Building a Home Page

This Web page describes a procedure for building your own Home Page and other Web Pages -- and installing them if you have an account on UWM's alpha computer.
Warning: this program works, but it hasn't been fully debugged, so I make no guarantees as to the results.
To build pages, you fill out an initial form, then a longer form providing the information you wish to have placed on your home page. If you wish to create extra pages, you fill out a form for each of these pages. After you've filled out a form and a page is created, you have the option of viewing the page and going BACK to the form to make any changes you desire. You can either issue a command to install your Web pages on the alpha after they're built or you can save each page as it is created and install them or edit them further yourself. (If you plan to install your pages on the alpha now, you don't need to save them.)

If you don't want to read a brief discussion about Web pages and more information about using this program -- if you think you can figure out what to do from a quick summary on the next page and the instructions on the forms -- then follow this link to start a less descriptive version of the program. If you want to know a little bit more about the process, keep reading.

This page contains an introduction containing assorted information and advice about Web pages and the Web, a description of the procedure for installing your Web pages on the alpha, and some notes about installing your pages on another computer. At the end of this page, there are links to samples and to other sources of information on Web page authoring.

For your reference, here is a quick summary of the steps to build and install your home page on the alpha.

1. Fill out forms to build your home page -- you can CLICK HERE when you're ready to get started with that.
2. Get on the alpha and run wwwsetup
3. Then issue the command
   /usr/ua/adbell/wwwbin/installhp
   (Members of the Math department: instead issue the command
   /usr/ua/adbell/wwwbin/installhp Lastname groupname
   where groupname is math or mathgrad)

Introduction

This Web page describes the process of building a Home Page on the Worldwide Web, and contains links to programs that will build a Home Page and extra Web pages for you. I've tried to design this process so that it can be used by people who do not have much experience with the Web and its language and tools. (So some comments, explanations, and recommendations are included -- try to bear with me if you know everything already or if I say something stupid!). I would guess the whole process will take around 40 minutes (varying greatly of course depending on your experience, how many extra pages you wish to create, and how much text you type in).

A "Web page" is simply a single document that you place on the Web for people to read; it can consist of one physical page or many. Your home page is usually the first of your pages that people read: it might be your only Web page or it might contain links that allow viewers to get to your other pages. Web pages are written in the HTML language (hypertext markup language): this is ordinary text mixed with instructions to the computer that are called HTML tags. Web pages are stored on a special section of your system that is publicly accessible. (In UWM's case, this is the /usr/var/spool/ftp/WWW directory, or simply ~WWW.) Web pages are viewed via a Browser (you're using one to read this).

About browsers:

• Browsers can be graphical (such as Netscape or Mosaic) or text-based (such as Lynx). You should be able to use any browser that supports forms, but a graphical browser is easier to use, especially when filling out a form.
• Be sure you know how to use the BACK function on your browser to get to the previous page (I capitalize BACK throughout to indicate you will use the BACK function of your browser).
• Be sure you know how to RELOAD a page: this is necessary if you write out a page and view it, then go BACK and make changes, then view it again. On the second viewing, you may have to RELOAD to see the changes.
• On the other hand, be careful about RELOADING a form or following a link to get back to a form: you probably will lose all the data you have entered on it. Use BACK to return to a form if you still need to make changes.
• The loading of pages is variable, so sometimes a form may have data on it already, while other times it will be blank.
• If you plan to save your home page to your computer instead of or in addition to installing it on the alpha, be sure you know how to SAVE a page to a file from your browser (the command may be called something else, such as Save As or Load to Disk or Print or Download).
• Here's a tip on using Lynx to fill out forms: CONTROL-f and CONTROL-b take you forward and back a whole page, even if you are in a text entry area. (This may depend on how Lynx is set up on your computer.)

About HTML: there are several versions of and extensions to HTML around. The "current" version is version 2.0 (almost). This program produces HTML 2.0 code with two exceptions. There are some alignment options (mostly centering of text, headers, and images) that are not in HTML 2.0; if a browser doesn't support these, everything will be OK -- things just won't be centered. The other exception is that the program allows you to choose a background pattern or color -- this definitely isn't standard and may not work in most browsers (it's based on Netscape's standard).

