Vanity URL Guidelines

Updated March 6th, 2002

UWM has the ability to create `vanity' web addresses as aliases to web materials. This allows a page with a `real' name such as www.uwm.edu/Dept/MyName/index.html to be accessed via a name of the form www.myname.uwm.edu. This not only results in a shorter name but also can eliminate much confusion when communicating a web address orally.

Requests for Vanity URLs

The following guidelines apply to such aliases:

All such URLs will be of the form www.abcxyz.uwm.edu where abcxyz is chosen denote the unit or function to whose home page the vanity URL refers.
The abcxyz chosen must be unique enough to unambiguously indicate the UWM unit or program involved. E.g., avoiding acronyms or key words that are shared with other UWM entities.
Any unit of UWM down to the level of department/center/institute may have one such URL directed to their home page.
Any department offering a degree program with a name that differs from that of the department may have a vanity URL directed to that degree progarm's materials.
Any SOAR-recognized student organization may have one such URL directed to their home page.
Requests for URLs for purposes other than the above (e.g., for special publications or activities) will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Some criteria would be that there be a significant off-campus audience and that the unit's own URL would not be an appropriate route to the material.
New URLs will only be created for pages that are fully in compliance with current campus standards. For departmental home pages see http://www.uwm.edu/policy/standards.html, or for student organizations see http://www.uwm.edu/policy/soar-www.html, for a discussion of these requirements.
Requests for vanity URLs may be e-mailed to the UWM Webmaster (mhostad@uwm.edu) or to www@uwm.edu. To ensure authenticity, requests should originate from either unit's administrator or from the account owning its home page.

Technical notes

Vanity URLs are targeted at a directory on the web server, not to an individual file. A vanity URL by itself is equivalent to accessing the index.html file in the target directory.

Note also that vanity URL aliases are immediately redirected to the underlying `real' address. That is what the visitor will still see as their web location. If they book-mark the page, the real address is what is book-marked.

UWM Web: Policy | Information

Last update: March 6, 2002. --- URL: http://www.uwm.edu/policy/vanity.html
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