Web Accessibility
As stated in the May 2015 Web Users Group meeting, an accessibility task force has been formed and will meet on a regular basis this summer to provide recommendations for better standards and improvements to VCU’s web presence. This past week, VCU’s accessibility tool “achecker.ts.vcu.edu” was modified to validate against WCAG 2.0 (Level A) with the option to also […]
Account cleanup: ramsites, people, studentorg
Every once in a while, closets need to be cleaned out. We have been ensuring that all inactive accounts and accounts belonging to former employees and students are removed from the systems to ensure the highest level of safety for active accounts. The next set of accounts that we will be addressing are for […]
Google Urchin upgraded to version 7
Urchin, VCU’s self-hosted webstats software, has been upgraded to version 7. The new version of this Google product includes a number of added features as well as some improved ones, including a user interface that will be familiar to users who’ve used Google Analytics. We also took the opportunity during this upgrade to change the […]
Web Statistics and the Final Four
Today, a lot of people around the United States are asking “Who is Virginia Commonwealth University?” and “Where is Virginia Commonwealth University?”. They’re turning to the Internet to find out more about this underdog basketball team and the university they represent. Even before coach Shaka Smart and the men’s basketball team clinched their victory against […]
Upcoming Central Authentication Service (CAS) Redesign
The page you’re used to seeing when you log in to many VCU websites is about to change. On Tuesday, January 25, Technology Services will unveil the newly redesigned VCU Central Authentication Service. It was redesigned to better match the overall VCU look and feel. As an added benefit, this new version should be much […]
MySQL Downtime Thursday Night
The central university MySQL server will be shut down Thursday night from 8:45 – 9:30 pm in order to upgrade the network drive that it operates on. The MySQL outage will affect the following services: A-Z Index: The A-Z index will be unavailable during the downtime. The VCU combined search will continue to work, but […]
Milestones: A-Z and FileDrop
Today we crossed major milestones in two of our relatively new applications. As of this morning, the new A-Z index has generated over 150,000 visits to VCU websites through either the VCU search or the A-Z index itself. That averages out to over 2100 visits per day since the A-Z index went live on August […]
New A-Z Web Directory
We unveiled our new A-Z web directory this morning. If you didn’t look closely, you might not have noticed much difference on the surface. Under the surface, however, the system is more powerful and more useful. It’s already a popular destination for finding websites at VCU. (It’s helped people visit over 600 websites in the […]
VCU FileDrop: Really Simple File Transport
VCU FileDrop is a simple service for sending large files (or large batches of files) to others via email. You can send files up to 1 GB in size to anyone with a valid email address (whether they have a VCU email address or not). Your files will be available for download to your selected […]
VCU Keywords reach 1/2 million
In 2007, VCU keywords, better known as go.vcu.edu, was implemented. Since the first keyword of “biology”, a total of 277 keywords have been implemented. In May 2010, the 500,000th user of VCU keywords was recorded. If you are interested in using VCU Keywords or learning more about the system and how it can […]