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Map Your Domain to Blogger

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Mapping your domain is an important part of domains.skidmore.edu; it reinforces the idea that you don’t necessary need to host all your own applications. You should, however, be mindful of making your web presences part of a domain you control. If you would like to map a subdomain and have not yet created it, use this tutorial on creating subdomains before proceeding. To map your domain, or a subdomain, to Blogger, use these steps:

  1. To get started you’ll need to login to your control panel by going to the domains.skidmore.edu homepage and logging in.

  1. Here you’ll login with you Skidmore username and password.

  1. Once logged in you’ll be at the homepage of your control panel. The easiest way to navigate the panel is using the search feature in the top right panel. Click the Search box and type “DNS” (without the quotes). Click on Advanced Zone Editor and you will automatically be directed to the DNS Advanced Zone Editor page. Or, you can scroll down and click on the DNS Advanced Zone Editor button on the cPanel.
  2. Find the domain, or subdomain, you want to map to Blogger in the list of Zone File Records. Under the Action column, click Edit. 
  3. Leave the Name, and TTL fields set to their defaults. Update the Type drop-down menu to CNAME, and the Address field to ghs.google.com. Click Edit Record when you are done. Keep this window open; you will need it in later steps. 
  4. In a new window, go to the Blogger website, and login with your Blogger/Google username and password. blogger sign in.001
  5. From your Blogger Dashboard, find the blog you’d like to use, expand the More Options menu, and click Settings.
  6. On the “Basic Settings” page, find the Publishing section, and click the Setup a 3rd party URL for your blog link.
  7. Under Advanced Settings, type the full subdomain or domain you are mapping into the box, leave the Use missing files host? option set to No, then click Save.
  8. You will be presented with a message that your domain cannot be verified, along with information about your existing DNS entry, and an additional DNS entry that needs to be made. This is normal. Copy the second entry under the Name, Label, or Host entry to your clipboard.
  9. Go back to the window or tab containing the Advanced DNS Zone Editor in your create.ou.edu cPanel. In the Add a Record section, paste the text you just copied into the Name field. This information will be different for each domain. Set the TTL field to 14400, and the Type drop-down menu to CNAME. 
  10. Go back to the window or tab containing the Blogger Advanced settings panel, and copy the second entry under the Destination, Target, or Points to column to your clipboard.
  11. Go back to the window or tab containing the Advanced DNS Zone Editor in your create.ou.edu cPanel. In the Zone File Records section, find the domain you were editing Action for and paste the text you just copied into the CNAME field. This information will be different for each domain. Click Edit record when you are done. 
  12. Return to the window or tab containing the Blogger Advanced settings panel, and click Save.
  13. If everything was successful, your domain will now appear as the Blog Address. Keep in mind that it may take up to 72 hours for your domain or subdomain to correctly point all visitors to the correct location.

LimeSurvey

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LimeSurvey is a survey making tool that allows you to easily create and execute a variety of assessments. Some of the features available in this application are:

  • Unlimited number of surveys, questions, and participants
  • Multi-lingual surveys: 80 different languages supported
  • Surveys can be shared via a link, or you can send tokens so only specific users can access the survey
  • Send invitations and reminders by email
  • Ready-made importable questions & surveys
  • 28 different question types with more to come
  • Conditions for questions depending on earlier answers
  • Anonymous and non-anonymous surveys
  • Integrate pictures and movies into a survey
  • Printable versions of your survey

Installing LimeSurvey

1. To get started you’ll need to log in to your control panel (https://domains.skidmore.edu/dashboard) using your Skidmore username and password.

2. Once logged in you’ll be at the homepage of your control panel. Navigate to the Installatron by looking under the ‘Software’ section or typing “Installatron” into the search bar at the upper right corner of the page.

3. Click on the Applications Browser tab (the one with the star). Then select LimeSurvey under the ‘Apps for Surveys and Statistics’ section.

4. This page gives you more information about the LimeSurvey software. To begin the install, click ‘install this application’ in the upper right-hand corner.

