Before requesting your domain, we recommend thinking through what domain name you intend to choose. Your domain name will be a unique web address ending with “lsusites.org” (e.g. yourname.lsusites.org). You will be able to use this personal web address to build out your own digital presence. As you consider your domain name, keep in mind:

• One core domain name will be associated with your LSU email address, but you will be able to build on that core domain as your projects develop. For example, if you are a teaching faculty member who intends to use this domain to host projects for a variety of courses, you might choose “prof-mallory.lsusites.org.” Later, you will be able to build on that domain with web addresses such as: literarymonsters.prof-mallory.lsusites.org or prof-mallory.lsusites.org/seniorcapstone
• You may wish to include your name in your domain: There is no requirement that your domain reflects your specific identity in the form of your first and last name. However, choosing a domain name that includes your name may make it easier for you to achieve higher rankings in search engines when someone queries your real name.

Once you have a clear sense of what domain name you would like, you can proceed to LSU Sites.

Click the “Get Started” Button

Use your LSU email address and password to sign in.

After you sign in, you will be directed to a domain request form, which gathers a small amount of information about you and your interest in an LSU Sites domain. We use this information to make sure you’re a real person and potentially provide you with some guidance. However, the domain name you enter into the request form is not final.

After we approve your request, you will be notified via email.

Finally, navigate back to LSU Sites and click “login” to officially create your free domain name.

Your cPanel Account

Your Individual Application Accounts (i.e. WordPress, Scalar, etc.)

Install a Web Application in Your Space

This hosting space makes it very simple to install certain Web applications in your cPanel account. Web applications allow you to build and manage a website. The kind of site you can build depends on the type of application you install. Here are some examples of applications that you can easily install within the lsusites.org web hosting interface:

WordPress: WordPress is a simple-to-use blogging application. The tool also comes with a huge array of plugins & themes to allow you to create virtually any kind of website imaginable.

Omeka: Omeka can be used to create and display online digital collections and archives.

Scalar: Scalar allows you to create digital “books” that juxtapose all types of media with writing. Scalar books can be built collaboratively–as a class, for example.

Mediawiki: It is the open-source wiki software that runs the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia. This tool may be right for you if you’re interested in publishing documents then collaborating with others.

These are just a few of the applications that are available to you in your hosting space.  We encourage you to read more about what Web applications are and which ones are available to you through.

Play with Multiple Applications Using Subdomains and Folders

Although you only receive one “root” domain (yourname.lsusites.org), you can install lots of applications by dividing your root domain into subdomains and/or subfolders. Here’s an example of how you might organize your site (using the subdomain vs. the subfolder approach)

This is just an example of a way to organize your site and then use different sections to do different things. There is no one solution to this challenge, and what you do should be driven by what makes sense to you.

You have the option to start with a free subdomain (e.g. yourname.lsusites.org) and then later decide you’d like to purchase a top-level domain (e.g. yourname.com) after using the space.

If you want to kick the “lsusites.org” part out of your new web address, you will have to pay for that yourself.

While you are at LSU, you can purchase your own top-level domain from Reclaim Hosting for (currently) $15/year. You can continue to use this domain if you leave LSU, although the cost may increase.

To register a top-level domain, log into your newly created cPanel, navigate to the Domains section, and click Register Top-Level Domain.

This panel offers a step-by-step guide to registering and adding a new top-level domain to your new cPanel account.

Installing Applications Using Installatron

Root Domain

Subdomains

You’re may already be familiar with the concept of subdomains, even if you don’t know it. Consider Google’s website at https://google.com. As you browse features of that site, you’ll notice that the domain changes. When you’re looking at your Gmail account, for example, the domain changes to https://mail.google.com.

In this instance, mail.google.com is a subdomain that provides a different utility than google.com. The domains serve two purposes: they help to organize the site from a technical perspective, but they also serve as indications to the users that they are in a new/different space.

