How do I use a Spinup static website?

What is it?

Static website is an offering in Spinup that allows you to quickly set up a website backed by AWS S3. "Static" means that you can only host files that can be downloaded or opened in a browser, such as HTML, CSS, Javascript, images and other binaries, but not ones that need to be interpreted or executed (e.g. php, perl, asp or other scripts). The websites are publicly accessible and are currently offered for low-risk spaces only.

How does it work?

Static websites in Spinup are based on several AWS services: S3, CloudFront and Route53. When you create a "website" Spinup sets up an S3 bucket where you can upload files, as well as a CloudFront distribution which caches the content and takes care of SSL offloading. You can pick one of our registered domains (currently yalepages.org and yalespace.org). We use Route53 to create a DNS record to your website, which is reachable from anywhere on the internet and will automatically redirect HTTP to HTTPS. You benefit from the great data durability of S3 and built-in security and scalability of CloudFront. You will be charged for the S3 storage plus any applicable data transfer costs.

How do I use it?

From your Spinup space create a new "Static website" resource. Note that it is only available for low-risk spaces. All you need to do is enter a name for your site and pick one of the supported domains.

When you click "Create website" you will be presented with the terms of use and upon acceptance the site will be configured. This may take about 20 minutes (mostly because the CloudFront setup takes a while).

When the website is created you can go to the URL (e.g. https://mystaticwebsite.yalepages.org) and see the default page. Note that we automatically set up an SSL certificate and there's an HTTP to HTTPS redirect.

At this point you can connect to the S3 bucket (the name is the same as the name of the website, e.g. mystaticwebsite.yalepages.org in this example) and upload additional files. You can use the same procedure as working with regular S3 buckets: How do I use a Spinup S3 bucket?

Custom URLs

If you need to have a custom URL for your static website (e.g. mystaticwebsite.yale.edu) you can request that after the site is up and running (requires some manual configuration on our end). Just email spinup@yale.edu with the name of your website in Spinup and the custom name you'd like to have configured.

Note that if a http://yale.edu domain or subdomain is being requested, you will first need to open a ServiceNow ticket and assign it to YaleSites for approval of the Yale domain name:

YaleSites will verify that the website is not a commercial endorsement of third party software or endeavor
Appropriateness of content will be reviewed to support Yale's reputation

Static website generators

Consider using a static website generator such as Hugo or Jekyll. This way you can easily create a fairly complex site without scripts and databases. For example, this Spinup site was created using Hugo: https://spinup.yalepages.org.

Web Accessibility

It is the responsibility of Spinup users to make sure their sites meet WCAG 2 AA standards for accessibility. For more information please visit WCAG Overview | Usability & Web Accessibility