5. On the next page the installer will ask for some information about this install. The first thing you’ll want to do is decide where to install it. If you’re wanting to install LimeSurvey on your main domain, you can leave the directory area empty. If you created a subdomain, you can select it from the dropdown menu. You also have the option of installing LimeSurvey in a subfolder by typing in the folder name in the Directory field. Click here for more information about subdomains and subfolders.

6. By default the installer will automatically backup your website and update it anytime a new version comes out. While we recommend you keep this option, it is possible to only do minor updates, or turn them off completely. The installer will also create a database for you automatically, but if you’ve already created one for this website you can choose Let me manage the database settings and enter the details. Click Install to continue.

7. The installer will take just a few moments to install LimeSurvey and a progress bar will keep you updated. When it is complete you will see a link to your new LimeSurvey site as well as a link to the backend administrative section below it.

8. Congratulations, you have now completed the installation of LimeSurvey! Click the administrative link to log in and begin creating surveys with your new LimeSurvey installation.

Using LimeSurvey

You can learn how to use this application in the official LimeSurvey Manual. This support documentation wiki can help you get started by showing you how to do the following:

Map Your Domain to Tumblr

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Mapping your domain is an important part of domains.skidmore.edu; it reinforces the idea that you don’t necessary need to host all your own applications. You should, however, be mindful of making your web presences part of a domain you control. If you would like to map a subdomain and have not yet created it, use this tutorial on creating subdomains before proceeding. To map your domain, or a subdomain, to Tumblr, use these steps:

  1. To get started you’ll need to login to your control panel by logging into domains.skidmore.edu/dashboard.

  1. Here you’ll login with you Skidmore username and password.

  1. Once logged in you’ll be at the homepage of your control panel. The easiest way to navigate the cPanel is using the search feature in the top right panel. Click the Search box and type “DNS” (without the quotes). As you type, the cPanel page will begin to narrow down results. Find and click on Advanced DNS Zone Editor to continue.
  2. Find the domain, or subdomain, you want to map to Tumblr in the list of Zone File Records. Under the Action column, click Edit. 
  3. Leave the Name, and TTL fields set to their defaults. Update the Type drop-down menu to CNAME, and the Address field to domains.tumblr.com. Click Edit Record when you are done. 
  4. Visit the Tumblr website, and login with your Tumblr username and password. 
  5. After logging in, click the Tumblr Settings icon.
  6. For the Tumblog you’d like to use under the Username click the pencil icon to edit these settings.
  7. Check the Use a custom domain checkbox. Type the name of the domain or subdomain you want to map to Tumblr into the box, then click Test your domain.
  8. If your domain mapping was successful, you’ll see a message that your domain is now pointing to Tumblr. Click the Save button before leaving the page. Keep in mind that it may take up to 72 hours for your domain or subdomain to correctly point all visitors to the correct location.

Scalar

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Scalar is a free, open source authoring and publishing platform that’s designed to make it easy for authors to write long-form, born-digital scholarship online. Scalar enables users to assemble media from multiple sources and juxtapose them with their own writing in a variety of ways, with minimal technical expertise required. More fundamentally, Scalar is a semantic web authoring tool that brings a considered balance between standardization and structural flexibility to all kinds of material.

Scalar also features a built-in open API that allows you blend your Scalar content with other data sources, build your own visualizations, or create completely new interfaces for your materials. You can see some custom designed Scalar sites on this Skidmore Domains Apps Showcase site.

1. To get started you’ll need to log in to your control panel (https://domains.skidmore.edu/dashboard) using your Skidmore username and password.

2. Once logged in you’ll be at the homepage of your control panel. Navigate to the Installatron by looking under the ‘Software’ section or typing “Installatron” into the search bar at the upper right corner of the page.

3. Click on the Applications Browser tab (the one with the star). Then select Scalar under the ‘Apps for Content Management’ section.

4. This page gives you more information about the Scalar software. To begin the install, click ‘install this application’ in the upper right-hand corner.

