Presbyterian College > Academic Web Server > Support Info

How to Maintain Web Pages on This Server

Introduction

Maintaining web pages usually involves two distinct steps:

• Authoring the pages: writing the text, creating links and images, formatting the pages using HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), and perhaps creating dynamic content using Java, Javascript, PHP, etc. Usually you do this on your own computer.

• Publishing (uploading) the pages to a server such as this one, so other people on the Internet can view them using their Web browsers.

There are many software programs that can do one or both of these steps, ranging from commercial software like Adobe Dreamweaver to free software like Amaya and PageBreeze. Some programs let you edit and format your pages purely graphically, as with a word processor, and generates the necessary coding (HTML, CSS, etc.) for you automatically. Others are basically code editors that require you to know at least basic HTML and CSS, and provide tools that make it easier to insert and edit the necessary snippets of code. Some of these programs don't even have a graphical page-viewing mode; you use your Web browser to see what the pages actually look like, and you switch back and forth between the editor and the browser while you work. Some programs have the ability to publish (upload) pages to the server; many of them (especially the free ones) require you to use a separate file-transfer program.

There are many different programs out there, so these pages discuss only a few specific examples. If you don't end up using one of these programs, you can probably still use them as guides to help you figure out how to set up whatever you do use.

These pages also focus only on setup for publishing (uploading). For page-authoring, try a few different programs if you can, or get some help from someone who is familiar with a specific program, to get started.

General Setup Information

To set up a program for publishing (uploading), you generally need to enter the following information somewhere:

• The hostname (server name): web.presby.edu
• Your username (login name), which is usually the same as the name in your P.C. e-mail address, for example jtbell
• Your password on the server. We'll tell you your password when we set up your account on the server.
• The pathname of your folder on the server.
• The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) that you enter into your web browser in order to view your site.

The pathname and URL have different formats depending on whether they're for your personal web site, or for an organizational web site that you're maintaining.

• Personal web site:
  • Pathname: /Users/username/Sites (substitute your username for username)
  • URL: http://web.presby.edu/~username
• Organizational web site:
  • Pathname: /Library/WebServer/Documents/organization
  • URL: http://web.presby.edu/organization

Specific Examples

• Adobe Dreamweaver is a full-featured graphically-oriented web-authoring program that has publishing capabilities built in. We have version CS3 installed on the Macs in the Harrington-Peachtree and Richardson computer labs.

• Cyberduck is a free file-transfer program for Mac OS and Windows, with a simple drag-and-drop interface. You can use this together with any web-authoring program that does not have built-in publishing capability.

• FireFTP is an add-on (plugin) for the Firefox web browser, for transferring files between your computer and a server. You can use this together with any web-authoring program that does not have built-in publishing capability.

• If you are acquainted with a Unix-like command line environment in Mac OS or Linux, you can transfer files using the scp command. You can also log onto the server and edit files there directly.

Setting Up Public/Private Key Authentication

If you're using a secure Mac OS or Linux or some other Unix-like system, you can set up public/private key authentication so you don't have to enter your password on the server every time you log in or transfer a file.

Server Authentication

We strongly recommend that you use only secure methods like SFTP and scp to transfer files to the server. The first time you use one of these methods, you may get a warning about the authenticity of the server. See this page for further information.

This page was last updated by Jon Bell on 3 May 2012.

Presbyterian College > Academic Web Server > Support Info