Web Services | Public Affairs

blog posts

• 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 pm1162 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...

• Using Webtools Forms vs Surveys

  Feb 13, 2019 10:00 am791 views

  Webtools Forms and Surveys are very similar but with one important difference.  Surveys are anonymous, forms are not. To help everyone choose and use the correct tool Web Services will restrict keywords from being used in form names beginning Mon, Feb 18, 2019.

• Survey & Form Builder training video available

  Feb 24, 2010 9:45 am737 views

  Training videos for the Survey and Form Builder is now available. Announcements will be posted as other videos are released.

• Webtools Demos August 16th and 18th

  Aug 1, 2016 10:45 am723 views

  This is an announcement that there is a series of upcoming Webtools online demos.  They are easy to join and no registration is needed.

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  Change in Publishing Blog Posts

  May 3, 2017 12:30 pm627 views

  A change has been made to the publishing process of a blog post.  When a blog post is "published" the Add Post screen will be locked.  This will prevent edits from being made to a live blog post.  A post must be "unpublished" before any edits can be made.  Once the edits are made the post can be republished.

  This change is the same change recently made to the calendar.  The complexities of updating live events and posts and what happens behind the scenes has made this change necessary.

• New HTML views in the List Builder

  Sep 21, 2010 11:00 am558 views

  Web Services in Public Affairs will soon launch new HTML views in the List Builder. Each of the three views available today, "imageList", "imagePast", and "imageCurrent" will be replaced. Two new views will be introduced: "archiveList" and "list". These changes are being made to offer greater accessibility, new functionality, and simplification of customization. We are looking for feedback on our approach to these new changes, below is a description and example of each. Colleges and units will have 6 months to update their CSS as the HTML/CSS structure is changing. Permanent redirects from the current URL to the new URL will go into place March 31, 2011. Web Services is available to help any unit with styling the new CSS if necessary. Three options are available for updating your CSS. 1) Send Web Services an email and our part time staff will make your changes for you. 2) Call and we can do it over the phone in about 10 minutes. 3) Update the CSS yourself. More information will follow upon release of the new views. Example of Views:

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  2013 Holiday ECARD skins

  Nov 26, 2013 10:15 am448 views

  Web Services has 7 new holiday ecards for you this season. Set up with Wizard, there different themes appropriate for greetings, invitations and announcements. Add some color to your email messages this season!

  Feel free to grab the image and create your own skin with the wizard.

• New Holiday Ecards

  Dec 7, 2011 9:30 am438 views

  That's right: you've asked for them...and we've set up 7 new holiday ecards for you to use this season. And beyond. Spread some cheer courtesy of Web Services!

• New My Emails tool helps spot phishing emails

  Feb 12, 2019 12:45 pm432 views

  My Emails—a new tool available to faculty, staff and students—can help you distinguish between official messages from the university and phishing messages pretending to be official University of Illinois messages.

• CIS mobile website released

  Apr 29, 2011 3:00 pm387 views

  The mobile version of the Course Information Suite has been released. To try it out on your smartphone go to: http://courses.illinois.edu

• Changes to Public Affairs Directory

  Dec 11, 2009 3:00 pm369 views

  Several changes were released today to the Public Affairs Directory. These changes position us for the upcoming release of the Directory Profile Editor, a new shared service for the Urbana campus. The Profile Editor will allow any faculty or staff to customize their profiles within the Directory. More information will be available soon, as well as examples of customized faculty and staff profiles.

• 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.

• Sample Survey and Form

  Aug 23, 2009 3:37 pm340 views

  Here is a Sample Survey and Form that can be copied as a quick start. This sample contains every question type available in the system, including the new 'File Upload' question type. To copy this Survey or Form as a quick start, in the Toolbox, click the 'Communications' tab, then 'Create/edit' under the Survey or Form Builder. Next click the 'prebuilt' tab and copy the sample.

• Change made to event view totals in the Calendar

  Sep 4, 2009 11:01 am333 views

  In the Web Services Calendar you will notice on an event's detail page a field labeled "Views". We originally calculated this view total based on the number of times the event appeared either in a listing of many events or when a person went to the event's detail page. Today we made a change to only increment an event's view totals when a person views the event's detail page. In order for the view totals for all events to be consistent we have reset all totals to 0.

• 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.

   

• eCards Released!

  Jun 30, 2011 10:15 am319 views

  That's right: WebTools is launching a new series of enhancements starting with eight great ecard designs to help you promote your departmental events, announcements, and more. Use WebTools to personalize your greeting, invite your favorite groups and recognize the accomplishments of your faculty, staff and students with this easy new app.

