Global Links

Quick Links

Websites


HINT: Target specific domains eg. "site:eden.rutgers.edu"

People


EXAMPLES: "John Smith" OR "Smith" OR "Smith, John" OR ",John" OR "Van Horn,"

Buildings


EXAMPLES: "ASB" OR "Core" OR "Hill" OR "Werblin"

Events

University Units


EXAMPLES: "Admissions" OR "Registrar" OR "Computer Science" OR "UHR"

Platforms, Servers, Web Addresses

Drupal Content Management System

The websites for Rutgers, the New Brunswick Campus, and Rutgers Today are created and managed by University Relations (UR) using the Drupal content management system (CMS). Drupal makes it easy for content creators to organize, publish, and manage a website. Soon UR will offer support and tools for other Rutgers units to use the Drupal CMS on a UR platform. Learn more.

Some Definitions
  • Content Management System: Software controlled via a web browser that allows nontechies to create and manage website content without nitty-gritty technical know-how
  • Platform: The tools, technology, and software used to create and run a website
  • Server: The physical computer where your website code, text, images, etc., reside
  • Web Address: An easy-to-remember string of words that identifies a website on the internet. It usually ends with a suffix that indicates the type of organization holding the name (.com, .edu, .org, .gov). Examples: Rutgers.edu, sas.rutgers.edu, camlaw.rutgers.edu, newarkbioweb.rutgers.edu
What Do These Common Abbreviations Mean?

As you discuss your project with your IT specialist, you will probably hear these terms.

  • HTML and XHTML (Hypertext Markup Language and Extensible Hypertext Markup Language): Used to tag or “markup” website text so it appears a certain way to users
  • CSS (Cascading Style Sheets): Used to program look and format throughout a website
  • URL (Uniform Resource Locator): Any individual web address, such as www.rutgers.edu

First Things First

Before you begin your website/webpage project, it’s a good idea to talk to your information technology (IT) person about startup requirements. Every academic and administrative unit at Rutgers has an assigned IT resource. Below are basic topics you should address with your IT specialist: platforms, servers, and web addresses.

Platforms, Servers, Web Addresses: Questions for Your Rutgers IT Specialist

New or existing website? Determine if you are creating a new website or a new webpage or section of an existing website. If you are building a new webpage or section onto an existing website/webpage, many decisions about how to proceed will already have been made.

What server? For a new website, identify the server where the website will be hosted. Existing websites already have a host server; find out what that is.

Scope of project? What is the goal of the website/webpage? Who is the target audience? What technical functionality (text and pictures? registration form? feedback form?) must your website/webpage have? What is your deadline? What is your budget?

Who will do the work? Determine who will build and maintain your website/webpage. The scope of the project and the required functionality (see scope of project above) will determine who is best suited to do to this work.

What platform? Determine which platform best suits your website/webpage needs. Main factors in choosing a platform include technical functionality, budget, and your or your programmer’s technological abilities. There are several platform options.

  • University Relations’ Drupal content management system, which is generally easy to use.
  • Your area’s content management system, if there is one, (Drupal, Joomla, others), which most likely is generally easy to use.
  • Campuswide servers such as RCI at Rutgers–New Brunswick, Andromeda at Rutgers–Newark, or CLAM at Rutgers–Camden. These servers do not have prepackaged content management systems. For websites/webpages hosted on these servers, you will need a skilled programmer to build your website/webpage or you will need to learn HTML programming.
  • New server in your area. You will need a skilled web programmer as well as a system administrator to establish a website/webpage on a new server.
  • Free or paid commercial services such as Google Sites, which is a free service. The level of technical skill needed to build websites/webpages on these sites depends on the service you choose.

Web address? Decide if you need a new web address. A new website will need one. Examples of web addresses at Rutgers are sas.rutgers.edu, newarkbioweb.rutgers.edu, and camlaw.rutgers.edu. Requests for obtaining a web address, also called a virtual host, should be submitted to

Steps for Setting up a Website on RCI at Rutgers–New Brunswick

1. Before you can set up a website on RCI, you must set up a departmental (or “RCI” or “become”) account. Information about departmental accounts as well as the online form for requesting an account is provided by the Office of Information Technology. This account will be used to host your website. The name can be a maximum of eight letters. This is NOT necessarily the name someone would type in to get to your site (see Step 3); it is the name you would type in to upload pages. Someone in your office will be responsible for the administration of this site. That means they will determine who has access to it, and they will get any account notices that might be sent from the Office of Information Technology.

2. Once you have a departmental account, you will need to upload at least one page into it (often a page with your department’s name on it) so you can be sure it’s working. You can upload a page to your departmental account via FTP. FTP software such as WinSCP, PuTTY, and SSH can be obtained from the Office of Information Technology’s software portal. You will need your NetID to log in to the software portal. Open your FTP software, enter rci.rutgers.edu as the host name, the departmental account name as the Username, and your NetId:password as the Password. In order to view the page you uploaded to your account, use the following URL in your browser: http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~accountname.

3. Request a “virtual host” for your departmental account. This is a name like “academics,” for instance, which will become part of your web address (e.g., academics.rutgers.edu). You can get a virtual host by requesting one. The Office of Information Technology will provide the name of your departmental account and the virtual host name you would like. Again, this may or may not be the same name. For instance, the departmental account for the Rutgers Day website is “ruday,” while the virtual host name is rutgersday.rutgers.edu.

4. Once you have a virtual host set up, you can transfer your website to your new account.