Subdirectories

Tips & Review

Tutorials

Web hosting is, at its basic core, files and folders on a computer that is connected to the internet and setup to distribute them. Your LSU cPanel includes a File Manager that allows you to interact directly with the files stored in your web hosting account. This can be useful if you want to upload software that cannot be automatically installed via the Web Applications section of your cPanel, if you need to change the name or permissions of a file or group or files, or if you want to edit a plain text file. To access your files via the File Manager, use these steps:

1. Login to lsusites.org with your LSU username and password.
2. Once logged in, you’ll be on the homepage of your cPanel. Find the File Manager icon under the Files section, and click.
3. On the left side of the “File Manager” window, you’ll see a navigation menu containing the file structure of your web hosting account. More information about the contents of these files and folders can be found in the File Structures and the File Manager documentation article.
   
4. In the navigation menu, choose the public_html directory. This will take you directly to the folder that contains the files associated with your website(s). Click on the name of the folder to view all of its contents in the file browser on the right side of the page.
   
5. To select an item, click once on its icon in the file browser. You can also use the “Select All” button above the file browser.
6. Depending on what you have selected, different options will be available to you in the action menu across the top of your file manager. For example, if you have selected a folder, you can rename it or Change Permissions on it.
   
7. If you know exactly what location you want to skip to within your web hosting account, you can type it into the box directly above the navigation menu and click Go.
8. Alternatively, if you know the exact name of the file or folder you are looking for, but not its location, you can use the Search box to find it.

What exactly is FTP?

Get Information about Your FTP Account

Configure FTP in Your FTP Client

Now that you have your WordPress installed and running, it’s time to look at some basic settings for your site.

1. After logging in to WordPress, the place that you will access the settings for your site is called the Dashboard, and it provides the starting point for accessing all of your sites dials and knobs. Your WordPress Dashboard looks similar to your cPanel Dashboard, because cPanel is also built on WordPress….
2. The setting we will look at here is your blog “title” and “tagline”. It is located in Settings > General. Once you’re on the General Settings page, you can give your blog any title you want. You can also give your blog a tagline, which can be a short description of the blog.

When you change the Blog title and tagline, they will show up at the top of your site. Depending on what theme you use, the title and taglines will show up in various places.

There are more settings on the General Settings page, such as setting the administrative email account, time zone, date format, etc. Change those to whatever is appropriate for your site and geographical location.

Activating Themes

Installing Themes

Posts vs. Pages

Media

Post Block Editor

Part of the popularity of WordPress is how easily it makes a website functional and yet attractive. One of the smaller details that you might want to adjust is how the addresses to your blog posts are structured. Permalink is the name given to the address of an individual blog post because they are “permanent links”. For this example, the web address we’ll use for this sample blog is yourdomain.lsusites.org. The link to the first post, titled “Hello World” may be structured in many ways. The screenshot below shows one way: “http://yourdomain.lsusites.org/blog/uncategorized/hello-world”.

With WordPress, you have many options to form the links to posts, and you can change them to work for your particular content.

1. To change the permalink structure, start by going to the Dashboard.
   
2. Next, go to Settings > Permalinks. By default, your blog will use a “custom structure” that includes a category select and the name of the blog post.
   
3. If you are not using categories, or prefer a different look to your blog post addresses, there are several choices under Common Settings.  A popular choice is to use the Post name choice, which is a bit more informative. So our post titled “Hello World” will have an address of “http://sstrauss.lsusites.org/blog/hello-world”.

After installing your plugin be sure to visit the developers’ website if you have any additional questions about how the plugin works, as some plugins may require certain codes or other actions to be used properly.

Some plugins will have their own settings page located under the settings or tools categories, other plugins will break out their own menu item on the lefthand side of the dashboard. Sometimes it won’t be explicit how the plugin interacts with your personal site, so it’s important to make sure you’ve read the documentation available on the plugin’s website.

What makes WordPress a powerful platform is that not only can you create a dynamic website, but you can also allow dynamic discussions about the content with your visitors. Comments, the bread and butter of the discussion, can add work to your website management. Comments also can come, unfortunately, in the form of Spam. We will give you some additional information about dealing with Spam in another section. For now, here’s how to manage your Discussion Settings.

