Getting Started Publishing to the Central Web Server

Web IDs on the ITS Central Server

• Application for Departmental Web Site
• Application for Course Materials Web Site
• Application for Faculty and Staff Organization Web Site
• Application for Recognized Student Organizations

Email ID on Mail Server
Your login ID on the central web server is specifically for publishing to the web. If you do not have an e-mail address for web contacts, you can apply for one at the ITS Help Desk, 2800 UCC, 384-HELP.

If you wish to set up a special Ph alias for your web site, complete the "Special Departmental & Program Ph E-mail Address Request Form" at the ITS Help Desk, 2800 UCC, 384-HELP.

E-mail use from your web directory is restricted to computer application program uses such as program-to-program activity or error message reporting. E-mail exchanges involving messages composed by a human being should reside on another computer, such as the blue cluster.

Syntax for document links

The links you use in your Web pages may be relative or absolute. They are formed with the tilde character (~ ) and your home directory ID. In the following notes, "serverid" is your home directory ID, and "filename" is the name of your html file or Web page.

Relative links are formed like this:

<a href="/~serverid/filename.html">text for link</a>

Absolute links look like this:

<a href="http://www.uiowa.edu/~serverid/filename.html">text for link</a>

Filenames

In order to be automatically rendered by the server, the top-level file or homepage in your directory must be named:

• index.html for most directories
• index.shtml if using "server-side includes"
• index.cgi

The top-level file or homepage will function as the index to your departmental pages, since it links to whatever additional pages you have developed. For html pages (files) other than the primary "index" file, both ".htm" and ".html" are valid suffixes.

If you do not provide an "index.html" or "index.shtml" file, the system will display a generic file list.

Filename notes:

• Filenames may be very long.
• Filenames may consist of letters a-z, numbers 0-9, and some special characters like underscore (_), period (.), and hyphen (-).
• Do not use the following characters because they mean something special to Unix:
  

  less than sign (<)	greater than sign (>)	tilde (~)	apostrophe (')
  asterisk (*)	curly braces ( {} );	karet (^)	exclamation mark (!)
  backslash (\)	brackets ([])	pound sign (#)	bar (|)
  ampersand (&)	parentheses (());	dollar sign ($)	question mark (?)
  quotation mark (")

• Filenames are case-sensitive and must be matched exactly in your links.
• Do not use spaces in filenames.
• Use a hyphen (-) to separate node names (e.g., server-filenames.html).

Connecting to a site to publish or edit pages:

Notice:

March 1, 2010: To enhance server security, off-campus FTP access to the central server has been disabled. UI personnel can continue to connect via FTP from off-campus by utilizing the secure UI Anywhere VPN service. For information on using the VPN service go to: http://its.uiowa.edu/apps2/support/vpn

FTP is used to connect to accounts to publish and/or edit pages. Common web authoring tools such as Dreamweaver and MS FrontPage include a built-in FTP feature. Dedicated FTP clients such as WS-FTP or Fetch can also be used.

Connecting to an account via FTP typically requires the following information be specified in the FTP client:

FTP Host: www.uiowa.edu

Host Directory: leave blank or use Production (see Directory info below)

Login/User ID: your account name

Password: the password assigned to account

Directory Organization: Testing & Production

There are two subdirectories on your home directory, one for developing and testing files and another for publishing files on the Web. The computing environments of the two directories are identical. The only difference is that the testing directory does not use the public URL for the site, e.g. www.uiowa.edu/~sitename

UNIX subdirectories are similar to Macintosh folders and PC DOS directories and subdirectories. Use these subdirectories to organize your information in a hierarchical manner.

Anything in an account outside of the "production" or "testing" directories will not be visible on the Web.

• Testing Directory

  If you wish to "test" your pages before opening them up to Web users everywhere, copy (upload) your files to the "testing" directory using FTP or other software:

  host: www.uiowa.edu
  ID and password: your server ID and password
  

• To view pages in your testing directory area, use the test server at:

  http://www.uiowa.edu:8080/~serverid

• Production Directory

  When you are satisfied that a file is ready for the Web, simply copy it into your production directory and delete it from your testing directory.

  To view pages in your production directory, use the production server at:

  http://www.uiowa.edu/~serverid

To request to have your site added to the UI A-Z List (http://www.uiowa.edu/homepage/search/index.html) please contact the UI webmaster via the form on this web page:

http://www.uiowa.edu/homepage/contact/index.html

Server Backups

Backups currently run Wednesday and Saturday nights. Requests for restores may be made at the ITS Help Desk, 2800 UCC, 384-HELP.