Internet Framework Services

Kevin Witte, Senior Manager and Architect
(919) 668-0698 or kevin.witte@duke.edu

OIT’s Internet Framework Services group focuses on the architecture, design, development, implementation and support of core enterprise-scale web technology applications and application infrastructure. IFS supports services that span the university and health system and integrate function across the institution’s centralized systems of record, as well as its thousands of distributed divisional web environments. IFS has been tasked with providing the following services to the Duke community: 

DukePass Student Portal

Developed for the Office of the Provost, the DukePass student portal provides undergraduate, graduate and professional students with a dashboard of interactive function and real-time information. The portal integrates the underlying uPortal framework with more than a dozen systems of record across campus, in addition to popular off-campus services, such as Facebook, Flickr and del.icio.us, in an effort to provide a compelling, dynamic, highly personalized user experience.

DukeWeb Content Management System

Developed for the institution and built on the Cascade Server platform from Hannon Hill, Duke’s enterprise content management system (CMS) provides a centralized engine for the management of common template frameworks for publishing multiple websites. It also uses a browser-based interface for simplified management of the creation, maintenance, sharing and repurposing of the content for those sites. Core users of the CMS include the Office of News and Communications, the Library, Student Affairs, Human Resources and OIT.

Google Search Appliance

Duke’s industrial-grade Google Search Appliance (GSA) is used across the university and health system to crawl and index the contents of the institution’s entire web space, which currently amounts to nearly 1 million unique pages indexed every day. Its ubiquitous search box/search results user-interface is featured prominently on the university's home page and has been integrated with and customized for hundreds of divisional web environments, from Academic Advising to Zoology.

Service-Oriented Software

The IFS team has implemented a growing library of service-oriented software interfaces to enhance the capabilities of several of the systems for which it has responsibilities, including the homepage of the university, www.duke.edu. and the DukePass student portal. These true technical Web Services have been built and implemented to provide common, reliable and reusable access to key data and business logic of the university’s systems of record. For example, in 2006 the IFS team built a service-oriented web service that provides person-search functionality for the university home page. That service performs queries against the university’s identity management system, and a separate service renders search results. Combined, the two generate the person search results featured on www.duke.edu. These same services, among others, are now also used in the DukePass student portal to fetch and render the same kind of information in compelling ways.

ViewsFlash Online Survey Tool

Duke's  Online Survey Tool, based on the ViewsFlash product from Cogix, is a complete Web-based authoring and publishing system for conducting surveys, and creating polls and quizzes online and is used by hundreds of divisions in the health system and university. Among its capabilities are customizable look-and-feel, survey scheduling, optional authentication, and real-time results reporting. The tool allows for survey design including those using radio buttons, check boxes, drop-down menus, Likert scales and text boxes, or any combination. More than 2,000 unique surveys are active in the system at any given time.

Campus Map

The university's Campus Map provides a comprehensive, interactive application for searching for information on university buildings, including their locations, histories, facilities, driving directions and nearest parking lots. The map is featured prominently on the university home page and other important pages, and is used by thousands of people every day.

Event Calendar

The university’s Event Calendar is a centralized scheduling system open to any sanctioned Duke department, organization or group. It enables event owners to publish and share event information on an institutional scale, bringing events to the attention of a large audience through its high profile on the university’s home page, among many others. The current system manages hundreds of events for dozens of event owners on a monthly basis.

Web Hosting

Built together by IFS and OIT Systems, this environment is home to the homepage of the university, www.duke.edu, DukeToday, and the new DukePass student portal, among dozens of other web systems. At the moment, this platform is essentially OIT-only, but we're working on providing hosting services to the broader university community.

Collaboration Spaces and Development Tools

The IFS team is responsible for the integration and implementation of the OIT-project pilot instance of Confluence, an enterprise-class wiki currently being used by more than 600 people collaborating in nearly 200 project spaces at Duke. IFS recently deployed DukeWiki, an institution-wide implementation of Confluence available for use by any Duke group. IFS also manages OIT’s JIRA issue tracking software as well as the Subversion version control system used by systems and software developers throughout OIT.

Custom Development

IFS has knowledgeable and experienced web software developers who frequently provide assistance with the design and implementation of complex systems which are beyond the scope of the team's core services.

Technical Consulting

IFS technologists are routinely requested to provide guidance, consulting, system architecture and technical team leadership by colleagues across the institution.