Web Services Announcements

blog posts

Email+ New Warning Message

Mar 17, 2015 1:15 pm44 views

Web Services Email+ now has a new WARNING message. When sending emails to users off campus, you will receive the below warning message if you do not use the opt out or unsubscribe feature.
Email+ Phishing Error Message

Apr 1, 2015 10:00 am38 views

Web Services Email+ was unable to send out emails earlier today due to falsely identified phishing attempts.

The issue began around 8am and was resolved a little after 12pm. CITES was able to solve the below issue.

This was the original issue cited by CITES on the CITES status page.

ISSUE: Email will not Send. Phishing error message displayed.

The Campus Email Relays have begun suffering a processing error on filtering that is causing large volumes of email to be 'deferred'. Sending servers will see the 'try again later' response, although some applications are unable to handle that SMTP response. This appears to have begun in small amounts at 8am and increased gradually in scope. Complete scope and root cause are currently being researched and a support call with the software vendor is underway.
Email Plus Users

Apr 30, 2015 2:45 pm133 views

If you send emails via Email+ to Illinois and UIllinois email addresses please read the below announcement that was sent to the CCO list on the behalf of CITES Security.
Email+ Reporting - Open Email Counts

Nov 23, 2015 1:45 pm32 views

We changed how Email+ calculates open emails.
Email+ Reporting Released!

Dec 13, 2012 1:30 pm112 views

Web Services is pleased to announce the release of a new reporting feature in Email+. Find out who's opening your emails, what they're clicking on, when they are clicking on it, how many times they're doing it, whose emails are bouncing and why, plus much more.

Reports are only available for new emails being sent, prior to sending just click the Reports tab and activate reporting. Reports will be available for 30 days from when the email was sent.
Email+ Reports and Terminology

Apr 27, 2017 11:15 am6 views

Email+ offers multiple reports for tracking any of the email sent, open click, bounce, delivered, and link activity. Reports can be ran for 18 months after the email has sent. Email information is reported in several different ways so multiple reports may need to be ran depending on the information desired.
Email+ Report: Sent and Blocked

Apr 3, 2017 10:15 am137 views

Web Services made a change to Email+ reporting. The "Sent Confirmation" report (that shows exactly what happened with every email sent) has been split into two reports: 1) Sent and Bounces and 2) Sent and Bounces Detail. To determine if an email was delivered or why it bounced use these reports.
Email+ Scheduling Enhancements

Oct 29, 2013 12:45 pm57 views

Web Services has added two scheduling enhancements to Email+.

1) You can now cancel a scheduled email up to one hour prior to its scheduled delivery.

2) Scheduled emails can now be sent immediately on the "Send" tab with the new "Send Now" button.

These enhancements were requested by our users. You suggest it. We add it.

Thanks,

Lance Campbell

Web Services
Email+ Sending Sort Order Added

Nov 20, 2018 1:15 pm48 views

Web Services has added a sending sort order to Email+. This is to make sure that those who have shown an interest in receiving an email are considered first. This will allow us to reach the right people in a timely maner. Below is the sort order used:
Email+ view user emails

Aug 29, 2016 5:15 pm84 views

Web Services released a new enhancement today for Email+. On the Reporting tab, after an email has been fully sent, we now allow you to look up email address and then view the actual email sent to those individuals. This feature is available for 30 days after the email is sent.
Email+ Wizard Released!

Sep 3, 2013 1:00 pm143 views

Web Services at Public Affairs is pleased to announce the release of the Email+ Wizard. The Wizard will walk you through creating an email that will display properly on desktop computers, mobile devices, iPads, etc… It is as simple as choosing a skin, choosing a theme, and entering your message. Themes can be customized with your unit styles as needed.

The Wizard supports anchors, social media, large images, thumbnail images, image overlays to indicate video, image/content wrapping, plus much more, all guaranteed to display properly on any device. Units can now focus on supplying the content, not on building, formatting, testing, and troubleshooting it.

Email+ support will change with the new release. All of the current Email+ types will still be available for units that wish to continue to code their emails or create them in Word, however primary support will shift to the Wizard.

