Managed hosting for Wordpress
- Paul Seiler (Unlicensed)
- Madeleine Rashbrooke
- David Archibald (Unlicensed)
Overview
The WordPress hosting is managed both by Digital Engagement and Digital Solutions.
The cloud platform is Siteground.
We just provide hosting we don't fix peoples issues with their Wordpress website outside of this. For instance, if they were hacked we might put up a maintenance screen but we wouldn't fix their website. At the moment the assumption is the people with WordPress websites have their own developer who deals with any issues.
Digital Solutions may also be the ones who are paying for the websites URL and therefore they handle any DNS issues.
There is currently a Technical Specialist, Web in the Digital Solutions team who can help with anything technical.
Wordpress support by Avalon Marketing
Backup
OnDrive storage is set up with Digital Solutions to allow for backups of WordPress sites to be stored off-site. While Siteground has excellent daily backups, this option provides a couple of additional benefits - remote storage and on-demand backups for site administrators.
The storage is associated with the following account - svc_O365_Wordpress_Bkp@staff.vuw.ac.nz.
Logging in
Some site owners are new and don't have the log-ins. We can access the sites for them via online-services@vuw.ac.nz and grant them access. They should use a generic email address.
Siteground details
Digital Engagement’s login details to Siteground can be found on this page - https://victoriauniversity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/WT/pages/176914442
cPanel username: mytownha
cPanel password: Is4agoodnumberofusers?
Site: http://vuwwordpress.co.nz
New primary account domain: vuwwordpres.co.nz
Password: UpAKaq5zsNKy
Admin username: Frodo2001
Website plan
Each site should have a plan that details the purpose, owners, life of the site etc.
Future considerations
Security certificates - Security Certificates haven't been part of that service until now but we could talk to Digital Solutions about whether they want to take this on for all the websites on our hosting. In 2021, SDG's certificate expired and they didn't know what to do as they don't actively have a developer involved.
Conference websites - do we want to keep doing these in Wordpress? If not we would need to re-explore the requirements. Some of the reasons we went with Wordpress are:
Websites sometimes need to not be University branded as they are joint initiatives - we could overcome this by creating a white label version of our existing core template.
Payment gateway - historically we used event expresso through wordpress. The University has its own payment gateway that could potentially be used. The Engagement team also have an events system they use that can take payments and create a very basic web presence. When we did do Conference websites pre-covid Paul Seiler used to spend a lot of time chasing around missing invoices and payments and that isn't something that our team should be taking on.
Blind submission of proposals to present - Office365 could be used to create a form and then let people upload a file dropbox style. While blind submissions was a key requirement (and why we chose Wordpress) no-one ever used this function so I suspect they have another way of doing these already
Getting out of the hosting game - should we be turning this function over entirely to Digital Solutions? I think it is good to have Wordpress hosting so the University has visibility over non-core websites and if staff leave and websites need to be taken down there is someone centrally who can do this. We will never be able to build all the websites the University wants on the core platform within current resourcing.
Sites we currently have on Wordpress
https://victoriauniversity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/WT/pages/176914442
We’re currently hosting approximately 30 sites (log into Siteground to check).
Some of the websites we host include:
Celebrating 125 years
Site: https://125.wgtn.ac.nz/
Owner: Sue O’Donnell, Development Office
Purpose: Created to mark 125 years since the University was founded in 1897. To engage alumni and (very subtly) encourage them to think about making a donation.
Notes: Created by Maddy and David Archibald of One Red Turtle (our previous WordPress provider). Timeline created by Andrew Empson of TBD Design. Plan is to merge the best bits back into the ‘history’ section of the About hub when we have time.
Admin name = web.team, password = hunter316hazella
Site: https://nuwao.org.nz/
Owner: Maibritt Pedersen Zari, Wellington School of Architecture
Purpose: Website for Te Ātea – Spatial Justice Co-design Lab is underpinned by the principles of te Tiriti, is project-based, cross-disciplinary and collaborates with whānau, hapū, iwi and communities in Aotearoa and beyond to co-design solutions to spatial problems. .
Developer: Thomas Kiddle, <thomaskiddle0@gmail.com>
URL hosting: Hosted by Digital Solutions
Site: https://wheredowedance.com/
Owner: Dr Rebecca Kiddle, Wellington School of Architecture
Purpose: Survey and resources related to Where do we dance talk.
Developer: Thomas Kiddle, <thomaskiddle0@gmail.com>
URL owner: Maibritt Pedersen Zari, Wellington School of Architecture
Site: https://www.teatea.org.nz/
Owner: Maibritt Pedersen Zari, Wellington School of Architecture
Purpose: Website for Nature-based Urban design for Wellbeing and Adaptation in Oceania (NUWAO) project. This is Marsden-funded research led by Maibritt with a research team across Wellington School of Architecture and School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences.
Developer: Thomas Kiddle, <thomaskiddle0@gmail.com>
URL owner: Unsure - promopeople.com
Site: My Town Hall
Owner: FHSS, Jo Fisher
Purpose: It is part of the fundraising initiative for the National Music Centre.
