Publishing Your Web Page on
itwebmaster.iit.edu
Making Your Web
Pages
This tutorial assumes that you already know how to write a Web page. If you
do not, please take a look at the IIT Internet Access Web Author page at
http://imc.iit.edu/internet.access/IIT_WebAuthor.html
.
About itwebmaster
itwebmaster.iit.edu, IIT's Internet Technology Webmaster Certificate Program's
primary Web server, runs a free version of the UNIX operating system called
Linux. You will be using a command line interface to communicate with
the server, which means that you will communicate with the server by typing
in commands (like DOS) rather than clicking on icons (as in Windows or on
a Macintosh). Your Web pages will appear to be in a subdirectory of your
account on itwebmaster, even though they are actually served by another computer.
From here on, we will take you, step by step, through the process of uploading
your pages to itwebmaster, giving you the required UNIX commands along the
way. If you want to know more about UNIX in general, please take a look at
Welcome to UNIXhelp for
Users.
Using Telnet to
Connect to Your itwebmaster Account
First you will need to use some form of Telnet to get into your account and
prepare your directory for your Web files. The type of online access you
have will determine the way you Telnet to itwebmaster.
PPP/Campus
Network
If you are using PPP dial-up access or the CampusTCP/IPNetwork for your online
connection, you can use a telnet client, such as WinQVT for Windows
or NCSA Telnet for the Macintosh to telnet to your itwebmaster account.
Follow the instructions that come with your program to telnet to
itwebmaster.iit.edu, then follow the instructions
below. Or in Windows 95/98 or NT, you can use command-line
telnet by clicking on start, clicking on
run and typing telnet itwebmaster.it.edu
in the dialog box. This will work exactly the same as
Telnet Between Two Shell Accounts discussed below.
Commercial
Services
Online services such as America Online or Compuserve may provide their own
Telnet clients or you can use a telnet client such as the one built
into Windows95/98. Follow their online documentation to Telnet to
itwebmaster.iit.edu, then follow the instructions
below.
Telnet
Between Two Shell Accounts
Telnetting between another shell account and itwebmaster is very simple.
At the system prompt, issue this command followed by a carriage return:
telnet itwebmaster.iit.edu
and you will be connected to your itwebmaster account. Once you have done
this, log in using the instructions below.
Logging Into Your itwebmaster Account
Once you have connected to your itwebmaster account, you will be asked for
your username and your password. Enter each one as it is asked for, followed
by a carriage return.
Creating Your Web Page Directory in
Your itwebmaster Account
The way to create your Web page directory, www, on itwebmaster is
to type
mkdir www
at the itwebmaster prompt. This will create the necessary directory. You
must than set file protections on the directory by typing
chmod 711 www
The Web server is set up to recognize files named index.html in each
directory as the default file, with your www directory as the default
Web directory. This means that when no other file in a directory is specified,
the file named index.html will be displayed. We recommend that you identify
which file is going to be your main page and call it index.html. Not having
an index.html file is a potential security problem as it allows anyone access
to all files in your www directory.
To learn more about setting file protections, see Setting
Permissions for Files and Directories below.
Uploading Your Web Pages to itwebmaster
Next you need to get your Web pages from your local computer to your itwebmaster
account. Again, how you do that will depend on what kind of access you are
using and what type of software you are using to establish your online
connection.
PPP/Campus Network
If you are using PPP dial-up access or the CampusTCP/IP Network for your
online connection, you can use an FTP client, such as WS_FTP for Windows
or Fetch for the Macintosh, to move your files to your itwebmaster
account. These are usually point and click applications. Or in Windows 95/98
or NT, you can use command-line FTP by clicking on start,
clicking on run and typing ftp
itwebmaster.it.edu in the dialog box. This will work exactly the
same as FTP Between Two Shell Accounts discussed
below.
Commercial Services
If you are using an online service such as America Online or Compuserve,
these services provide their own FTP. Check with their online documentation
for specific instructions.
FTP Between Two Shell Accounts
Let's assume that you are FTPing from another account to your itwebmaster
shell account, issue the command:
ftp itwebmaster.iit.edu
After connection, you'll be asked for your username and password. Give the
username and password associated with your account.
