Third-Party Web Tools

Web Services and the Office of Information Technology (OIT) will evaluate and approve the use of any third-party web application, service or system before it may be employed by a County agency. (Examples of currently approved third-party tools include MailChimp for email marketing and WuFoo and Jotform for online forms.)

When evaluating a third-party solution, Web Services will review both the goals of the agency and the features of the application. In general, applications must offer features that cannot be provided by Baltimore County's content management system or existing slate of approved applications.

If approved, Web Services will maintain administrative ownership of the account and work with the requesting agency to leverage the tool to meet specific, measurable goals. Agencies are prohibited from establishing their own accounts without the permission of Web Services and OIT.

IFRAME USE

iFrames are considered accessible, but can often times cause accessibility issues depending on how the third-party tool is built. Web Services will not add code on any County website to include an iFrame unless the tool and vendor have been vetted through Web Services and OIT, it's been tested and confirmed accessible, and that it doesn't break any County standards or industry best practices.

THIRD-PARTY TRACKING CODE

Tracking code is a snippet of JavaScript code that tracks the activity of a website user by collecting data and sending it to an analytics module. The code is generated automatically, is different for each website, and has to be installed on each page or template that you want to track.

Due to security concerns, following best practices for government websites and potential performance impacts, Baltimore County does not allow third-party tracking code, including Facebook Pixel, from vendors on any of its websites. 

DESIGNING FOR THE OPTIMAL USER EXPERIENCE

In many cases, linking away from the County website to a third-party vendor tool is the most efficient way for guiding a user to complete a task. However, if the online service is highly requested and in the top 25 percent usage of the website, it most likely is worth evaluating a vendor that offers an API for building the application in the County website template. Building the application in the template is beneficial for many ways, but primarily because it offers more flexibility in how the information is presented, allowing Web Services to design mobile first, within County standards, industry best practices and to ensure WCAG 2.0 accessibility.