Lab 6- WWW

Setting Up Your Account

• Know your server! If you’re the administrator, you need to configure where the “web root” and the cgi-bin are. If you are a “mere user,” you need to know how the administrator setup the web services.
• mkdir ~/public_html – this (or another appropriately named) is the directory that will hold your *.html documents
• chmod 755 ~/public_html – this allows other users to enter the directory and see its contents
• Create an ~/public_html/index.html (or appropriately named) document that will be the default page for your site
• chmod 644 ~/public_html/index.html – this allows the web server to read and serve your document

Create Your Site

• Plan all of your documents and develop a site map showing each page, all links and included images, style sheets, frames, etc.
• Create each of the pages, images, style sheets, frames, etc.
• Links to pages within your directory do not need a path (relative pathing), i.e.
  <A HREF=”thispage.html”>This Page</A> works. Links to pages in subdirectories you make should also use a relative path, i.e. <IMG SRC=”images/new.gif”> works.
• chmod 644 *.html *.jpg *.gif *.png *.css , etc. – this allows the web server to read and serve your documents and information

CGI

• Know your server! If you’re the administrator, you need to configure where the “web root” and the cgi-bin are. If you are a “mere user,” you need to know how the administrator setup the web services.
• mkdir ~/public_html/cgi-bin – this is where all the binaries you want to execute will reside.
• Create a ~/public_html/cgi-bin/file – this is your executable.
  Important: The first line of data your script needs to output is: Content-Type: text/html
• chmod 645 ~/public_html/cgi-bin/file – this allows the server to read and execute your file
• Your HTML documents should reference the CGI as follows:
  <A HREF=”cgi-bin/file”>Run Me</A> -- Note the use of a relative path, as mentioned above

Things To Remember

• Consider your audience. Remember my guidelines from the presentation: size, use of images, complexity, etc.
• Plan your site! People will know if you used buble-gum and duct tape when creating the site.
• Look at sites and learn what a good and a bad site are. Try to define (in your own words) what makes a site good for you and emulate it on your own site.
• Steal! The easiest way to get ideas for a site, learn how to do something in HTML or JavaScript, or get images is to take them from another site. If people didn’t want you to access their information, they wouldn’t put it on the web.
  Important: Look for and be aware of copywrite notices on a page and honor them! When in doubt, ask for permission.
• Be careful with CGI that accepts input: don’t be responsible for a hack machine because somebody buffer-overflowed your script!
• Before changing an active site, make copies of the original file. Leave the originals active and do your testing with the copy.
• Have fun and be creative!!! The web is an empowering tool. Use it wisely and to your advantage. Remember, anybody on (or off, if you’re lucky enough to get a ride in the Space Shuttle) can see what you put out there…
• If hosting on an LSU server, be aware of the LSU Web Guidelines: http://www.lsu.edu/homedocs/disclaimer.html