Several workshops are scheduled, please join us for a walk through of the new Wizard. All workshops are online:

Email+ Wizard workshops
Wed, Sep 4, 10:00 am
Wed, Sep 4, 2:00 pm
Thu, Sep 5, 10:00 am
Tue, Sep 10, 2:00 pm

How to join on online workshop:
http://illinois.edu/webservices/toolbox/training.html

Complete training calendar:
http://illinois.edu/calendar/list/220

Subscribe to all Web Services Announcements
https://blogs.illinois.edu/subscribeSec/437/0/0

James Wilson
Director of Web Services
University of Illinois
217.333.4312
Embedding Campus Map in unit websites

May 22, 2012 1:15 pm296 views

Units may now use a WebTools Skin to display the Campus Map in their website. Read the full post for more details.
Emergency Web Alert System enhancement

May 4, 2010 10:15 am185 views

The Emergency Web Alert System (EWAS) has been enhanced to automatically display any message posted to the Illini Alert RSS feed. This gives access for posting messages to the EWAS to both the Security Office and the Police Department. The enhancement was made at the request of the Office of the CIO. It was successfully tested this morning during our normal testing period (first Tue of each month at 10:00 am).
enewsletters: Better and Easier than Ever!

Jul 6, 2011 2:30 pm277 views

Whether youre on the delivering end or the receiving end, getting timely news and information is critical in todays world. Web Services has been providing Illinois professionals with all-new skins to wrap local news and information, and sent out literally millions of enewsletters and posts for communications coming from all three Illinois campuses and more.
Enhancements made to the Form and Survey Builder and Campus Directory

May 24, 2010 3:00 pm240 views

Web Services made enhancements today to the Form and Survey Builder and Campus Directory.
Enhancement to the Short URL tool

May 27, 2010 4:00 pm316 views

Web Services received a request from the Office of the CIOs portal team to create a new option within the Short URL tool to allow for go.my.illinois.edu. This request was to help reduce down on the consumption of go.illinois.edu short URLs used by the portal team. If your group would also like to have a C-Name set up for your college/unit short URLs just let us know. Please keep in mind that it is only of value if your C-Name is short. Please go through your communications officer in order to make a request for a unique C-Name. Who is my communications officer: http://illinois.edu/ds/contacts
Exporting Blog, Calendar, and List Builder information to send using Email+

Oct 12, 2015 3:45 pm59 views

Web Services has released a new enhancement for sending emails of posts, events, and items from the Blog, Calendar, and List Builder. All emails will now be sent from Email+ as sending emails directly from the Blog, Calendar, and List Builder is now longer supported. Please watch the video for more details.
External Access for Surveys and Forms

Jun 28, 2011 11:30 am169 views

Based on your feedback, we've added a new feature which will allow external users to access your forms and surveys built with WebTools. This new feature will give external users access to your forms by granting them one-time authentication privileges. External users are anyone with an email address other than: @illinois.edu, @uic.edu, or @uis.edu.
File Manager Enhancements

Apr 28, 2010 2:45 pm164 views

Web Services has released a couple of enhancements to the File Manager: C-Name support, shorter URLs, and web index pages.
File Manager Released!

Mar 2, 2010 9:30 am295 views

The File Manager, a new shared service from Public Affairs, has been released to faculty and staff on all three campuses. Students have access for performing unit tasks but have limited capabilities. The File Manager allows you to upload and manage files, place files behind a login, limit file access to groups, archive specified documents, plus much more. For years units have been using the Skin Designer to upload and manage files, we encourage everyone to now use the File Manager.
Form and Survey Builder Enhancements

Jul 1, 2010 9:15 am229 views

Web Services at Public Affairs has made enhancements to the Form and Survey Builder. On the screens that list all forms and surveys we added a filter option. On the "Security" tab when administrating forms and surveys you will notice that there are now three types of security: Public, Private and Secured.
Form and Survey Builder - Word Count

Sep 3, 2010 6:00 am347 views

Web Services has enhanced the Form and Survey Builder for the College of Business. We have added a new word count validation rule for both short answer and long answer question types.
Form and Survey Enhancements

Nov 20, 2018 1:15 pm86 views

Web Services has added four new enhancements to Forms and Surveys. In addition, we will be implementing multiple other enhancements to Forms and Surveys in the coming months.
Form and Survey Skins

Mar 3, 2014 2:00 pm81 views

Web Services has made a change how secure Skins. Skins that are used with secure content like forms must now be certified by Web Services. On the "Applications" tab in the Skin Designer there is a link that will send a request to Web Services letting us know that you wish to have your skin certified for secure content. Until the skin is certified it will not be available for use in the Form or Survey tools. This does not impact skins for emails, calendars, blogs, etc.
Form Builder Change

Apr 21, 2010 9:30 am207 views

Web Services has noticed recently that there have been people setting up surveys in the Form Builder tool by accident. To prevent people from using the wrong tool we have added a change that will not allow the use of the term 'Survey' in the title when using the Form Builder.
Forms and surveys optimized for print

