About the tilde URL retirement on Sitehost

• Overview
• Locate files with tilde URLs
• MachForm URLs
• Request a virtual host
• Check backlinks
• WordPress sites
• Other content
• Impact dashboard

Overview

Sitehost does not support tilde URLs (URLs that previously existed on Webserve as www.campus.edu/~accountname). All sites on Sitehost instead use the URL format accountname.sitehost.iu.edu (or a custom virtual host) for production and accountname.sitehost-test.iu.edu.

A translation service that automatically redirected retired tilde URLs to their accountname.sitehost.iu.edu equivalents (or virtual hosts, if applicable) was retired on July 20, 2021. As a result, links to retired tilde URLs are redirected to 404 error pages.

Locate files with tilde URLs

To generate a list of files containing links to IU tilde URLs, SSH into your Sitehost account, and then, in your home directory, enter the following command:

find_tilde

The find_tilde script will identify files in which tilde URLs are used and output the file path.

The script also has a verbose option that will display the matching text line in each file:

find_tilde -v

MachForm URLs

Use of tilde URLs is common within MachForm. To ensure that your forms continue to work after the change date:

1. Log into the Administrative Panel of your instance of MachForm.
2. Go to Settings, and then, under "Miscellaneous Settings", click advanced options.
3. Check the "Default Admin Panel Image" URL and, if it contains a tilde in the URL, change it to:

   https://[accountname].sitehost.iu.edu/machform/images/logo.png

4. Check the "MachForm" URL and, if it contains a tilde, change it to:

   https://[accountname].sitehost.iu.edu/machform

5. At the bottom, click Save Settings.
6. Re-embed your forms on your web pages with the new embed codes. To find the new embed codes, click Code under each form on the "Manage Forms" page.

Request a virtual host

If your site is primarily intended for an audience external to IU, UITS recommends using a custom virtual hostname and registering your site with the major search engines. This should help make your site easier to find through Google and other search engines. For instructions, see:

• Request a virtual host for Sitehost
• Submit the URL of your web page to search engines

Check backlinks

Backlink tools are available to help you determine if traffic is coming to your site via a tilde URL. UITS recommends contacting owners of sites using outdated links and providing them with updated URLs. If you need help identifying the owner of a site, contact Tier 2.

WordPress sites

If your WordPress site was set up using a URL such as www.iu.edu/~accountname, you will need to update your URL to accountname.sitehost.iu.edu or your virtual host. There are several different ways to do this; see Changing The Site URL.

You may also need to update internal links in your site if they use the full hostname.

Other content

If your site uses content such as scripts, includes, or embeds containing tilde URLs, you will also need to update them. Use the find_tilde script to find tilde URLs.

Impact dashboard

A dashboard is available to help identify incoming web traffic using tilde URLs. The dashboard shows a snapshot of traffic from mid-March to mid-April 2021 and does not represent all possible traffic via tilde URLs. The dashboard will display accounts associated with individual users. Local UITS support people will see information for those they support.

To access the dashboard, go to https://go.iu.edu/tilde-pro.

This data does not provide a complete picture of where traffic is going to and where it comes from, but it can help identify potential issues.

Sitehost accounts are identified by the group account name under the "Account" column, and the "Account Type" is "Group".

Pages accounts are identified by the individual's username, and have an "Account Type" of "Individual".