5. On the next page the installer will ask for some information about this install. The first thing you’ll want to do is decide where to install it. If you’re wanting to install Scalar on your main domain, you can leave the directory area empty. If you created a subdomain, you can select it from the dropdown menu. You also have the option of installing Scalar in a subfolder by typing in the folder name in the Directory field. Click here for more information about subdomains and subfolders.

6. By default the installer will automatically backup your website and update it anytime a new version comes out. While we recommend you keep this option, it is possible to only do minor updates, or turn them off completely. The installer will also create a database for you automatically, but if you’ve already created one for this website you can choose Let me manage the database settings and enter the details. Click Install to continue.

7. The installer will take just a few moments to install Scalar and a progress bar will keep you updated. When it is complete you will see links to your new Scalar site.

8. Congratulations, you have now completed the installation of Scalar! Click the top link to log in to your Scalar installation.

Using Scalar

You can learn how to use this application in the official Scalar 2 User Guide or Scalar 1 User Guide depending on which format version you choose. These support guides will help you get started and begin publishing with Scalar.

Social Media

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As you begin to build out your digital presence you’ll probably start to think about social media in some form. In fact it’s likely that you already have at least one, if not more, social media accounts (Facebook being the most popular to date). Everyone uses social media in different ways, and although it’s often interesting to see people break the boundaries of the “social norms” of a specific online community, this article will focus more on the accepted use cases for specific social networks and how they can help you build your digital presence. This is by no means a comprehensive “How To” of Twitter or Facebook, but a good starting guide to think about where you best fit in to these online communities.

Facebook

The majority of folks that will read this likely have a Facebook account. With over 1 billion active users it’s by far one of the more popular social networks. Many treat Facebook as a semi-personal space, one reserved for family and friends to share photos and highlights of what’s happening in their lives. Facebook also supports “Groups” for sharing amongst a smaller set of individuals regularly, and “Pages” which are less personal and more public-facing profiles meant for organizations and businesses. There are plenty of applications that make it easy to publish a link to the work you do on your blog and your participation in other networks back into your Facebook profile. In general it’s a good practice and can often lead to interesting conversations with different groups of folks. This practice of publishing elsewhere and then feeding into Facebook is desired over the alternative, using Facebook for all content and then pushing it out to other communities. The main reason for this is that privacy concerns over how different people can view content on Facebook have changed often enough to leave users concerned. There’s also never any certainty of sustainability with any of these social networks (remember MySpace or Friendster?) no matter how popular, so publishing in your own space and then pushing out to others makes a lot of sense. The key takeaway is that Facebook is a great personal network and can also be the starting point for some of these larger professional discussions should you decide to use it that way.

Twitter

While no longer the new kid on the block, Twitter has only relatively recently started to gain momentum. It doesn’t have nearly the same user base as Facebook (though there are about 500 million accounts to date) and the way people use it is very different. Twitter has focused on the short status message from the start, before Facebook even integrated the idea into their platform. Users are limited to 140 characters. It’s a conversational platform for interacting with people. It’s used heavily at conferences and many choose this as a social network for really networking with peers and others in their community as well as people they might not ever meet in real life. You can follow as many people as you want and it’s a great way of having a stream of information about “what’s happening” with people and groups you’re interested in. One powerful development of Twitter is that celebrities have begun to embrace it as a way to speak directly to their fans without having the message interpreted through other media and journalism with a slant. The ability to search various topics or hashtags (keywords) and see a running stream of what people are saying about that topic is also a very powerful way of gauging reaction to ideas and events. It’s a great idea to experiment with a Twitter account by signing up, adding a profile picture and information about yourself, following a group of people, and interacting with it daily. While the gratification may not be immediate, it’s one of those social networks where the more you put into it the more you will get out of it.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the professional resumé of social networks. It mixes the ability to keep an updated resume of where you work and what your accomplishments are with a social aspect of having people recommend you and comment on your work. Most users find LinkedIn helpful not as a day-to-day network they use, but rather when they’re searching for a new job and want to find people they know that might have connections. The old saying “It’s who you know” when finding a job or making a connection is particularly relevant here where those connections can be exposed to you (You know this person who works for the company of one of Bill Gate’s sons, and the VP went to high school with you).