Developer: Was Paul Seiler using a standard wordpress template
Admin username: Frodo2001
Admin password: 6&41CF#16PDU
Admin email: stories@mytownhall.co.nz
Admin username: online-services
Admin password: sxS8)hM6H#EL^GN^z&^Gumk%
Admin email: online-services@vuw.ac.nz
Database name: mytownha_wp152
Table prefix: wp7k_
Staging password: Havingfun4once
Link to webmail: https://securesm9.sgcpanel.com:2096/logout/?locale=en
Email address/username: stories@mytownhall.co.nz
Password: *H?BO;?9q[WP
Site: bestnzpoems.vuwwordpress.co.nz
Owner: International Institute of Modern Letters, Clare Moleta or Katie Hardwick-Smith
Purpose: Support the Best NZ Poems initiative.
Developer: Rachel O'Neill (asracheloneill@gmail.com)
Admin username: online-services
Admin password: &&C17Q@#1#
Admin email: online-services@vuw.ac.nz
Database name: wpbnzp
BackupBuddy restore password: pushtorestore
also at bestnewzealandpoems.org.nz
Admin username: online-services
Admin password: &&C17Q@#1#
Site: kapohauturbine.vuwwordpress.co.nz
Owner: International Institute of Modern Letters, Clare Moleta or Katie Hardwick-Smith
Purpose: Is the Turbine online magazine.
Developer: Rachel O'Neill (asracheloneill@gmail.com)
Admin username: online-services
Admin password: VB$#8J$&8T
Admin email: online-services@vuw.ac.nz
Other admins: paul, paul.seiler@vuw.ac.nz, HliJNzYSf6H&t2Jd9c*V!8Le; rachel, asracheloneil@gmail.com, 5#PztBiJoV@w6&8WVee9%teJ
Database name: wpvuwkt
Database table prefix: wpbj_
BackupBuddy restore password: pushtorestore
and also at turbinekapohau.org.nz/
Admin username: online-services
Admin password: VB$#8J$&8T
Site: myview.co.nz
Owner: Student Academic Services - embedded team, Grace Taylor
Purpose: Online blog written by students and overseen by SAS embedded team.
Developer: Digital Engagement set up on standard wordpress template
URL: https://www.myview.co.nz/
Addon domain password: nPS4!k+pWx?~
Admin username: online-services
Admin password: 0HAK%6MN&8
Admin email: online-services@vuw.ac.nz
Database name: myview
Table prefix: wp18_
Database username: mytownha_aplas2018
Database password: Rz2fa5^8
Admin username: mytownhall_aplas
Admin password: NZ2H?bF~)1cW
BackupBuddy restore password: pushrestore
Site: sdg.vuwwordpress.co.nz and also sdg.org.nz
Owner: Girol Karacaoglu | Head of School | School of Government
Website content and maintenance: Maria DaRocha <mariao.darocha@gmail.com>
Purpose: Promote UN SDGs and discuss NZs progress towards meeting these.
Developer: They hired someone directly and that person isn't involved anymore. They often go direct to David Archibald for help.
Admin username: online-services
Admin password: L%%P&064#Z
Admin email: online-services@vuw.ac.nz
Database name: sdg
Table prefix: wp18_
BackupBuddy restore password:
also on sdg.org.nz
Admin username: online-services
Admin password: L%%P&064#Z
Site: ourenvironment.ac.nz
Owner: School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences - Lynda Petherick and School of Biological Sciences - Melanie McConnell
Purpose: Part of coursework it is a blog that gives students an opportunity to publish their research on an environmental topic
Developer: Digital Engagement using standard blog template
Admin username: online-services
Admin password: &O3&C1F#0Z
Admin email: online-services@vuw.ac.nz
Database name: wp481
Table prefix: wpnh_
BackupBuddy restore password: pushtorestore
Site: sod.vuwwordpress.co.nz
Owner and Developer: Walter Langelaar, School of Design
Purpose: Student portfolio website but has never been completed - is live but hidden from search engines
Admin username: adminPaul
Admin password: pualsod1015
Database name: mytownha_sod
Database username: mytownha_sod
Database password: (L,rJxK8%iyT
Site: testconference.vuwwordpress.co.nz
Admin username: online-services
Admin password: D5*Acy3of1$p
Database name: mytownha_testcon
Database username: mytownha_testcon
Database password: =4z%W-R)NZNX
PremiumCoding support details (Amory vendor)
Username: Victoria_University
Password: Greatthemes4Victoria
Akismet account details (fee for now)
Email: online-services@vuw.ac.nz
Username: victoriawebteam
Pasword: CanVictoriastopallspam?
API key: b08e7f3120c5
ithemes account details (supplier of Backup Buddy)
Email: online-services@vuw.ac.nz
Username: online_services
Pasword: victoriawebteam
Backup Buddy plugin (for actual backups)
Email: online-services@vuw.ac.nz
Username: online_services
Email address: online-services@vuw.ac.nz
PasSword: WPBUp4savingtheday
WP Abstracts Pro
Registered user: Paul Seiler
Email: online-services@vuw.ac.nz
Pasword: onedaywemightupgrade
In attempting to set up WP sites on new domains, when previously hosted elsewhere or on a main domain account subdomain, we have encoutnered issues. Here are the steps used to correct this isue.
Ivan S.: You can simply add the addon domain
Ivan S.: But point it to the root folder
Ivan S.: Of the sub-domain
Ivan S.: Then use the Change Domain option
Ivan S.: And that should be enough to do it properly
Paul Seiler: Thank you. I will store this away for next time.