Jul 13, 2017 3:45 pm57 views

Web Services’ forms and surveys are now optimized for print. When you print a form or a survey, you will see the following enhancements:

- High-contrast text without colors, shadows, or backgrounds
- Graceful page breaks
- Hidden headers and footers
- Purposeful margins and font sizes

In addition, content that is not meaningful in a print setting has been removed. These new print styles have been designed to work most effectively with Webtools’ Wizard Skins.
Forms/Surveys Enhancements

Jan 7, 2013 1:45 pm121 views

Forms & Surveys have new functionality. "Jump to" brings skip logic to allow users to bypass irrelevant questions or fields. Reporting functions have four new pdf formats: Summary; summary with answers); full responses; and full responses by ID.
Group Manager Demos This Week

Jul 20, 2015 3:30 pm33 views

This is an announcement that the Webtools Group Manager has been updated. There are 2 Webtools demos scheduled this week that will walk you through these changes.

Tuesday, July 21, 1-1:30pm
Thursday, July 23, 10-10:30am

Joining a demo is easy and no registration is needed. Visit http://illinois.edu/webservices/toolbox/training.html and tune in.
Group Manager - Group Counts

Dec 4, 2014 3:45 pm25 views

Group Manager group totals are recalculated once a day. Click on the group total to get an up-to-date count.
Group Manager Group Retention Policy

Mar 17, 2017 8:00 am27 views

The Group Manager will remove any Email group that has not been used in 18 months. Once the group is removed it will not be able to be restored. This is a safeguard for our system as many groups are created as one offs, and have tens of thousands of users, or more.
Import events directly into Web Services calendars via XML

Mar 25, 2011 10:45 am133 views

IT departments on campus can now insert, update and delete Web Services calendar events directly via XML. Please go to the following URL for specific details: http://illinois.edu/calendar/calendarws.xsd If you have any questions please contact Lance Campbell at lance@illinois.edu.
Internet Explorer Issue during AWS Migration

Nov 28, 2017 10:00 am6382 views

Microsoft IE will not be available for Toolbox users until the end of the Amazon Web Services migration (a few months). This is ONLY for Toolbox users, not for anyone accessing calendars, blogs, forms, or anything created in the Toolbox.
Introducing new Short URLs

Sep 11, 2009 2:26 pm1168 views

Web Services in Public Afairs is pleased to release three new short URLs in the Toolbox. Create as many as you like, they are available immediately and ready to go...
Issue resolved with large PDF reports

Jan 29, 2013 9:30 am18 views

The Web Services Form Builder and Survey Builder tools were having trouble generating large PDF reports. We are pleased to say this issue has now been resolved. Users should be able to generate any size PDF report without experiencing any issues. Apache's newest PDF generating software has fixed the issue with exceptionally large files.
Joining WebTools training

Mar 13, 2014 8:15 am78 views

Several WebTools workshops are being offered over the next two weeks beginning today. PC users should use IE or Safari when connecting if you have Lync 2010/2013 installed. Firefox and Chrome have issues recognizing that Lync is installed and try to force the web interface on users who don't require it.

How to join a workshop
http://illinois.edu/webservices/toolbox/training.html

Todays workshop schedule
10:00 am WebTools Forms and Surveys
1:00 pm WebTools Skin Designer

Login to the Toolbox
http://illinois.edu/toolbox
List Builder enhancement for the Office of the CIO

May 20, 2010 9:30 am201 views

Web Services has added a copy feature to the List Builder so that users can copy a list. When copying a list the items in the list are NOT copied. Instead the user is copying the basic setup of the list itself. A copied list will contain the same user privileges, selected skin, selected JavaScript components, CSS for selected components and item types. This enhancement was requested by the Office of the CIO for use in the student portal on all three campuses.
List Builder Retirement Reminder

Feb 6, 2019 10:15 am76 views

The List Builder is scheduled for retirement on Jun 28, 2019. At that time the List Builder in Webtools will be unavailable and no new content can be added or edited. Public Lists and Widgets will continue to work until the decomissioning of the service on Sep 27, 2019

LAS units Lists are being replaced by ATLAS. Other units may contact Web Services. If we can help we will, in some cases it is possible to convert Lists to Blogs. In other cases it is not possible.
List Builder Retirement Status

Jun 2, 2015 12:15 pm45 views

The List Builder is getting closer to being retired. We are removing the ability to create new Lists. User should create new Blogs rather than new Lists. Old Lists will continue to function as expected.
List Builder - Schedule an item

Jun 1, 2010 1:15 pm171 views

Web Services added a new enhancement to the List Builder for WUIS Springfield campus radio station. This enhancement allows items to be scheduled for future publishing and unpublishing.
List Builder to Blog Conversion Update

May 1, 2017 10:30 am7 views

The List Builder to Blog conversion process is underway. After a List is converted to a Blog you will get an email letting you know the process is complete. If widgets were used the email will include a link to a page that needs one <script> tag updated. After that the conversion is complete. This process will be ongoing and may continue into the fall.