1. Start at the Dashboard.
2. Navigate to Settings > Discussion.
   • The two main forms of discussion on a website are “Allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks)” and “Allow people to post comments on new articles”.
   • Comments are self-explanatory. People come to your website, read an article, and as long as you allow comments, people can write whatever is on their mind. Commenters must leave their name and email address (if you leave that setting checked). You can also require users to be registered to your site to comment. They would then need to be logged in to submit any comments. By default, you will get an email sent to the admin account of the WordPress site when someone posts a comment, or when a comment is held in moderation. You can uncheck those boxes if you do not wish to receive those emails.
   • A comment will appear on the article (post or page) only after you approve it. If you have approved a comment author once, they will be automatically approved the next time they leave a comment on your site. If you uncheck the box labeled “Comment author must have a previously approved comment”, then all comments will appear automatically. We don’t recommend this setting.
   • You also have some control over comment moderation regarding how many links a comment contains (spammers like to put links in their “comments”). You also can filter out words, URLs, email addresses, to hold them in moderation. You can then approve them, spam them, or trash them.
   • There are also forms of discussion called link notifications. Spammers like these too. Here’s an article on the What, Why, and How-To’s of Trackbacks and Pingbacks in WordPress.

Omeka allows you to create and display online digital collections. Developed by programmers at George Mason University, Omeka was designed to be user-friendly, both during setup and daily usage.

You can learn more about how to use this application in the official Omeka Support Documentation.

To get started you’ll need to login to your cPanel Dashboard (https://lsusites.org/dashboard) using your LSU username and password.

1. Navigate to the Applications section and select Omeka.
   
2. This page gives you more information about the Omeka software. To begin the install, click install this application in the upper-righthand corner.
   
3. On the next page, the installer will ask for some information about this install. The first thing you’ll want to do is decide where to install it. If you want to install Omeka on your main domain, you can leave the directory area empty. If you created a subdomain, you can select it from the drop-down menu. You also have the option of installing Omeka in a subfolder by typing in the folder name in the Directory field. Click here for more information about subdomains and subfolders.
   
4. Scroll down to the next Setting section. Set an Administrator Username and Administrator Password that you can remember. You will need this again shortly.
5. By default the installer will automatically backup your website and update it anytime a new version comes out. We recommend you keep this option. The installer will also create a database for you automatically, but if you’ve already created one for this website you can choose Let me manage the database settings and enter the details. Click Install to continue.
   
6. When installation is complete you will see a link to your new Omeka site as well as a link to the backend administrative section for your Omeka site. Click the Omeka Admin link to configure your new Omeka installation.
   
7. When you visit your new Omeka Admin link, you are asked for the admin username and password. Enter the Username and Password that you set on the Omeka installation page.
8. Begin adding content in the Admin Dashboard. You’ll find lots of instructions, tips, and ideas on the Omeka.org documentation site.

Installing Plugins

As you begin to use your Omeka install on Reclaim Hosting you may wish to add additional functionality by way of the various open source plugins available at http://omeka.org/add-ons/plugins/. Although Omeka doesn’t currently include an automated installer for plugins, the process of uploading them to your space is outlined here.

Before you can install a plugin to your site, you have to download the files from the Omeka Plugins site. Let’s say I want to download the “Admin Images” plugin. I will download it as a zip file from the Omeka plugin library.

Now that we have our plugin zip file downloaded, we can return to our cPanel Dashboard and access the File Manager located under the Files section.

In the File Manager, you’ll use the lefthand sidebar to navigate to the plugins folder within your Omeka install. In the image below, you see that the Omeka plugins folder is within my “digitalcollection…lsusites.org” folder, because I installed Omeka at a subdomain I titled “digitalcollection.” The folder your Omeka is in will be named something different, depending on where you installed the application.

Here you will see all plugins currently in your Omeka install, such as “Exhibit Builder” and “Coins.” To add a new one you want to have downloaded the zip file locally to your computer from Omeka’s website first (we addressed this above). Then click the Upload button to upload the file.

The interface will allow you to drag and drop or select from your computer one or more zip files for the plugins you wish to upload. Once the upload has completed you can return to the previous screen using the link at the bottom of the page.

