UM Webmaster Frequently Asked Questions

World Wide Web (also called WWW and W3) is a global hypermedia-based information system. Selected text is linked to other files, possibly located on other nodes in the network, using the WWW native language, HTML (hypertext markup language). World Wide Web was developed by CERN the European laboratory for Particle Physics.

To access the World Wide Web, you run a browser program such as Netscape or lynx. Browser programs are available for Windows, Macintosh, Unix, and other platforms.

URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. It is a standard for specifying a a resource on the Internet such as a file or newsgroup. URL's are used extensively in the context of World Wide Web. They are used in HTML documents to specify the target of a hyperlink (e.g., http://www.olemiss.edu).

A few example URL's:

A gopher site

gopher://gopher.senate.gov

An ftp directory

ftp://cypress.mcsr.olemiss.edu

A Web Page

http://www.whitehouse.go

1. Get a Sunset Account

   You will first need a personal account on a system that runs World WideWeb server software. The IT system:

   sunset.olemiss.edu

   exists for this purpose. You can apply for an account electronically through: telnet://sunset.olemiss.edu
   (Login as apply)

2. Create a subdirectory named public_html in your home directory if one does not exist:

   Type:	ls

3. If there is no directory named public_html -

   Type:	mkdir public_html

4. Change directories to public_html:

   Type:	cd public_html

5. Use vi or pico to create and edit a file named index.html if one does not exist:

   Type:	ls

6. If there is no file named index.html -

   Type:	pico index.html

   This file will contain the HTML source that defines your home page.

   If the file index.html already exists, it was created when the account was set up. The file will contain a standardized default homepage. To rename this file -

   Type:	mv index.html default.html

   where default.html is the new name.

   Note that this and other html files can be created with any editor or word processor and then placed in your sunset account. (HTML files are plain ASCII text files.)

7. Check Permissions

   Make sure that you have read permissions set for your home, the public_html directory, and all files/directories under public_html.

   The ls command (with -l option) can be used to view directory and file permissions, and the chmod command can be used to change directory or file permissions. The default on sunset is for files and directories to be readable.

8. Accessing your Page

   You can access your page with the URL:

   http://www.olemiss.edu/~login_id

   where login_id is replaced with your sunset login id.

One of the best starting places is A Beginner's Guide to HTML from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). The HTML Reference Manual available from Sandia National Laboratories is also very good. A tutorial for creating WWW pages is available through the Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction (MCLI). A collection of HTML resources is available through OneWorld Information Services. Refer to HyperText Markup Language (HTML) for information on the HTML standard.

Two excellent online validation services are: WebTechs and A Kinder, Gentler HTML Validator.

Many helpful resources on electronic publishing are available on the Interent, including the Yale C/AIM HTML Style Manual from the Yale Center for Advanced Instructional Media. Dr. Warren Steel has prepared a very helpful set of guidelines, Hints for Web Authors.

All Web Publications on IT/MCSR systems must follow the guidelines set forth in the IT/MCSR Appropriate Use Policy.

Refer to Guidelines for Developing a Web Page from the UM Office of Publications for advice on the editorial and design aspects of creating a Web page.

The file name of a webpage can be quite important.

Firstly, the main page of a site should be called index.html. This indicates that it is an index page and is automatically loaded if a filename is not given in a URL, i.e. http://www.olemiss.edu and http://www.olemiss.edu/index.html are the same page.

Secondly, on Unix systems like the campus server, the case of the letters is important, i.e. index.html is not the same as Index.html.

All HTML files, must have one of the following extensions: .html, .htm, .shtml, or .shtm.

File names should NOT contain spaces, commas, pluses, exclamation points (!), tildes (~), ampersands (&), percents (%), ats (@), pounds (#), or many other special characters. Underscores (_) are permitted.

Short file names are better than long ones.

1. Obtain Authorization from Your Department Chair
   
You must be designated as the "Webmaster" for your department before you can contribute to the Web Page for your department.
2. Get a Cedar Account
   
The IT system, cedar.olemiss.edu, functions as the UM Web Server. You will need a personal account on this system. You may obtain an account by showing your University ID to the IT Helpdesk staff and asking for one.
3. Have your Cedar User Name added to the Permission Group for your Department
   
Unix groups have been set up corresponding to each academic and administrative department on campus. To have your login ID placed in the appropriate group, contact:
• Robby Seitz (rseitz@olemiss.edu)
• Kathy Gates (kfg@cypress.mcsr.olemiss.edu)

Authorization from your department chair may be required.

 

4. Place Your HTML files in your Department Directory
   
Directories have been set up on sunset in /usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs/UM/depts corresponding to each academic and administrative department on campus. Enter:

	newgrp group_name

where group_name is the group associated with your department to enable your permissions.

Use cd to change directories to your department under the depts hierarchy:

	cd /usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs/UM/depts/my_department

where my_department is the directory associated with your department (e.g., chemistry, bursar).

Hint: You can set up a logical link to your home directory with the command:

	ln -s /usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs/UM/depts/my_department my_department

from your HOME directory. From then on, just enter

	cd my_department

from your HOME directory.

Name your top level HTML file index.html. This way, others will be able to access your department page using the URL:

	http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/my_department

5. Have Your Department Added to the Master List of Departments on the UM Web.
   
Send mail to web@www.olemiss.edu to have your department added as links on the appropriate pages within UM Web.

