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What programming and database tools can I use to generate dynamic web pages on the university web server?

For placing dynamic web pages on the University website, you should use the Sitebuilder web publishing tool, which provides a number of dynamic page types.

More information: What are page types?

If the University's supported web publishing tools are insufficient for your needs (for example, if you are installing an off-the-shelf system or are contracting a developer to develop a system from scratch) then you can contact the IT Services help desk for information on our offerings. In general these boil down to a few options:

  1. Using the existing supported web publishing tools alongside bespoke client-side development
  2. Managing and provisioning shared hosting from an external provider to provide support (e.g. for a PHP/MySQL environment)
  3. Provisioning a server managed by IT Services

To discuss which of these approaches may be most suitable, you should contact the IT Services help desk, providing:

  • The purpose and scale of the system/application you are planning to host/develop - will it be a few small PHP pages, or an installed system with database?
  • How long your system will be expected to run for, in terms of weeks, months, or indefinitely
  • How robust your system needs to be - is it fulfilling a business-critical need, or would it simply be a minor inconvenience if it was unavailable for a short period of time?
  • What technologies will your system/application need?
  • Are you storing any personal or sensitive information in your application that would need to be kept in-house?
  • How many users do you anticipate using your system/application? How much data would your application store?