You should now see a zip file for your plugin in the plugins folder. The last step is to extract the contents of the zip file to the same folder. To do this select your file and click the Extract button.

Once the plugin is extracted you can delete the zip file and the plugin will now be available for activation within your Omeka administration interface. Within your Omeka app, navigate to “plugins” and click “install” next to your newly available plugin.

Installing Themes

Just as you would install plugins, installing themes to Omeka is very similar. Omeka has a few themes installed automatically that you have access to. But there are more themes available at http://omeka.org/add-ons/themes. There is no automatic installer so you would need to upload the theme to your File Manager in cPanel.

Start by finding the the theme you’d like to install. Download the theme by clicking on the red button.

Then open your file manager in cPanel.

After, you’ll go to your specific Omeka install. Click on themes. In the image below, you see that my Omeka installed is within a folder named “digitalcollection….” That’s because I installed Omeka in a subdomain that I titled “digitalcollection.” Your directory will be called something different, but it will still contain a “themes” folder, likely with “berlin” and “default” within it.

Click Upload.

You can drag and drop the .zip file into the window or you can click select a file.

Once your file is uploaded to the themes folder you need to go in and extract the files from the .zip folder. Click on the theme file you just uploaded then click on extract.

You’ll need to confirm that you want to extract the files. Click extract files. 

Once the theme is extracted you can delete the .zip file and the theme will now be available for activation within your Omeka administration interface.

Building an interactive map using Omeka’s Neatline plugin

Neatline is a plugin for Omeka that allows for the creation of interactive maps and timelines. Neatline allows the user to plot points on geospatial layers that, when clicked, reveal text and media. Users may create records from scratch and add them to their Neatline exhibits, or import existing items from Omeka. See Neatline.org for demos of this tool in action and more documentation.

Before using this tool, you’ll need to install the Neatline plugin to Omeka. Follow the instructions on the “Installing Plugins” section of this support page.

Vocabulary

Item: Omeka’s basic building block, containing text, media, and/or metadata.
Collection: A group of items, typically sharing a common theme.
Record: Neatline’s version of items. Can be created on their own, or imported from an existing item in Omeka.
Exhibit: A Neatline map or timeline; contains your records.
Widget: An add-on tool for Neatline, such as Waypoints.
Spatial layer: A navigable map that Neatline can use, typically pulled from Google Maps. The various options Neatline offers have different aesthetics.

Setting up (first time only)

1. Install the Neatline plugin (see above). Install any additional supporting plugins you’d like, such as Neatline Waypoints.

2. Go to your Plugins page in Omeka. After Neatline is installed, click “configure” to the right of Neatline.

On the configuration page, click the link to developers.google.com/maps/web. If possible, open this link in a new tab, since you’ll soon need to return to the configuration page.

3. On the Google page that opens, follow the prompts to “Create Credentials” and “API Key.” This documention provides more detailed instructions. You will be asked to set up a billing account, but you receive $200 for free, which is more than enough for a use such as this. When you’re given a long string of characters, copy it. This is your Google Maps API Key. You’ll only need it once.

4. Return to the Neatline configuration page from step 2. Paste your API Key into the text box. Then click the green “Save Changes” button. Neatline is now connected to Google Maps.

5. Click Settings at top right of your Omeka dashboard. In the text box to the right of “ImageMagick Directory Path,” enter this exact text without the quotation marks: “/usr/bin”. Then click the green Save Changes button at top right. This will allow Omeka to handle your images properly.

Neatline is now ready to go!

Managing Neatline exhibits and using the editor

1. Create an exhibit. Your Neatline map will be known as an exhibit. It’s now time to create this map. Click Neatline on the lefthand dashboard menu, which brings you to the Browse Exhibits page. Then click the green Create an Exhibit button.

On the Create an Exhibit page: give your exhibit a Title, Narrative (optional but recommended), and Widgets (if you’d like to use Waypoints or another add-on you’ve previously installed). The Narrative is the exhibit’s primary textual description, and it will appear alongside your map.

Scroll down and select a Default Spatial Layer from the drop-down menu. The Default Spatial Layer is the default map style your exhibit will display. You can edit this any time, so try out a few and see which aesthetic you like best. You can also optionally use the Embed Spatial Layers field to allow your viewers to toggle between various map styles.