• 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

• New Ecard Skins for the Holidays

  Nov 27, 2017 11:30 am299 views

  Web Services has created several new Ecard skins for the holiday season.

• New Blog Enhancements

  Jan 14, 2014 9:17 am295 views

• Embedding Campus Map in unit websites

  May 22, 2012 1:15 pm295 views

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

• File Manager Released!

  Mar 2, 2010 9:30 am294 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.

• Database Migration Complete

  Nov 11, 2009 7:45 am294 views

  Web Services has completed our migration to a newer version of our database. If you experience any issues please let us know via the URL below. http://go.illinois.edu/contactUs

• Toolbox Workshops

  Dec 1, 2009 9:15 am292 views

  This is a reminder that several Toolbox Workshops are available this week. Please check our training calendar for details: http://go.illinois.edu/WebServicesTraining All workshops are located at 507 E. Green #411 in the Urban Outfitters Building.

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  2014 Holiday Ecards

  Dec 3, 2014 1:00 pm291 views

  Holiday Ecards: a couple of returning, and a few new cards for you to choose from. Each card has been set up for the campuses: Chicago, Springfield, Urbana and U-Illinois.

• URLs to be retired

  Feb 2, 2012 9:15 am287 views

  On Monday February 6th, Web Services will be retiring a series of URLs that were discontinued over five to six years ago.  Any URL starting with the below will no longer be supported.

   

• Privileges and Group Manager Enhancements

  Nov 19, 2009 2:15 pm280 views

  Web Services has made a change to all privilege screens across every tool. Administrators can now add and delete other administrators. We also discovered last week that some people have been uploading files of email addresses into the Group Manager that contained invisible control characters. We put in place a series of filters that remove these characters when files are uploaded. We also ran a process to clean up any control characters found in the database.

• 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.

• Toolbox refresh issue

  Dec 3, 2009 12:15 pm276 views

  If anyone is having problems with the Toolbox please click the "refresh" button in the browser. Thank you.

• 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.

• Emailer, Group Manager, and Short URL Enhanced

  Jun 8, 2010 2:00 pm272 views

  Web Services enhanced the Emailer and Group Manager based on requests from WILL.

• Assigning Permissions Is Made Easier

  Nov 11, 2009 12:30 pm260 views

  On any Web Services application within the Toolbox portal when assigning someone permissions you no longer have to include "@mycampus.edu" as long as the person is on your campus.

• Database Upgrade (week of Nov 9)

  Nov 9, 2009 9:15 am259 views

  Web Services will be upgrading our database on Wednesday morning. Below is the impact that this will cause to our services this week: 1) Today, Monday November 9th, we will be pushing out changes to many of our services. There should be no noticeable changes or interruption of service. 2) Tomorrow, Tuesday November 10th, from 5:00 am to 6:00 am our services will be down intermittently. We are making minor changes to our current database prior to the upgrade on Wednesday. 3) Wednesday November 11th, from 5:45 am to 7:00 am we will be upgrading our database. During this time most of our services will be down. If you see any change to any of our services please contact us at: http://go.illinois.edu/contactUs Thanks, Lance Campbell Project Manager/Software Architect/DBA Web Services at Public Affairs 217-333-0382

• Web Services Calendar release notes

  Dec 10, 2010 3:15 pm258 views

  The re-designed Web Services Calendar will be released Tuesday, January 4, 2011. There will be no impact on units. All URLs will continue to work and all skins will be updated for the new look and feel. Thanks to everyone that provided feedback on the new Calendar. And special thanks to the Calendar team consisting of Robert Slater, Hadi Rangin, Michael McKelvey, and Tim Offenstein. The team provided significant help with functionality, accessibility, and usability. And adjustments are still being made.

• Discontinued domain name - webtools.uiuc.edu

  Mar 28, 2011 4:15 pm253 views

  Web Services discontinued the use of the domain name webtools.uiuc.edu over five years ago in favor of illinois.edu. We have asked units on many occasions to replace this older domain name. We will officially stop supporting this domain Wednesday April 13th. Please scan your web sites looking for any reference to webtools.uiuc.edu. If you come across any reference to a CSS file similar to the below format feel free to delete it: webtools.uiuc.edu/rssManager/###/rss_manager.css Just give us a call if you need assistance.

• WebTools Training

  May 3, 2013 8:15 am248 views

  Several workshops have been added to the WebTools training calendar.  All workshops are online, no registration is necessary.  Please join us for any of the workshops below:

  Email+
  Thu, May 16, 10 am

  Form and Survey Builders
  Thu, May 16, 1 pm

  Email+ (converting Word docs)
  Tue, Jun 11, 10 am 

  Calendar
  Tue, Jun 11, 1 pm

  Blog
  Thu, Jun 27, 10 am

  Form and Survey Builders
  Tue, Jul 16, 10 am

  Email+
  Tue, Jul 16, 1 pm

  
  Complete training calendar:
  http://go.illinois.edu/WebServicesTraining

  To join an online training session:
  http://go.illinois.edu/JoinTrainingNow

  More information about online training:
  http://illinois.edu/webservices/toolbox/training.html

• New version of Toolbox released!

