher is entirely responsible for purchasing and maintaining the domain name.
      • If the domain registry lapses, the researcher is responsible for re-acquiring the domain name.

Hosting Options:

  • GRIT hosted
    • Platforms: Drupal, Web Apps like Jekyll/Flask/NodeJS/etc, Static HTML, PHP, WordPress, Drupal, generated sites (Jekyll)WordPress
    • Integrations: GitHubCI/CD webhookspipeline for staticbuilding orweb JekyllApps sitesusing Drone and Dokku
    • Features:
      • Managed by local Web team.
      • Sites can be configured to access GRIT storage resources
      • ResearchersWebsites maymaintained beusing ablea toGIthub directly access their web content (depends on platform used)Repo
  • LSCG hosted
    • Platforms: Drupal (9,10)
    • Features:
      • Has prebuilt theme that complies with UCSB design standards and can be easily customized 
      • LSCG run management platform.
      • LSCG Design Team - recharge at hourly rate
  • Pantheon
    • Platforms: Drupal, WordPress
    • Features:
      • Drupal:  Has prebuilt theme that complies with UCSB design standards and can be easily customized 
      • Wordpress: You will have to provide your own theme and comply with UCSB design staandards
      • WebUI tools for management
  • External Service (Wix, Squarespace, Wordpress.com, etc...)
    • GRIT does recommend this except in very specific instances; because:
      • vendor lockin - most of these services provide few, limited or no options for migrating data away from their platform. 
    • Requires DNS pointers and extra setup - NOTE: not all external services support external URLs

Publishing Links to the Website:

Many publications are now online, making updating links in a published document more approachable.  Even though it's better now that in the past, GRIT recommends that users publishing links online use a Durable Object Identifier (DOI).  This is basically a link to a link, allowing the owner to update the link in the future if the linked resource moves or is renamed.

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