The only other setting you need to change here (eventually) is Public: when you check this box, your exhibit will be live. When you’re done, click the green Save Exhibit button at the bottom of the form.

2. Access the Neatline editor. Return to the Browse Exhibits page from step 1. To access the editor, click your exhibit’s title. Clicking Public View or Fullscreen View will let you preview how your exhibit will look to visitors.

Here is what the editor looks like. Notice the Records, Styles, and Plugins tabs, and the list of records below the blue New Record button (there won’t be any records until you add some):

3. Set the default focus. This is the latitude/longitude and zoom that viewers will see when they first open your map (they’ll then be able to move it however they’d like). In the editor, click the Styles tab. Click and drag on your map to move it around, and use the + and – symbols at top left to zoom in and out. When you’re satisfied with the current view of the map, click the Use Current Viewport as Default button. This will automatically fill-in coordinates and the depth of zoom. You can also manually add these. When you’re done, click the blue Save button.

4. Import items into your exhibit, which then become records. First, click the Records tab in the editor. Then, click the large blue New Record button.

New tabs will appear. Click the Item tab. You’ll see a drop-down menu called “Search Omeka items.” This will list all the Omeka items you’ve previously created. Find the item you wish to add to the map and select it. The item’s content appears below the drop-down menu. If it looks correct, click the blue Save button. If not, click “View the item in Omeka,” edit the item, and try again.

NOTE: If you edit an item in Omeka that you’ve already imported into your Neatline exhibit, its record in the exhibit will be automatically updated.

NOTE #2: You can also create records from scratch using the New Record button and the Text tab (without making an Omeka item first). However, this isn’t recommended if you wish to include images or other media in your record, since that media would require additional HTML formatting.

5. Pin your records to the map. You can access any of your records from the list of records on the editor’s main page (see the screenshot in step 2 of this section, looking under the New Record button). Once you’re in a record, you can place it on the map. If you’ve just created a record using the Item tab from the previous step, then you’re already in that record.

Once in the record, click the Map tab. You can draw many different shapes here (and feel free to experiment!), but for our purposes, we’ll look at two buttons: “Navigate” and “Draw Point.”

When “Navigate” is selected, you can move your map around without adding anything. When “Draw Point” is selected, you can click on the map to place a blue pin. When a viewer clicks this pin, she’ll see the record associated with it. When you’re done, click Save.

For example: I have a record containing text and images about Shakespeare’s first performance of Henry V in London. I can go into my Henry V record and use “Draw Point” to place a pin on London. Now, the viewer can click the blue dot on London to bring up this record.

Optionally, you can use the Style tab in a record (to the right of the Map tab) to change the appearance of points and shapes for that record.

You can add as many interactive points or shapes as you’d like.

6. Add widgets to your record (optional). If you’re using the Waypoints widget, select it by clicking in the Widgets field. See the next step for more information about Waypoints.

When you’re done, click Save. Then, you can exit out of the record and back to the editor’s main page by clicking the X above the Style tab. You can return to Omeka by clicking “Return to Omeka.”

7. Adding Waypoints: a table of contents for your map. The following guide from Neatline.org explains how to add a list of clickable records to your map, so viewers can jump from point to point without searching the map for them:
http://docs.neatline.org/working-with-the-waypoints-plugin.html

Here are a few tips and tricks that can help make sure you get the most out of the Omeka software.

• Item: Omeka’s basic building block, containing text, media, and/or metadata
• Collection: A group of items, typically sharing a common theme.

Creating Collections

This is an organizational tool: by creating collections now, you’ll be able to sort your items later. To create a collection, click “Collections” on your lefthand Omeka dashboard menu. Then, click the green Add a Collection button. On the Add a Collection page, give your collection a Title (you can leave all other boxes blank). If you want to add formatting to your text such as bolding or italics, check the box next to “Use HTML,” and more editing options will appear.

When you’re done, check the box next to “Public” and then click the green Add Collection button.

