The Utah GIS Portal was constructed using Joomla, an open source content management system, an several custom extensions including Community Builder. The three main goals for the new site design are to 1) improve content accuracy and currency, 2) provide 'one stop shopping' for Utah GIS news and information, and 3) provide robust content searching functionality within the site.

Here is a partial list of features that have been implemented on the site:

- All content is stored in a MySQL database and is retrieved and formatted using a site template and CSS formatting parameters on the fly. Because content is stored in a single database, the search functionality is able to search all content items and the events calendar. Complex searches can be made from the Site Info -- Search menu item [more info] . A comprehensive site map [more info] is available from the Site Info menu button and its content is also database driven.

- Site administration is done through a web browser interface allowing for remote access anywhere that an internet connection is available. Several levels [more info] of administrators and privileged users are available.

- Registered users can submit weblinks, content items, and calendar items and can update their own personal contact information and avatar image, all via the site's front end browser interface. A WYSIWYG editor allows for content items to be authored with rich HTML content such as tables, images, and links. Registering users must enter a text string from an image in order to avoid mass user resistration bots and must agree to the site's acceptable use policy [more info] .

- User submissions, including content items and images can be held waiting approval by a site administrator. The administrator is notified when submissions are made either through the site's backend interface or via email.

- A commenting interface allows registered users to add notes or corrections to selected site content.

- The latest content item posts are shown on the front page as well as the most popular content items. A hit count is kept for all content items and can be viewed through the backend administrator.

- Custom interfaces can be built for database queries or input to the backend MySQL database.

- The header banner images are randomly displayed from a directory of images on the server.

- A foul language filter is installed to prevent inappropriate language missed by the administrators from being displayed.

- Site content can include RSS feeds from other web log sites and site content can be consumed by RSS feed readers.

- Users can view all content in a PDF format or print-friendly format.

- Simple polls can be published to the sites front page together with results to date.

- A backup utility creates a zip file of the MySQL database and emails it nightly to AGRC staff.

Information, Tools, and Contacts for this site. Includes links to Search functionality, FAQ, Site Map, and Site Contacts.