A big change is coming to UCI Sites. We will soon be moving to managed hosting by partnering with CampusPress, a leading provider of WordPress websites for higher education.
By migrating to CampusPress hosting, we can now offer a larger selection of themes and plugins. CampusPress has a large library of plugins curated for higher education that will help extend what you can do with your website. You will soon be able choose these plugins from your Dashboard instead of having to request them.
Planned Outage for Migration – December 11 – 13, 2020
UCI Sites will be migrated to our new hosting platform starting Friday, December 11 – Sunday, December 13, 2020. During that time, your website will be available in a “read-only” mode. You will not be able to make changes during that time, but your site will be up and available to viewers. On Monday, December 14, 2020 your new site will be ready for you to login and take advantage of the new features.
Benefits Include
Unlimited File Uploads
Running out of storage space? You are no longer limited to 250 MB of media storage.
24/7 Technical Support
Need help after hours or on the weekends? Now you can reach out to support any time with the built-in support widget in your Dashboard.
Large Library of Plugins
Want to extend what your website can do? You can now choose from a wide variety of WordPress plugins curated for higher education.
New Features Include
Design & Layout
- Co-blocks Plus – Add 20 extra blocks to the WordPress block editor.
- Custom CSS – Write your own CSS to override your theme’s styles
- Divi Theme and Page Builder – Visual drag & drop design framework
- Divi Font Awesome – Add the FontAwesome library to Divi
- Pixaby Images – Find Quality public domaiin images from Pixaby and upload them in just one click
Extended Functionality
- A-Z Lists – Insert an A-Z list that is searchable and filterable
- Advanced Tables – Create tables that are sortable, filterable, and searchable
- Calendar + Events – Create, manage, and share your calendar and upcoming events.
- Cool Timeline – Create a beautiful vertical timeline
- Crowdsignal Polls & Ratings – Create and manage polls on your site
- Embed Any Document – Quickly embed any document in a Page or Post
- Formidable Forms – Easily create forms on your website
- Google Calendar – Display your Google Calendar on your website
- Jetpack by WordPress.com – Add the Jetpack features to your website
Site Management
- Accessibility tools – in addition to having accessibility-ready themes, CampusPress also has several plugins to help make your site more accessible.
- Batch add new users to your site
- Duplicate Posts and Pages – Quickly clone Pages and Posts.
- Google Analytics – View your site’s statistics inside your dashboard
- Private Websites – Password protect or restrict your site to logged in users.
- Safe Redirect Manager – Redirect your site, pages or posts to new URLs
Full list of available plugins
CampusPress offers a fully curated and growing list of WordPress plugins. Available Plugins
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I log in to my new site?
You will log in the same way. Either log in directly from sites.uci.edu or go to your site and add /wp-admin/ to the end of your URL. There will also now be a Log in Link at the top of each site. You can remove this under Settings > Admin Bar.
Will my sites address (URL) change?
No. You will keep your site URL whether it is https://sites.uci.edu/sitename/ or a custom URL you are using now.
Will we still be using WordPress?
Yes, we are still using WordPress as the content management system for UCI Sites. You now will have access to more themes and plugins to take your site to new levels.
Can I install a theme or plugin?
No, this is still a managed WordPress environment. If you need a plugin or theme, reach out to support. They will try to help you find an existing solution. If one does not exist, they can review requested plugins to try to find a solution. All new themes and plugins must be vetted by CampusPress and pass their code reviews.
How do I contact support?
You can contact technical support 24/7 by using the Need Help? Widget at the bottom of your Dashboard. You can also use the Contact Form in the footer below or send email to contact@campuspress.com. If you have questions about the service or need advice, OIT staff are here to help at oit@uci.edu.
Why is OIT moving to managed hosting?
By moving to managed hosting, we can dedicate more resources to helping you with your websites instead of managing the software and hardware. CampusPress are experts in WordPress and higher education and host millions of websites around the world. OIT staff will continue to manage the service for the campus
Will I have to pay for new hosting?
No, OIT is covering the cost for hosting on UCI Sites.
I have been using Beaver Builder. Can I continue to use that?
CampusPress uses Divi instead of Beaver Builder. They offer a similar set of features. If you are currently using Beaver Builder, you can continue to do so for now. We will be helping you to migrate to Divi. Udemy has a great course on learning all the powerful features of Divi. UCI has a site license for Udemy, simply login with your UCInetID and password to start learning new skills
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