  Aug 23, 2009 3:42 pm241 views

  The latest version of the Toolbox has been released! This new version of the Toolbox includes hundreds of enhancements. Like new Blog service, AD group support, unit and department lookups for all services, email distribution for the Blog and Discussion Board, file uploading for Forms and Surveys, plus many, many more.

• Quick Reports released for Survey & Form Builder!

  Mar 16, 2010 10:15 am240 views

  Web Services has released "Quick Reports" for both the Survey and Form Builder. With Quick reports you can instantly generate totals, percentages, charts, and graphs in a web page. PDF's and Excel reports are available as always, but Quick Reports will display a summary of the data at the time they are ran.

• 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.

• Toolbox support for Safari discontinued

  May 10, 2010 12:00 pm236 views

  Due to significant issues with Safari, Web Services has temporarily discontinued support for this browser. For accessing the Toolbox please use the latest version of Internet Explorer or Firefox.

• Subscribe to the Web Services "Announcements" or "Support" discussions

  Aug 23, 2009 3:22 pm235 views

  Web Services has two new Discussions groups you may subscribe to. Our "Announcements" and "Support" discussions have replaced our listservs.

• Webtools Email+ Enhancements

  May 9, 2019 3:45 pm231 views

  Two new enhancements have been added to Email+: automatic reports and Name field variables.

• 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.

• New List Builder HTML views released

  Oct 28, 2010 1:45 pm228 views

  Web Services in Public Affairs has released five new HTML views in the List Builder. 1) iList, 2) iCurrent, 3) iPast to replace the existing views. 4) archiveList and 5) list are new views that allow you to pass dates and item types to filter by. These are brand new views so the old views will not be impacted. On March 31, 2011 the old views (URLs) will be redirected to the new ones. What does that mean for owners and admins? You will need to take a look at the new views and possibly do some slight adjustment on the CSS. Web Services would be glad to do this for you if you so choose. We will solicit the list of those wanting help later this fall. Anyone wanting to take advantage of the new views or functionality can begin today. You can find all new URLs on the "HTML Links" tab in the List Builder. Simply click the view button to see what your List looks like in the new format. For more details on today's release and examples please see:

• RSS Aggregation Added to the List Builder

  Apr 30, 2010 11:15 am224 views

  Web Services has just release an enhancement to the List Builder that allows for RSS aggregation. How does it work?

• Services back online

  Jul 18, 2010 6:15 pm220 views

  CITES has fixed the networking problems and all Toolbox services are back online.

• Bluestem problem for UIS users

  Jun 1, 2010 12:15 pm218 views

  Bluestem is not working properly for UIS campus users. When a user tries to login through Bluestem they are returned to the login page. CITES is working on the problem and we have asked them to post updates on to status page at: http://status.cites.illinois.edu

• Components added to Calendar

  Jun 8, 2010 2:00 pm217 views

  The Calendar now supports components. A component is a tag that is inserted into a web page to automatically display events from a Toolbox Calendar. In Create/edit for any of your calendars you will see a "Components" tab. Use this tab to create Calendar components to insert into any web page. Previously this could be done by importing the Calendar RSS feed into the List Builder, however many fields such as location, registration, cost, speaker, etc... were lost as RSS does not support these fields. Now when creating your generic component in the Calendar you can choose to include any information entered for the event. Later this summer Web Services will offer a student to convert any component initially setup in the List Builder importing a Calendar RSS feed. Two components have been added so far, a generic version that will allow you to include/exclude any calendar field, and a second version that is table/row oriented. This new functionality will be covered during the July Toolbox Calendar training:

• Calendar Security Change

  Jun 16, 2010 9:45 am214 views

  On the "Security" tab when administrating calendars you will notice that there are now three types of security: Public, Private and Secured.

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  Announcing: WebTools has a NEW Toolbox!

  Aug 30, 2011 9:15 am213 views

  When it comes to the the tools in the Toolbox, you asked for a more user-friendly interface. Check it out. You asked for an easier way to find our tools: now they're all in one convenient location. You asked for an easier way to identify your files and navigate in and out of the tools. We've made major inroads. You asked for a better explanation of what each tool does...with examples: Check out WebTools 101, grab the Tools and get started! Click here to see this online: http://illinois.edu/emailer/newsletter/15988.html