Next, change directories to your World Wide Web directory by typing:
cd www
Now, you want take ASCII files from the other account and *put* them into
your itwebmaster account. You do this with the put command. For
example, if you want to put the file index.html into your itwebmaster account,
use this command followed by a carriage return:
put index.html
to move it. If the file were named index.htm, you could even type:
put index.htm index.html
which would automatically change the name of the file as it transferred.
You can also use wildcards to move multiple files. For example, if you want
to move all the files ending with .html, use the following commands, each
followed by a carriage return:
prompt
mput *.html
The prompt command doesn't actually do anything, it actually keeps
something from happening. If you issued the mput *.html command
without it, itwebmaster would doublecheck with you before moving each file.
This can be tiresome. So, to avoid it, you can turn off this feature with
the prompt command.
Note: The preceding commands are only good for ASCII files, also known
as Text files. Graphics files must be handled a little differently. Before
moving any graphics files (.gif, .jpg, etc.), issue the following command
followed by a carriage return:
binary
This will alert itwebmaster that a binary file is coming and the server will
treat it accordingly. If you do not do this before moving a graphics file,
the graphics file will become corrupted and will not work
You can use the ls (short for list) command to check the
itwebmaster account and see that your files are actually there.
Preparing Your
Uploaded Files
Now that you have established a Telnet connection to your itwebmaster account
and your Web files have been uploaded, you need to make a few adjustments
to the files before they can be accessed by a Web browser. You need to login
to itwebmaster again (if you are not still logged in).
First, make sure that your files are in your account. Use the command:
cd www
to change directories to your Web directory and then type
ls
to list all your files. If you are accustomed to DOS, this is the equivalent
of the dir command
Changing Filenames
Since the itwebmaster Web server is set up to recognize files named
index.html in each directory as the default file, this means that
when no other file in a directory is specified, the file named index.html
will be displayed. Since the main file you might have created is probably
index.htm, you will need to rename it to index.html.
You may also have to rename other files. If you created your files on a DOS
computer, your files probably end with an .htm extension. These files
should be renamed so that they have an .html extension although .htm
should work.
Renaming files in UNIX is simple. Let's assume that you want to change a
file called example.htm to index.html. Use this command:
mv example.htm index.html
Filename Rules
-
Don't use duplicate filenames because the second file will overwrite the
contents of the first file.
-
You can use up to 256 characters in any file or directory name. Extensions
are optional and unlimited.
-
The following characters are illegal in UNIX filenames: ? ! @ #
$ % ^ & * ( ) - + ' " ? / \ |
Your best bet is to limit yourself to alphanumeric characters (letters
and numbers).
-
Do not put spaces in your filenames. Use periods or underscores to represent
spaces, like this: my_file.december.
-
UNIX filenames are case sensitive. This means that index.html,
Index.html, INDEX.html, and InDeX.html are all considered
to be different filenames.
Setting
Permissions for Files and Directories
In order for your files to be accessed, you must give users permission to
use them. If you type the command:
ls -l
You'll see a list of files that looks a little different than the list you
saw when you used the plain ls command. Here's an example of a display
generated by the ls-l command:
-rwxr-xr-x 1 trygstad staff 5467 Jan 30 1999 personal_homepages.html
drwxr-x--- 2 trygstad staff 512 Nov 30 1999 private/
-rw-r--r-- 1 trygstad staff 26970 Apr 22 08:41 resources.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 trygstad staff 1577 Jul 7 1999 riceppp.cmd
-rw-r--r-- 1 trygstad staff 788 Jul 7 1999 riceppp.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 trygstad staff 1093 Jun 3 22:35 index.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 trygstad staff 2213 Apr 30 22:35 sidebar.gif
The information on the far left indicates what type of permission is given
to each file and directory. The very first space indicates what type of file
this is. Notice that the second item from the top is a directory; this is
indicated by the d in the first space. The rest of the items
are regular files; this is indicated by the blank space at the beginning
of the line.