The home page builder program that you can access from this page was written by Allen Bell, and the home pages created have the "look and feel" of my home page. I would call this "look and feel" hierarchical and somewhat formal. The home page has a lot of information on various ways for people to contact you (phone, email, etc.) and it has a list of links to more specialized information contained on other Web pages. (The text on my own home page is minimal.) The program gives you a number of options when you create your home page, so you can change the look a bit, and of course you can and should go back and edit the pages later, and so personalize them. You should also view lots of Web pages to get some ideas about how to design your Web site.

Installing your Web Pages on the alpha

If you wish to have your home page installed on the alpha, you first have to fill out the forms to build the pages using your browser.

Next you must issue the following commands while you are logged on to the alpha.
First issue the command
wwwsetup
This calls the program wwwsetup on the alphas, which asks you a question: you have to answer this question with the number 1.
Then issue the command
/usr/ua/adbell/wwwbin/installhp
This finishes the process.
Members of the Math department should instead issue the command
/usr/ua/adbell/wwwbin/installhp Lastname groupname
The Lastname and groupname are used to generate an email message to the maintainers of the math department Web pages, so that they can create links to your home page on the Math Web pages (please capitalize your Lastname). If you are math faculty or staff, use math as your groupname and if you are a math graduate student, use mathgrad as your groupname.

This whole process must be carried out within 24 hours after you start building your Web pages: after that your pages will be deleted.

If you wish to have an ftp directory (a place where you store documents that other people can retrieve anonymously, without having to ask you), you also have to issue one of the commands
/usr/ua/adbell/wwwbin/makeftp
or
/usr/ua/adbell/wwwbin/makeftp math
If you use the first version, your ftp directory will be the directory pub/username, where username is your login name on the alpha.
If you use the second version, your ftp directory will be the directory pub/Math/username -- this option is only available to members of the "math" group, which consists of math faculty and some staff and graduate students.

Note:pub/username or pub/Math/username is how someone logged in for anonymous ftp denotes the directory: you have to use the name ~ftp/pub/username or ~ftp/pub/Math/username on the alpha.

You can issue the /usr/ua/adbell/wwwbin/makeftp command at any time: you don't even have to build Web pages to create an ftp directory.

Installing your pages elsewhere
(or saving them for editing)

If you plan to install your Web pages on a computer other than the UWM alpha, or if you wish to save them for editing elsewhere, make sure you know how to SAVE with your browser. Whenever a page is built, you can view either a formatted version, the HTML code, or the "actual page". SAVE the file containing the "actual page" -- the formatted version you view is modified slightly so the links and some images will work without the page being installed.

If you plan to install your Web pages elsewhere, you should be aware of the following assumptions and requirements in the building of your home page and other pages.

• All of your Web pages, except pictures and images, must be stored in the same directory as your home page.
• Pictures and images must be stored in the images subdirectory you name on the first form you fill out.
• If you ask for any images (such as the UWM logo), you'll have to locate and download those into your images subdirectory (look at the HTML code to find the correct name for the image files).
• Any links to your home page (on subsidiary Web pages) will assume it is named index.html unless you indicate another name.
• You have to save your extra Web pages with the filename you give on the form creating them, with .html added at the end, or else the links to them from your home page will fail.
  Special note for DOS/Windows installation: you can change the extension from .html to .htm for use with DOS -- you will be asked about this.

Samples and Sources of Information

You can view the structure of home pages built with this program or view a few sample home pages or view a list of topics for subsidiary Web pages now if you wish.

There are many sources of information on the Web about making Web pages, about HTML, and about the Web itself. Here are three sources of information about Web page authoring and HTML (as usual, click on the name to follow the link): Introduction to HTML by Chuck Musciano, Internet Resources at the Virtual Mirror (see especially Webmaster Spike's discussion), and Introduction to HTML by Ian Graham (including an online version of his popular book The HTML Sourcebook).

If you're ready, you can start building your home page by following this link (CLICK HERE).

To Allen Bell's home page