Uploading Your Personal Web Page

Uploading Your Personal Web Page

This lesson guides you through the steps necessary to upload your web site to the Augsburg web server. Before you can engage in this activity you must obtain and sign a Personal Web Page Agreement which is available from the Information Technology (IT) Service Desk in the Lindell Library or on the Web at: <http://www.augsburg.edu/policies/personal_form.html>.

Once IT returns your Personal Web Page Agreement, you may "upload" (copy from a client personal computer to a larger host computer called a server--the reverse is called "downloading" as we tried in one of the Internet Lessons) your pages to the Augsburg web server. All personal pages at Augsburg are located on our WWW server. The address of this computer is <www.augsburg.edu>.

When you use a web browser such as Netscape or Internet Explorer to view pages on the Augsburg web site, you are viewing HTML text and graphics placed there by web page developers like yourself. But how did these items get placed on the server? They were uploaded using FTP software. FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is the set of rules which facilitates the copying of computer files from one computer to another. In the FTP lesson, we used a web browser to get files from FTP archives. Now we are going to use FTP software to put files on the web server.

In this lesson we are going to use Fetch (a Mac program) to upload our web site. A very similar program called WS_FTP (Winsock File Transfer Protocol) is available for the PC. A link for downloading WS_FTP is available at: <http://www.augsburg.edu/it/downloads.html>. The basic operation of the two programs is similar because, of course, they perform the same task (i.e., FTPing). If you would prefer to see a tutorial on using WS_FTP, click this link.

Using Fetch

Fetch is an FTP tool for copying files from one computer to another over the Internet. It is available free to users affiliated with educational institutions. If you want your own copy of Fetch, it may be downloaded from the Fetch Web site, <http://www.dartmouth.edu/pages/softdev/fetch.html>. This site provides an FAQ document and other information about Fetch. The program also offers a very thorough onscreen help feature that may answer most of your questions as you use it.

A copy of Fetch is made available on all networked Macs on campus. You should find it in the Network folder--the same folder where you find Netscape.

Once you have found Fetch, open the program and start an FTP session by selecting "New Connection" from the "File" menu. Type the Host name www.augsburg.edu in the dialog box as shown in the illustration below. Type in your User ID and Password, provided to you by IT when you applied for a server account. You should leave the "Directory" line blank unless you wish to go directly to one of the subdirectories of your site.

Click OK, and when the connection is made you will see your directory in the Fetch window. What you are viewing is a folder (also called a directory) on the hard drive of the computer named "www.augsburg.edu." Your Web Page Agreement gives you permission to upload files to your directory only. The web server is preset to direct you to only your directory. You won't be able to see or alter any other person's web site. (Note that the name of your "base" folder is the same as your user ID. If they are not the same, some or all of your links may not work correctly.)

You will find several files already there. They have names like .profile and local.cshrc. These are UNIX files which are needed to manage your web site's activities. Don't move or alter them.

Uploading: There are a couple of ways to copy your site to the server. The easiest is via drag-and-drop. Make sure "Automatic" is selected in Fetch's main window--if it is, Fetch will automatically choose the proper format for copying your files. Then select the items you wish to copy to your web site--the HTML files and the pictures, too. (In the example below, I am copying the file "fenway park.gif" to my directory.) Once selected, hold down the mouse button and drag your items into the directory box in Fetch. When the box becomes highlighted, drop (let go of the mouse button) your files into the directory--Fetch will begin copying them onto the server.

Alternatively, you may select the button "Put File" in the directory window to begin uploading files. Select the file(s) you want to copy using the dialog box that appears. Click OK in the Put File dialog (see below). Image files (.jpg, .gif) should be uploaded and downloaded as raw data. Files with .html or .htm extensions (text files) should be uploaded and downloaded as text. (The program has a pop-up menu where you may designate file formats--see below).

Downloading: Dragging files out of Fetch's directory box downloads them to your personal computer. Dragging an item to the Trash deletes the item permanently from the server. "Get File" also allows you to download in a manner complimentary to that discussed above in relation to Put File uploading.

Customized Settings

You may create customized settings by selecting "New Shortcut" in the "Customize" menu. Once you have done this you may start your FTP session by selecting "Open Shortcut" from the "File" menu--you won't have to type your Host and User ID information each time you return to your web directory.

Important: Do not put your password in the customized settings. For security reasons, you should enter your password during each session.

Other Suggestions

It's very good practice to create a duplicate of all files on your web site before you begin to make changes. This prevents having to start from scratch if you run into glitches as you're working with a file. Also, sometimes during file transfers problems occur that can damage the file you're trying to upload. It's wise to duplicate files before you upload them so you have a backup.

As mentioned in the lesson in which you made your web pages, you MUST have an 'index.html' file in EACH directory you have. This is a security feature for you and Augsburg College.

Remember that use of our web site (also called shell access) is granted for the specific purpose of creating and maintaining your web pages. Any other activity on your account may result in the loss of your web server access or other disciplinary action.

What's Next?

As soon as Fetch is done copying your files (it will take only a few seconds), start a web browser and view your site. The URL for your web site will be in the form:

http://www.augsburg.edu/ppages/youruserID/

where "youruserID" is the User ID IT assigned to you.

Check again to see if your site looks and works they way you want it. Additional fine tuning may be necessary. Once it is working the way you want it to, start telling people about your site. Append your web site's URL to your eMail signature. Put the URL on your business card. Tell your Mom, kids, or best friend about it. Have fun!

If you plan to distribute multiple copies of this work, please contact the author.

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