After the first space, there are nine spaces left over. The first three spaces
indicate what permissions are given to the owner of the file (that is probably
you), the second three spaces indicate what permissions are given to the
workgroup (don't worry about this), and the last three spaces indicate what
permissions are given to the general public.
Each of the letters stands for a different type of permission:
r = read access (the indicated user may look at
the file); numerical value = 4
w = write access (the indicated user may open
the file and change it); numerical value = 2
x = execute access (the indicated user may use
directories and execute programs); numerical value = 1
All of your .html and graphics files should be set so that the owner has
read and write access and the group and general public have read access.
The easiest way to do this (let's assume the file we are changing is called
index.html) is:
chmod 644 index.html
If you want your html file to be executable (necessary under some
circumstances), you would type:
chmod 755 index.html
You can use wildcards with this command, for example, if you want to change
the permissions for all the files ending with .html, use the command:
chmod 755 *.html
Making Subdirectories
If you want to make subdirectories to organize your files, you can do so
with this command (let's assume that you want a subdirectory called
beans):
mkdir beans
This subdirectory and any others that you make require a different permissions
setting than regular files. To set the permissions a directory (still using
beans as an example), use this command:
chmod 711 beans
You can use the ls -l command to compare the permissions set for
your files to the ones in the example above.
You can also rename directories that have already been created by using the
mv command.
Checking Your Web
Pages
When you are done with your itwebmaster session, you can log out of your
account with the exit command. Now, check to see if you can
access your pages with your favorite Web browser. Remember, every browser
has it's own way of displaying a page, so be sure to use correct HTML to
be sure that your page is displayed to it's best advantage regardless of
the browser used to view it.
Help with
HTML is available if you need it.
Your URL will be:
http://itwebmaster.iit.edu/~username/
This assumes that your main page is called index.html, which is the
default filename. See the section on changing filenames
if you missed this part.
Editing Your
Pages Directly on the Server
To edit your pages in a telnet session, change to your www directory
after login, then type
pico index.html
(or whatever the name of the page is) and press enter. You will be using
the Pico text editor.
When you are done, save your page by pressing control-o. You can then test
the page by viewing it in Netscape or other web browsers.
Publishing Your Pages to the Server
with WYSIWG HTML Editors
Two editors are addressed here:
AOLPress and
Netscape Navigator
Gold. Procedures
for use of Microsoft Front
Page and
Adobe
PageMill
should be similar.
Publishing Your Web Page with AOLPress
1.2 or 2.0
When you are ready to save your page, ensure you are connected to the Internet
with a network or dial-up PPP connection. From the
File menu, select Save As... ; when the Save
As dialog box appears, enter
ftp://username@itwebmaster.iit.edu/[path]/filename.html,
using your username where it says username and your
desired filename where it says filename.html (as shown below).
Where [path] appears, you need to put in the full path to
your www directory; to determine this, log onto itwebmaster, change directories
to www, and type pwd, which will display the path.
When the login dialog box appears, enter your username in the
Username box and your password in the
Password box. Finally, click ok, and your page will be published
on the server. After the first save in a session, subsequently you only
need to select
File-->Save and AOLPress will save
your document to the server, as well as any necessary graphics.
Publishing Your Web Page with Netscape
Navigator Gold
When you are ready to save your page, ensure you are connected to the Internet
with a network or dial-up PPP connection. From the
file menu choose publish. In the Publishing
location: Upload files: box enter
ftp://itwebmaster.iit.edu/[path], using your username
where it says username. Where [path]
appears, you need to put in the full path to your www directory; to determine
this, log onto itwebmaster, change directories to www, and type
pwd, which will display the path. Then enter your username
in the Username box and your password in the
Password box, as shown below. Finally, click ok, and your page
will be published on the server. You can select to upload all images in the
document at the same time, or if you have a group of files to publish that
are all in the same directory, you can publish all of them by selecting All
files in document's folder under Local files.
Adapted from How to Use Your Shell Account at
http://www.gbgm-umc.org/conferences/shell.html (now a dead link), on the
United Methodist Church General Board
of Global
Ministries
Web site; by Susan R. Hagan,
shagan@mars.superlink.net.
Used by permission.
