H&S Website Platform and Services
To provide best-practice website solutions, consultation, and support for units in the School of Humanities and Sciences
As an H&S staff or faculty member, you have several options to choose from when it comes to website platforms.
Below, we give you a quick overview of options, including:
- the H&S Drupal Platform
- Stanford Sites
- Spotlights Exhibit
- Stanford Domains
- additional options beyond Stanford
Costs are indicated below when they are known. The timeline for building a new site will mostly depend on the complexity of the functionality required. Stanford options are mobile responsive, provide backup, ongoing maintenance and updates, and varying levels of support.
Regardless of the platform you choose for your site, as a site owner, you are responsible for complying with all policies outlined in the Admin Guide; this includes copyright usage, security and privacy responses, as well as digital accessibility compliance to ensure that users with and without disabilities are able to interact effectively with your site. All H&S Web Editors are also required to take mandatory digital accessibility training.
The H&S Drupal Platform (HSDP)
The H&S Drupal Platform (HSDP) is the website platform underpinning the great majority of the School of Humanities and Sciences’ departments, programs, and administrative unit websites. It is offered at no cost to eligible units within H&S, and support is also free.
Websites on the H&S Drupal Platform are by design Stanford and H&S branded. They have built-in integrations with Stanford systems for authentication, people profiles, courses, and events; they can also be extended for custom needs to accommodate other types of content. The sites are structured to meet digital accessibility standards and can be customized using a variety of visual themes and design components.
Examples:
Find out more about a website project process on HSDP
Other Stanford Website Options
Stanford Sites for labs and more
Lab sites and personal sites are generally best built on the Stanford Sites platform. Stanford Sites is also a free Stanford-branded platform. There is a single visual theme, yet a wide range of features, including support for pages, courses, people, events, news, and publications content.
Examples:
Spotlight Exhibitions by the libraries
The Stanford Libraries and Digital Repository team offers a Spotlight Exhibitions platform. This application easily showcases digital content stored in the Stanford Digital Repository, including audio and visual content collections. The contents can then be presented, browsed, filtered, and more. The sites are Stanford-branded.
Learn more about how Stanford uses Spotlight Exhibition.
Stanford Domains for WordPress and more
If you know your way around content management systems, or if you’ve already built a WordPress site you’d like to move into the Stanford infrastructure, then Stanford Domains is the right place for you. It is a self-service web publishing tool where Stanford students, faculty, and staff can install WordPress and other popular open-source applications. Use of Stanford Domains is free. There is no branding and the tool offers quite a bit of flexibility, but you will be responsible for site building and compliance with digital accessibility standards, among other things; long-term support by a professional agency is strongly advised.
Note that the AFS platform is no longer available as a web hosting infrastructure at Stanford.
Options Beyond Stanford
You may opt to build and host your site on an external commercial or open-source platform outside of Stanford’s technical infrastructure.
If you choose that option, it is still possible to request a stanford.edu domain for your site. Check the Name Assignment Policy, then request your new subdomain name at Stanford's Vanity URL site. Once your site is ready for launch, your web agency will work with Stanford to set up a domain Proxy. That process depends on the content management system and hosting agency selected. This starting list can help; have the site owners submit a support request.
Questions? Need help?
Consider your specific needs, technical expertise, long-term support requirements, and budget as you consider the right platform for your website. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out for further guidance. We’ll be happy to discuss timelines, responsibilities, and more.