NOTE: You’ll see many fields when creating collections or items, but there’s no need to panic: almost all are optional and exist for archival purposes. Only fields with a * after them are required.

Creating Items

Omeka is a tool for curating artifacts. In this step, you’ll begin this curation by creating items. To create an item, click “Items” on your lefthand Omeka dashboard menu. Then, click the green Add an Item button. On the Add an Item page, give your item a Title and a Description (you can leave all other boxes blank). If you want to add formatting to your text such as bolding or italics, check the box next to “Use HTML,” and more editing options will appear.

Check the box next to “Public.” If you wish to add this item to a collection, select it from the dropdown menu under “Collection.”

If you wish to add images to your item, click the “Files” tab, then click “Choose File.” Follow the prompts to upload an image. To upload more images, click the green Add Another File button. These images will be displayed alongside your text when a viewer clicks the relevant point on your map.

If you wish to add tags to your item, click the “Tags” tab, then enter all desired tags in the text box, separated by commas. Remember to click Add Tag afterward.

When you’re done adding text, files, and tags, click the green Add Item (or Save Changes if you’re editing) button.

You can always find your list of items, with the option to edit each one, by clicking Items on your Omeka dashboard. From the Items page, you can also use the blue Search Items button to filter items by user or tag.

Clicking “Tags” on the Omeka dashboard will bring you to a list of all your tags. Click a tag’s name to edit it, or click the number to its left to view all items with that tag.

Editing You Omeka Site Menu

From your Omeka dashboard, click Appearance in the black bar at the top of the screen. Then click the Navigation tab.

This takes you to a checklist of links. Each checked link will appear on your home page’s menu. To edit a link’s label (name) or URL, click the small black arrow to its right.

To add a new link: fill in the Label and URL fields at the bottom of this page, and then click Add Link. You can reorder the menu by clicking and dragging the links. When you’re done, click the green Save Changes button.

If you’d rather have links on your menu to one or more specific exhibits, first pull up that exhibit’s public or full-screen view. Copy the URL from the address bar at the top of your browser. Paste it into the URL field on Appearance > Navigation, give it a label, click Add Link, and then Save Changes.

To use a specific exhibit as your home page:
On Appearance > Navigation, add a link to the public or fullscreen view of the map you wish to be the homepage (see the previous step). Then, click on the drop-down menu under “Select a Homepage” (to the right of the link checklist). Select the link you’ve just added. Click Save Changes to finish.

ImageMagick

Omeka requires the ImageMagick library in order to resize and generate thumbnails for your images. Louisiana State University provides ImageMagic for all accounts, but occasionally you will need to manually enter the server path to the utility. The setting for this is located under the Settings > General tab and the path to ImageMagick is /usr/bin

PHP-CLI

Some plugins including CSV Import and Neatline may need to execute code using the command-line version of PHP. If your plugin requires this it can be enabled by editing the config.ini file in your File Manager under application>config.

Navigate to the line that reads:

background.php.path = “”

Change it to the following:

background.php.path = "/usr/bin/php-cli"

Scalar is a content management system with the idea of creating non-linear books on the web. You can learn more about its functions here.

We recommend visiting the Scalar guide (http://scalar.usc.edu/works/guide/index) for more information on getting started.

• To get started you’ll need to login to your control panel (https://lsusites.org/dashboard) using your LSU username and password.
• Navigate to the Application section and select Scalar.
• When you click on the Scalar icon, you will be taken to the Scalar information page. Click install this application.

On the next page, fill in the different fields accordingly:

Select the domain or sub-domain where you’d like your Scalar site to live. You can create a sub-domain by following directions in the section Setting up Subdomain. Alternatively, quickly create a subdirectory by providing a name in the “Directory” field. You can learn more by reading Subdomains vs Subdirectories.

Under version, select the version that is most recent.

By default the installer will automatically backup your website and update it anytime a new version comes out, and we recommend you keep this option.

The installer will also create a database for you automatically, but if you’ve already created one for this website you can choose Let me manage the database settings and enter the details.

Finally, in Settings, you’ll need to create a username and password for the Scalar install. A password can be generated for you, but create one that you can remember.

