April 14, 2009

GO service is enhanced with new capabilities

We've made an important change to the "GO" service. You now can browse a list of existing GO shortcuts, and you even can create your own shortcut on demand!  A list of existing GO shortcuts is available at the GOtionary.  To create your own shortcut, just navigate to go/admin and log in.

Many users have said to us, "I wish I could use GO when off campus." You can!  Just type "go.middlebury.edu"  (or "go.miis.edu") in front of the shortcut.  For example, instead of typing "go/admin," you would type "go.middlebury.edu/admin." 

Here are some definitions that could be useful when you create a shortcut:

  • Shortcut: Anything after "go/" is the shortcut. So in "go/bannerweb" the word "bannerweb" is the shortcut, but you might also have "go/bannerweb/courses/english" where "bannerweb/courses/english" is the shortcut. Shortcuts can be up to 255 characters long and contain any alphanumeric characters plus /, ?, -, and _. The only restrictions are that they can’t begin with /, ?, or the phrase "go/".

  • Alias: These provide an alternate path to a shortcut. For example, "banner" and "bw" are both aliases for "bannerweb" so you can type go/bw, go/banner, or go/bannerweb and get to BannerWeb. If, for whatever reason, the URL of BannerWeb changes, we only need to update the "bannerweb" shortcut and the "bw" and "banner" aliases automatically follow.

  • Creator: The person in charge of the shortcut and any associated aliases. Only the creator can delete a shortcut and only the creator can add other users.

  • User: Any person who can update the shortcut. Users can change the URL, description, institution, and whether the shortcut is hidden from the GOtionary.

  • Institution: We maintain both go.middlebury.edu and go.miis.edu and you can create shortcuts for either. However, each shortcut can only have one institution. You can change the institution of a shortcut at any time, but it will stop working in the other institution.