Platform & Hosting Options

There are a few ways for you to get your site online. What you choose will depend on your priorities regarding design flexibility and content management, your timeline, and your internal resources.

Talk with DoITT to get a better understanding of which is right for your project.

Teamsite

Teamsite is the City’s content management system (CMS). The quickest and easiest way to build a City website is to use DoITT’s Teamsite template, the design that NYC.gov follows. It’s mobile-friendly, hosted by the City, and has passed DoITT’s security accreditation process—meaning you’ll be able to skip this step.

Pros

  • Requires less bandwidth from your team
  • Requires little technical or design expertise
  • Mobile-friendly
  • Already secure
  • Can be developed fairly quickly

Cons

  • Minimal flexibility in design or layout
  • Somewhat clunky workflow for content changes

Examples

Illustrated view of a street with people biking, walking and driving in NYC
NYC Planning
Aerial view of lower Manhattan and Brooklyn flood map
NYC Flood Maps

WordPress

WordPress is an open-source CMS that offers user-friendly, flexible themes and templates for websites. DoITT can provide you with WordPress hosting and a theme already built to comply with best practices in accessibility and design.

You can also use your own WordPress theme as long as you have the resources to design, develop, and maintain it. However, DoITT can’t commit to being able to enhance or maintain third-party WordPress themes.

Pros

  • More flexibility with design and layout
  • Mobile-friendly
  • Can be developed fairly quickly
  • Can be updated by client (once trained)

Cons

  • Timeline depends on DoITT’s availability
  • Requires some client training on the WordPress platform
  • Updates to WordPress platform and plug-ins must be monitored
  • Shouldn’t be used to host or exchange sensitive personal data
  • Must be accredited through the IT Security process

Example

Four illustrated people with thought bubbles above heads featuring a house, money and more
NYC Open Data

Other Platforms

If these options don’t meet your needs, the City can help you figure out which platform will. To find out your full range of options, contact your Agency Relationship Manager (ARM) and have them put you in touch with DoITT’s Enterprise and Solution Architecture team. (Find your ARM by searching “ARM” on CityShare, the City’s employee portal.)

URLs

To request a URL for a website, submit a service request ticket via the CityWide Service Desk stating the need for a new domain assignment. Include the URL you’d like to use and where your site is currently hosted.

Note: To get an official URL, you’ll need to go through IT Security accreditation.

.nyc Top Level Domain

The City of New York helped launch the .nyc top-level domain (TLD), which is available only to individuals, organizations, and businesses with a physical presence in New York City.

To avoid public confusion about which websites and email addresses are official government addresses, City of New York websites must continue to use nyc.gov domain for all official communications and correspondence. .nyc domains can only be used for public-private partnerships.

Bitly

Bitly is a link-shortening service. The City has a branded Bitly domain, on.nyc.gov, which allows employees to transform long URLs into tidy, branded links like on.nyc.gov/forward, or on.nyc.gov/poetweet. These are easy to share in ads or at events, and offer in-depth analytics.

To create custom Bitly links, register for a free account on the Bitly homepage. Then contact the NYC Digital Blueprint team and request access to use the custom NYC domain.

GitHub

GitHub is a website where developers share code and documentation for open source web projects. Other developers are invited to view this code and copy — or “fork” — code to tailor to their own projects. GitHub is a vital resource for collaboration and open feedback across the development community.

The City of New York has an official GitHub account where you can find and fork source code for City projects, and upload your own.

To be added to the official account, create a GitHub account with your official City email and submit a ticket via CityWide Service Desk asking to be added to the official City of New York Github account.

If you’d like to upload your own project code to GitHub, you’ll need to create a repository — or “repo” — (the place on GitHub where your project content lives) and request that it be added to the account.

To do this:

  • Create a GitHub account with your official City email.
  • Submit a ticket via CityWide Service Desk with this information:

I would like a GitHub repo added to the City’s official GitHub account: [name of repo]. Users who need access:

  • [Name, email (user role, e.g. owner, collaborator)]

Someone from DoITT will invite these users to join the official City GitHub account and grant access to their newly created GitHub repo.