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Web Regulations
These documents are definitive!
The regulations are divided into musts (which must be adhered too) and suggestions (which we would prefer you to use). Preceding each set of regulations is a short preamble which explains why they are required. Many of the regulations also include reasons to help web authors understand why they have been included.
These regulations do not apply to vanity publishing (personal sites or project sites hosted on our users.bathspa.ac.uk web-server) or sites for outside organisations, which may be hosted on our servers.
Web Page Creation
All publicly facing web-pages with a bathspa.ac.uk domain name must be built around templates created by Information Services (the Design Process applies to page creation as well as software procurement). Templates may be designed in consultation with an outside design agency, but they must be coded in house to ensure that the pages meet these regulations. Any School or Service wishing to use an outside design agency should contact the Web Manager prior to signing a contract (This enables us to work with the agency from the outset and explain these regulations, our hosting restrictions and our processes to them). Where an outside agency is used, the layout of pages hosted on the main server must fit into the corporate style, but colour scheme, additional design devices and image content is left to the designer (see jobs vacancies microsite for an example of this). The content of pages, once the templates have been produced, is entirely up to the School or Service, so long as they adhere to these regulations. Pages for a new website must be approved before going live, and any discrepancies with these regulations will be reviewed on issue by issue, case by case basis.
The top-most levels of the main website, including the prospectus and course pages are controlled exclusively by Information Services, and no School or Service will be allowed editing rights to these pages. All requests for the content of these pages to be changed must be sent to Marketing and PR, who will log a Work Management System job to edit them. Information Services will not accept requests for edits from any other School or Service except Registry.
The content of web-pages may not be duplicated at any time. This prevents conflicting information being hosted in two or more locations across our servers. In particular:
- all top level marketing information relating to courses (including financial material and matters relating to applications and admissions) should only be stored within the course area of the main website. School websites may contain supplementary information about courses but may not reproduce prospectus entries, and instead should link to the prospectus entries on the main website;
- all staff profiles (including named staff contact details) should only be stored within the profiles area of the main website. School and Service websites may not contain any staff profiles, and instead should link to the profile entries on the main website.
Where any other information may replicate material on the main website, authors should liaise with the webmaster to come to a consensus regarding the location of said information.
Domain Names and Servers
No new bathspa.ac.uk website domain names will be created without the approval of Computing Services, Information Services and the Vice-Chancellor's Group. Domain names containing bathspa.ac.uk are only available to Schools, and not to Services, departments or groups. Existing website domains will be reviewed on a year by year basis by the VC's group, and some sub-sites may be merged with the main institution website.
All websites in the public domain must be hosted on servers maintained by Computing Services and Information Services. All websites will be hosted on servers running Microsoft Windows and all backend databases will be Microsoft SQL Services driven. Websites currently hosted on Apple Mac servers will be migrated over to Windows servers as time and resources allow. Apple Mac servers will only be used for the distribution of multimedia, either through QuickTime Streaming Services or WEBDAV.
Purchased Software With Web Frontends
Purchased software need only meet accessibility and usability regulations and the technical regulations. The editorial regulations do not apply to purchased software.
Audience
Our public facing website (www.bathspa.ac.uk) is for public facing web-pages: pages advertising courses; our prospectus; information about Schools and Services; news articles; statutory documents; and material that the public (including staff and student applicants) will find useful or interesting. The website should not be used to host any documents for internal distribution, only of interest to staff and students (these should be hosted on our Virtual Learning Environment or Collaboration server). No page on our public facing website should be password protected.
When placing a page or document onto our website, you should ask yourself "who is the audience for this?".
Monitoring Procedures
Information Services will routinely monitor newly created web-pages for compliance with the above regulations. This monitoring will occur once a month and will take in a random selection of sites/pages from each of our web-servers. If the team discover that a site or page does not comply with the regulations, the team will:
- in the first instance refer the author to the appropriate regulation and, if requested, recommend a course of training.
- in the second instance report the author of the site/pages to Jonathan Sebright, Head of Information Services, then Jon Brady, Director of Finance and Resources, or David Timms, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, who will decide what action to take.
Responsibilities
Any web-page officially created on behalf of a School is the responsibility of the Head of School. Any page officially created on behalf of a Service is the responsibility of the immediate Head of Service.
Copyrights and Disclaimers
A disclaimer does not remove the responsibility of the University in law, but authors must take particular care to ensure that no personal opinion may be taken by a reader as an official opinion of the University.