List Builder Cleanup Reminder!

Please take a minute to delete any old or unused Lists in the List Builder. If you accidentally delete a List it can be restored in the Transfer Privileges Webtool on the "My Deleted" tab. Thank you for helping us with this!
Mailmerge Enhancement to Email+

Nov 30, 2015 3:30 pm167 views

An enhancement to Email+ was released today to further support the mailmerge feature. When using the Single Column Email Wizard a dropdown menu of all mailmerge variables will be found at the top right of the text editor when adding your content. Groups must have already been selected on the General tab for this option to work. This new feature will be included in the Email+ workshop this Thursday at 10 am.
Maintenance on May 29th and 30th

May 24, 2012 12:45 pm39 views

Web Services will be performing database maintenance on May 29th from 4:00 am to 6:00 am. Also tentatively on May 30th we plan to upgrade our file server from 6:00 am to 7:00 am.
Migrated Database

Apr 6, 2010 9:15 am122 views

Web Services migrated our database from a dedicated server to the CITES PSG VM infrastructure this morning, 4/6/2010, at 5:00 am. By using this new infrastructure we should save money on hardware, space, electricity, and heating. If you notice any performance issues please let us know ASAP, 333-0382.
Migrating from Bluestem to Shibboleth

Jun 27, 2013 8:15 am35 views

Web Services on the Urbana campus is migrating from Bluestem to Shibboleth for authenticating users into our systems. Now when you go to login to the Toolbox or any of our other services you will first be prompted to select your campus. Choose the appropriate campus and continue to login. For more information about Shibboleth please see:

https://www.cites.illinois.edu/shibboleth/interface.html
Name Filter

Jun 22, 2010 3:45 pm195 views

A "Name Filter" has been added at the top of the listing screens for the Calendar, Emailer and List Builder. Users have been telling us they have so many items being displayed on the listing screens that they need a way to filter down the list. Simply type in part of the name you are looking for and press the Filter button. This filter is not case sensitive. It will only filter the items in your list that you have permissions to see.
New archive tab and sorting in Email+

Oct 2, 2013 7:30 am40 views

To accommodate the extremely large number of emails being sent in Email+ a new Archive tab and sorting functionality have been added. On the "My Emails" tab only emails that have not yet been sent will be displayed. Once an email has been sent it will be found on the "My Archives" tab. On the "My Archives" tab emails may be sorted by name or date. When sorting emails they may then be filtered by keywords.
New Blog Enhancements

Jan 14, 2014 9:17 am295 views
New Blog service released!

Aug 23, 2009 3:42 pm274 views

The Web Services Blog is now available. In the Toolbox, click the Communications tab and the Create/edit link under Blog to get started. Blogs are available to everyone at the university for free.
New Campus URLs for WebTools

Jul 17, 2013 7:30 am332 views

The following new campus URLs have been added to WebTools:

uofi.uic.edu
uofi.uis.edu
uofi.uillinois.edu

Each WebTool supports these new domains. Thanks to UIC, UIS, and UA for creating these. All WebTools content will continue to work on illinois.edu as it always has. The new URLs are just an option for displaying your content while maintaining your campus domain.

For converting your existing WebTools simply change "illinois.edu" to your campus URL. For example, to implement the Springfield URL for the UIS campus calendar:

Change:
http://illinois.edu/calendar/list/226

To:
http://uofi.uis.edu/calendar/list/226

If you are using widgets from the Calendar, List Builder, or Blog you may go to the General tab for those tools and select the appropriate URL for Web Services to use when generating your widgets.
New Carousel Widget Released

Dec 7, 2015 1:15 pm195 views

The Webtools Blog now offers a carousel widget for displaying a slideshow of images and content. Place a script tab in your webpage, add content/images to the Webtools Blog, and that’s it. The carousel will be inserted with the newest content as it is published. The widget is fully accessible, responsive, and customizable.

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