Summary

As mentioned in the opening paragraph, talking about social media is an ever-changing and moving target and this article can never be truly comprehensive. The goal of domains.skidmore.edu is to have you thinking more critically about where you put your content, not that you don’t participate in these networks which still have a lot of value, but rather that you own the work you create. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others all have different audiences and the more places you push your content to, the more opportunities for discussion and feedback you’ll receive. The ability to network with an increased amount of people that isn’t reliant on face-to-face meetings is a powerful change in how we interact on the web and the value of it. As you begin to explore social media the best recommendation would be to choose a space you want to explore and really dive in. Follow as many people as possible, talk to them, respond to their work, and you’re more likely to get responses in return that start to build that sense of community for you.

What is Domain Mapping?

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Domain mapping, simply put, is deciding where visitors should be directed when they visit various pieces of your website. Domains and subdomains can be mapped directly to folders located within your webhosting account, where you may have installed WordPress, Omeka, MediaWiki, or other web applications. Domains and subdomains can also be mapped to some third-party providers.

Known

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Known is a social publishing platform that combines aspects of blogging and social media. It’s very easy to use and works like a Facebook group or Tumblr.  You can invite up to 200 users to collaborate by sharing posts, status updates, photos, and audio.  You can also make your own events or RSVP to external events. Known integrates with a number of social networks. When you publish on Known, you can choose to syndicate your content to a variety of sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, Soundcloud, and more. It also has the following features:

  • Use hashtags with any content to categorize and organize what you publish
  • Privacy settings that let you make posts or the whole site public, private, or for members only
  • View, edit, and post from any device (tablets, smartphones, etc.)
  • Import posts from a WordPress site

1. To get started you’ll need to log in to your control panel (https://domains.skidmore.edu/dashboard) using your Skidmore username and password.

2. Once logged in you’ll be at the homepage of your control panel. Navigate to the Installatron by looking under the ‘Software’ section or typing “Installatron” into the search bar at the upper right corner of the page.

3. Click on the Applications Browser tab (the one with the star). Then select Known under the ‘Apps for Content Management’ section.

4. This page gives you more information about the Known software. In order to connect Known to your social media accounts, you will need to install it on a subdomain. Before you proceed with this installation, first create a new subdomain. Once you have set up the subdomain, you can install Known by clicking ‘install this application’ in the upper right-hand corner.

5. On the next page the installer will ask for some information about this install. Select the subdomain you created from the dropdown menu. You also have the option of installing Known in a subfolder by typing in the folder name in the Directory field. Click here for more information about subdomains and subfolders.

6. By default the installer will automatically backup your website and update it anytime a new version comes out. While we recommend you keep this option, it is possible to only do minor updates, or turn them off completely. The installer will also create a database for you automatically, but if you’ve already created one for this website you can choose Let me manage the database settings and enter the details. Click Install to continue.

7. The installer will take just a few moments to install Known and a progress bar will keep you updated. When it is complete you will see a link to your new Known site as well as a link to the backend administrative section of the site.

8. Congratulations, you have now completed the installation of Known! Click the second link to log in to your Known site.

Using Known

You can learn how to use this application in the official Known Guides. These support guides will help you get started and begin posting content on your Known.

What are the technical requirements/limitations of Skidmore Domains?

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Skidmore Domains uses a kind of Web server knowns as a LAMP server. “LAMP” is an acronym for the technology stack that is installed on the server:

  • Linux: This is the open-source operating system that is used on the server.
  • Apache: This is the Web server software that the server uses.
  • MySQL: This is the database software that the server uses.
  • Php/Perl/Python: These are the three programming languages that the server can interpret.

Generally, if you are using applications available to install by default through the domains.skidmore.edu server, you shouldn’t need to worry about these technical details. All of the software that is available for installation (in cPanel) meets the technical requirements.