Click Install.

Once the installer is finished loading, you will be taken to the My Apps section of the dashboard. Here you’ll find links to login to your Scalar installation.

Log into your new Scalar instance with the credentials you set during the install process.

To get started in Scalar, you will need to create a book.

Go to your Scalar site via the My Apps link on your cPanel Dashboard or the Scalar URL you established during the setup process.

Log in to Scalar using the username and password you set up during the installation process.

Note: Scalar has an “old” dashboard and a “new” dashboard, both of which are useable as of December 2023. The images and instructions below are based on the “new” dashboard. Go to the top right corner and click, Dashboard.

Start by clicking “Create new book” and entering a title in the pop up window.

You now see your book under “Books.” If you hover over the title, a “dashboard” button appears. Click it to start adding content to your book.

You can find the Scalar user guide here: https://scalar.usc.edu/works/guide2/index

There are a few reasons that could lead you to consider exporting your website content from LSU. Perhaps you’re leaving the university, or maybe you’re just wanting to use your data on another hosting environment. Whatever the case, you have a couple options for how you want to handle this:

If you are leaving the institution, you can migrate your webspace from LSU to our hosting provider, Reclaim Hosting, for a discounted price. Detailed instructions can be found here.

If you would like to move to a third party service, you’ll want to capture a backup of your site. From there you’ll be able to import this backup into a handful of other web hosting services. You can find instructions on taking a backup here.

Step One: Signing up for an Account

The first step will be to sign up for an account at Reclaim Hosting. This link will take you directly to their Student/Individual Hosting plan option.

• Assuming your current website content exists within LSU Sites (yourdomain.lsusites.org), select the Register a New Domain or the Use a subdomain from Reclaim Hosting option.
• Complete the sign-up process/pay invoice.

Complete the sign-up process/pay invoice.

Step Two: Let Reclaim Hosting Know

Send a support request to support@reclaimhosting.com with the following message:

Hello Reclaim Hosting Support,
I am leaving Louisiana State University and I would like to migrate my account, (your domain), to Reclaim Hosting. Please let me know if you need anything else from me.
Best,
(Your Name)

A member of Reclaim Hosting support will respond & help you get your account migrated ASAP.

To export your domain, we will create a backup of both the files in your domain and the databases that your domain draws from.

1. To get started you’ll need to login to your control panel (https://lsusites.org/dashboard) using your LSU username and password.
2. Once you’re logged in, you’ll see the cPanel interface.  Now click on the Manage Your Account menu at the top of your screen and select User Information.
3. To create a backup of your files and databases, click the button labeled Generate Backup. The system will take a moment to create a backup. When it is complete, you will see the new backup appear below the button. You can click on this backup to download the file.

This article only if you own your own top-level domain. If you have been using the free subdomain option with lsusites.org through Louisiana State University, this does not apply to you.

Similarly, if you’re migrating your content to Reclaim Hosting, this article does not apply to you.

Transferring a domain you already own is not too much different from registering a new domain, except the transfer process requires an EPP code, or an agreement code between your old registrar and your new registrar that allows the release of your domain. Your new registrar will have information on how to transfer in a domain. When you start that process, you will be prompted to enter your EPP code.

How to find your EPP Code:

1. To get started you’ll need to login to your control panel (https://lsusites.org/dashboard) using your LSU Sites username and password.
   
2. Once you’re logged in, you’ll see the cPanel interface.  Now click on the Manage Your Account menu at the top of your screen and select Migration Information.
   

3. Click the Lock button to unlock your Louisiana State University account.

4. Click Get Code. Once that’s done, the system will send you an email with your EPP code.

At this stage, here are a few items to note:

• You’ll receive a series of emails from both your old and new registrars asking you to authorize the transfer. Please act on every email you receive in a timely fashion– even if the emails look like duplicates.
• If you do not authorize the transfer in a timely fashion, the domain transfer will expire and you will need to start over.
• The domain must be older than 60 days.
• The domain must have no other transfers in the last 60 days.
• The domain transfer process can take up to a week, depending on how fast your registrars work.
• Once the domain transfer completes, you’ll receive a notification.