The procedure for creating a course web page and resources on Web-based courses are available through www.olemiss.edu/courses/resources.

A Listserv (email based discussion list) has been set up for UM Webmasters. To subscribe, send email to md@listserv.olemiss.edu with the line:

	subscribe umweb-l 

in the message body. (That's a letter "el" in umweb-l, not the number one.) Subject will be ignored. Replace firstname and lastname with your first and last name. You will receive any messages that are posted to this list.

To post messages to the list, send email to umweb-l@listserv.olemiss.edu. Note that your email will be sent to all those who are currently subscribed.

To get a list of current subscribers, send email to listserv@listserv.olemiss.edu with the line:

	list umweb-l

in the message body.

Stanford University makes available a set of "gif" (graphics interchange format) files for public use. These have been placed to cedar.

To view these, point your browser to: http://www.olemiss.edu/stanford_gifs.

To include an image in your publication, include the appropriate reference
(e.g., <IMG SRC="/stanford_gifs/ball.golf.gif" ALT="o">) in your HTML source file.

Note that it is NOT necessary to copy the graphics files to another subdirectory. They have been placed in a shared location on cedar for use in both personal and department pages.

Check:

• WWW Power Index: Icons
• Yahoo Icon Listing

for other icon libraries.

You will need to either (1) scan in existing photographs using a color scanner or (2) use a digital camera to create the digital image. Two graphics formats widely used in Web documents are "gif" and "jpeg." Most programs for editing photos (e.g., Adobe Photoshop) support these formats.

Once you have a "gif or "jpg" file that represents your image, you can place it in your public_html or department directory on sunset/cedar and reference it with an "img src" tag to include the image in your Web publication.

For example, to include the graphics image, myimage.gif, in the in HTML source, I could use the tag:

	<img src="myimage.gif">

You will need to will need to add a path (e.g., images/myimage.gif) if the gif file does not reside in the current directory.

Contact Ron Savell (rsavell@olemiss.edu) or Johnny Price (price@olemiss.edu) for information on accessing color scanners. Multimedia support equipment (digital cameras, scanners, ...) is also available through the Faculty Technology Lab located in the library.

The script, umform, on Sunset and Cedar will create a form "shell" that can be modified to suit your needs.

Log into your Cedar or Sunset account and changes directories to where the form should reside. Then enter:

	umform form_name

You will then need to modify the resulting file (form_name.html) in the following ways:

1. Change the email address corresponding to the towhom field so that input is sent to the desired recipient.
2. Create html files for valid and invalid responses.
3. Change the file/path names corresponding to the goodform and badform fields to point to your good and bad response html files.
4. Add your input/textarea/select .. fields. They will be mailed to you in alphabetical order, so you may want to name them 01xxx, 02xxx, and so on.

You can insert the html code created by umform into an existing html file, or you can set up a link to it.

Information on setting up forms can be found as follows:

• The NCSA Forms Specification

Another script collects values entered by users on Web forms, and rather than e-mailing the results, it writes them to a delimited text file. This script is named umfile.

The final option for building an interactive form is umquiz. This script creates a sample HTML file containing questions along with an answer file that is used to "grade" student responses. To use this script, enter:

	umquiz form_name

Two files will be created in your current directory: form_name.html and form_name.answers. See the comments in these files for further information on usage.

The process for setting up forms in fairly straightforward, while the activity of writing cgi programs to process the collected input requires true programming skills. We highly recommend that you use the "umform" utility and accompanying perl script for processing collected input. To find out more about cgi programs, refer to:

• The NCSA CGI Specification
• Learning Perl

Good Question! If you have an existing electronic document, then more than likely a tool exists for converting that document to HTML. Check the WWW FAQ file - filters for one that suits your needs. You will need to download the desired tool to your system (PC, Macintosh, ...) and use it to convert your document.

A Text-to-HTML converter is available on sunset. To use it, type

	txt2html.pl sourcefile.txt > output.html

where sourcefile.txt is the text file to be converted and output.html is the name of the converted HTML file.

Unix is the operating system for cedar and sunset as well as other IT/MCSR systems (e.g., cypress, magnolia). To make the most of your sunset/cedar account and to effectively manage your Web pages, you will need to know a little about the Unix operating system. UNIXhelp for Users is a good starting point for new Unix users. Unix FAQ files are also available.

Web pages under the UM hierarchy are processed for server side includes. Counters are supported on UM Web using server side includes. Place the line:

   You are the <!--#exec cgi="/htbin/counter-ord"--> visitor.   

in your HTML source to add a counter to your Web Page. (The line <!--#exec cgi="/htbin/counter--> will also work. The counter will be displayed as a natural number.) Counters will not be processed on individual Web Pages.

A set of "gif" greek symbols can be found at the URL http://www.olemiss.edu/umgifs/greek. (These are free for educational use and were obtained from http://donald.phast.umass.edu/kicons/greek.html.) For example, to include the Greek letter alpha () in your Web document, use the syntax: <img src="/umgifs/greek/alpha.gif"> .

To protect a directory you need to create two files, .htaccess and .htpasswd, in that directory. The .htaccess file need to contain the following:

AuthUserFile /path/to/the/.htpasswd.file
AuthName "Login Info for Directory"
AuthType Basic
<Limit GET>
require valid-user
</Limit> 

The .htpaswd file is created by running the command:

htpasswd [-c] passwordfile username

where the -c flag creates a new file. You can add more users to the .htpasswd file by not using the -c flag