"Phase 1" of New Departmental Website Released

Friday, October 2, 2015
The Department of Plant Pathology has released a new website using Drupal web content management, which is more flexible and scalable than the previous Liferay version.  Leading the effort to create new content and new features within the website was Sydney Everhart, with advisory input from Gary Yuen, Loren Giesler, Rich Wilson, and Sarah Schlund.  Release of the new website will require two phases.  During the past seven months, this group developed a framework for the website and worked closely with Aaron Coleman, UNL Senior Web Developer, to create the new site, and Craig Chandler, UNL Director of Photography, to achieve the new look.  The following are highlights of the current "Phase 1" website release:

New features on the front page include:
  • Events: Upcoming events are dynamically posted to the front page via events.unl.edu
  • Jobs/News: This highlights lengthier news and jobs announcements
  • Twitter: @UNLPlantPath is a twitter feed that posts and re-posts content relevant to the department -- if you're on twitter, consider tagging @UNLPlantPath with your department-relevant content; this account is moderated by Margarita Marroquin
  • Research Gate:  The most recent publications posted by users affiliated with our department on Research Gate are shown automatically

New features in the faculty profiles include:

  • Twitter:  If faculty have a twitter handle with posts, the most recent posts show up automatically
  • Dynamic contact info:  Contact info comes directly from the UNL directory, so changes made in the directory will automatically appear within the department website
  • Link to your website or Research Gate or other online content
  • Ability to filter faculty according to areas of research
Several areas of the website are still incomplete and will require additional content and template development to be integrated.  Specifically, "Phase 2" of the website aims to address the following aspects with the website:
  • Addition of staff / student / postdoc / etc. profiles to website
  • Addition of publications to faculty profiles via UNL Digital commons
  • Improved written summaries for each page
  • Photos taken by Craig Chandler to appear throughout website
  • More information about annual schedule of courses
If you have ideas or would like to contribute news, job annoucements, or other content to the website, please contact:

Sydney Everhart
everhart@unl.edu