The University's central web pages are maintained by the Site Reliability Team which is part of the Directorate of Digital & Information Services (DDIS). We provide web publishing services to the University's Schools and Directorates in support of their activities.
If you have queries about web content, these should be directed to digital-comms@abdn.ac.uk.
Our support services are available during core business hours (09:00 - 17:00, Monday - Friday).
Contact
Email: sre@abdn.ac.uk
Directorate of Digital & Information Services
Edward Wright Building
Dunbar Street
Old Aberdeen
AB24 3QY
- OpenText and Writing for the Web Training: forthcoming dates and online booking
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Training
For forthcoming dates and online booking, please visit the Digital Resources Hub.
Please note: Only designated web editors have access to OpenText CMS. You should only attend OpenText training if you have been asked to do so by your website’s owner. - Web Content and Hosting
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Corporate Content
Corporate content is presented under a URL beginning www.abdn.ac.uk and is added through the centrally administered Content Management System (CMS). Requests for the addition of content to the corporate website may be directed to the Digital Communications team.
Please note that we are unable to put any third-party software such as WordPress on the corporate server.
Corporate URL Examples
Approved URLs will take the format of
- www.abdn.ac.uk/something/ top-level/ - Reserved for corporate-styled websites.
- www.abdn.ac.uk/events/an-event/ - Used for events.
- www.abdn.ac.uk/research/a-project/ - Research project, group or area. Note this may take the form of a redirect.
In all cases, the URL will be assigned only after discussion with the Digital Communications team.
Non-corporate Content and Hosting
Content that is not suitable for inclusion in the corporate website may qualify for a presence in in one of our alternative solutions. Please see our Web Publishing Services for further details.
External Domain Names
In certain circumstances, the University will support the hosting of web content under a third party domain name. Please consult the Site Reliability Team before purchasing an external domain name.
Staff Pages
The staff pages system allows you to edit and manage your own staff page which can be displayed across the University site as required. Please see the staff pages section in the Digital Resources Hub for further information on presenting your staff information and publications.
- Content Filtering
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The University’s web content filter checks every URL request against a blacklist of undesirable websites. If a requested URL is on the blacklist, either your browser will return an error message saying that the site doesn’t exist or the content filter returns a replacement page, informing the user of what has happened and why.
The suppliers of our content filtering software offer a range of criteria for blacklisting, including those relating to pornography and inciting illegal activity, and we receive regular updates to the blacklist from them.
When a website has been wrongly classified as unsuitable for University access we can remove it from the blacklist. Similarly, we can add URLs to the blacklist if we come across websites that have been missed.
Further details on the filter criteria are given in the Web content filter guidelines.
Requesting the unblocking or blocking of a URL or domain
It is acknowledged that some unfiltered web access may be necessary for academic purposes and, to cater for this, the content filter can be configured to permit unfiltered access by specified computers.
Use the appropriate link below to request the unblocking or blocking of a URL or domain. You will be asked to give a brief description of the website and your reasons for asking it to be unblocked or blocked. These reasons should make reference to the criteria in the Web content filter guidelines.
The submission of your request will be acknowledged via email with a Service Desk 'call reference number'. Service Desk staff will review the request and respond to let you know whether it has been accepted. In the case where text on the website is in a language other than English, you may be asked to provide a translation of sections of the text.