If you’re interested in finding/installing another application (that isn’t available through our automatic installer tool), then you’ll have to be sure that the server can support it. To start with, you’ll want to be sure that the Web application can run on a LAMP server. Check the technical requirements for the application to determine this. You’ll also need to do some research about whether there are any additional services or modules required on the server. Some software may require components that aren’t included in the default installation of the LAMP stack. In that case, contact us with details about what you need, and we’ll see what we can do.

What is a subdomain?

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A subdomain is one way of organizing and separating content on your site. You’re already familiar with the concept of subdomains, even if you don’t know it. Consider OU’s public Web site at http://ou.edu.

As you browse parts of that site, you’ll notice that the domain changes. When you’re looking at your department Web site, say the site for the Chemistry & Biochemistry Department at http://chem.ou.edu, the URL is no longer just ou.edu. Now the root of the url is chem.ou.edu, indicating that you’re on the part of the site that is dedicated to the Chemistry & Biochemistry Department.

If you browse to the technology store pages at http://itstore.ou.edu, you’ll notice that the domain changes again, this time indicating that you’re in the technology store of the OU site.

As you can see the domains serve two purposes: they help to organize the site from a technical perspective, but they also serve as indications to the users that they are in a new/different space. As you work on your site, you’re welcome to create as many subdomains as you like, and in each subdomain you can actually create a distinct, individual Web site.

Additionally, we have resources that demonstrate setting up subdomains and illustrate the difference between subdomains and subdirectories.

Video Tutorial & Ideas

DokuWiki

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DokuWiki is a standards compliant, simple to use wiki, mainly aimed at creating documentation of any kind. It can be used as an encyclopedia of knowledge or resources, for outlining projects, or to draft documents. Some of the features it includes are:

  • Simple syntax
  • Unlimited page revisions
  • Track recent changes
  • Colored side by side diff support
  • Uploading and embedding of images and other media
  • Content can be categorized in namespaces, easily browsable through an automatic index
  • Straightforward configuration
  • Section Editing allows editing of small parts of a page
  • Toolbar and access keys make editing easy for both beginners and professional
  • Easy navigation through breadcrumbs
  • Automatic table of contents generation
  • Locking to avoid edit conflicts
  • Automatic save to avoid content lost during editing
  • Extended Access Control Lists
  • Support for over 50 languages

1. To get started you’ll need to log in to your control panel (https://domains.skidmore.edu/dashboard) using your Skidmore username and password.

2. Once logged in you’ll be at the homepage of your control panel. Navigate to the Installatron by looking under the ‘Software’ section or typing “Installatron” into the search bar at the upper right corner of the page.

3. Click on the Applications Browser tab (the one with the star). Then select DokuWiki under the ‘Apps for Content Management’ section.

4. This page gives you more information about the DokuWiki software. To begin the install, click ‘install this application’ in the upper right-hand corner.

5. On the next page the installer will ask for some information about this install. The first thing you’ll want to do is decide where to install it. If you’re wanting to install DokuWiki on your main domain, you can leave the directory area empty. If you created a subdomain, you can select it from the dropdown menu. You also have the option of installing DokuWiki in a subfolder by typing in the folder name in the Directory field. Click here for more information about subdomains and subfolders.

6. By default the installer will automatically backup your website and update it anytime a new version comes out. While we recommend you keep this option, it is possible to only do minor updates, or turn them off completely. The installer will also create a database for you automatically, but if you’ve already created one for this website you can choose Let me manage the database settings and enter the details. Click Install to continue.

7. The installer will take just a few moments to install DokuWiki and a progress bar will keep you updated. When it is complete you will see links to your new DokuWiki site.

8. Congratulations, you have now completed the installation of DokuWiki! Click the top link to log in to your DokuWiki installation.

Using DokuWiki

You can learn how to use this application in the official DokuWiki User Manual, including how to write in wiki syntax when editing pages. These manuals will help you get started and begin building your DokuWiki.