The information below was originally written and shared several
years ago by Katie
Gedeon (UO Math PhD). Through a series of graduate students asking
other graduate students for help building a website, this page was
eventually
passed down to me by Samantha Platt. In the interest of making sure
this
(very helpful) guide continues to exist, I have decided to include it
to my own website. In particular, note that after the header "Site
Building," everything was written by Katie Gedeon, with some minor
updates (broken links struck through, UO-related changes, in italics)
by Samantha Platt.
From
my own limited experience, this guide is very easy-to-follow, although
I am still in the stage of just using KompoZer
to create my site and the information below is much more comprehensive.
Once you've built your site, you'll probably want it linked
to your name in the Math Department GE Directory. At the time of
writing, the person to contact for this purpose is Jennifer Thorensen.
Site Building
Getting Started
The first few steps I found on it.uoregon.edu
and they are somewhat explained there. It is important to note
that the
location of your web page will be pages.uoregon.edu/''your DuckID'',
without the quotation marks. The first thing you need to do enable
shell access. Log into
https://uoregon.hitachi-id.net/iam/,
click ''View and update profile," scroll to the bottom until you see
the "Requests" section, click on "Add rolls," and check the box next to
"Shell" [Italics are edits by Samantha Platt]. Next you can log
into shell. It's different for Mac
vs. Windows users (and a lengthly explanation), so just go
here to
figure it out.
Building Your Site:
Now you need to actually write the code for your web page. If
you're new to building a web site, I suggest using a WYSIWYG (What You
See Is What You Get) program. There are a lot of free
WYSIWYG programs out there. When I built my first site, I used Kompozer
which is available for every platform, and I got a lot of
help here.
I also
tried SeaMonkey and that was fine, though I preferred KompoZer. By
using a WYSIWYG
builder, you don't actually have to know how to write html code!
However, the source code for your page ends up looking like a mess and
if you ever tried to come back and edit the html, you'd probably end up
scraping the whole project.
Once
you have the editor, you can start building. I really wanted mine
to look pretty, so I tried (unsuccessfully) to use a web site template.
At the time, I didn't understand CSS files and my guess is that, if
you're a beginner, you won't either. I
recommend spending some time looking at templates to help you decide
what you want the overall feel to be. In case you're
curious, you can take a look at my old
page style (though note that some of the links no longer
work).
It is actually extremely easy to ''steal'' the design of a
site that
you like. For example, consider this page. Control-click (alternatively
right-click if you own a PC) and ''View Page Source.'' Congratulations!
You are now viewing the guts of my page. Simply copy/paste this into
your favorite html editor (but be careful here since I use a CSS file).
Note that even if you're using a program like KompoZer, you can still
view the html of your site and paste this code in. For
an example of a site that successfully uses the department's source
code, check out Tyler's page. The department has moved
to the UO Blogs style, but you could, for example, use Nick Proudfoot's web site
as an example of a clean, simple layout. You can also look at Jon Brundan's web
site if you're curious as to what the department pages used
to look like.
Make sure that whatever your home page is, it is saved as
''index.html'' as this is how the server knows that this is to be your
main page. What if you want to have other internal pages (i.e. my
''Teaching'' and ''Research'' pages)? Create a new page in KompoZer, or
whichever builder you are using. Suppose you name it ''teaching.html'',
for your Teaching page. Then create a link from your home page (the
index.html one), input your link text (''Teaching'' in this example),
and put the link location as teaching.html. The code will look
something like this:
<a
href="teaching.html">Teaching<\a>
If you're using a WYSIWYG editor, creating a new link should be
straightforward. Notice how I don't need to put the full address of the
link. In KompoZer, you would make sure the box for ''URL is relative to
page location'' is checked (if you can't or don't check it, then the
program will check it for you later). Alternatively, you could click
the file button and find the .html file that you want to link to.
Suppose you want to upload a PDF of the course syllabus for your
students. Simply create a link, set the link location to syllabus.pdf
(or whatever you named your syllabus in your folder).
For external links, such as Canvas or WebWork, set the link location to
the normal url address.
Do NOT try to ''publish'' no matter what program you are using. I tried
several times in different programs unsuccessfully. Just save all of
your html files, and I'd recommend saving them all into one folder.
If you're linking to a file, be careful with capitalization!
Different browsers read these things differently. If I'm going to
create a link for the file named ''Quiz 1_Review Solutions.pdf'' on my
computer, this is how the html code would look
<a
href="Quiz%201_Review%20Solutions.pdf">Quiz 1 Review -
Solutions<\a>
My browser will show the link as "Quiz 1 Review - Solutions" as I have
indicated. Notice how I dealt with the spaces in the name of the file,
which is named ''Quiz 1_Review Solutions.pdf'' on my computer. When
uploading this file, you also need to be careful about capitalization.
It's usually not a problem if you use a program as I've outlined in the
next section, but keep this in mind if you use Terminal.
Uploading Files
The last step is to actually upload your files to the
server. I highly recommend using a program called
FileZilla.
You'll want to download FileZilla Client,
not
Server. It's free and I've found it to be extremely easy to use. Once
you've downloaded FileZilla, open it. You'll see four boxes at the top
of the page; Host, Username, Password and Port. For Host, enter
"sftp://shell.uoregon.edu" without the quotation marks. For Username
and Password use your DuckId and for Port enter 22.
On the left-hand side of your screen is the Local site. Here you will
access the file on your computer that you wish to upload. For example,
all of my web site files are in a folder called "Website" on my
desktop. If I wanted to upload this page, I would click on the Desktop
folder, and then Website. On the right-hand side, you'll see Remote
site. This is the directory for your site. Open the ''public_html''
file.
This is where you want to upload all of your files.
Suppose I wanted to upload this page. I would locate building.html in
my Website folder on the left of my screen, then drag the file to the
window on the right-hand side and drop it there. FileZilla uploads it
for me! Since the file already existed in my public_html file,
FileZilla will ask if I want to overwrite this file. From now on, when
you open FileZilla, you can select sftp://''your
DuckID''@shell.uoregon.edu from the drop down menu next to the
Quickconnect button.
Unless you prefer to do things a bit more by hand, I recommend using a
program like FileZilla. On my Linux machine, I prefer to use Terminal.
If you'd like help with Terminal, look
below.
Advanced Editing
When you're ready to get serious about building a web site, come back
to this section.
Ready? Good.
I wasn't satisfied with the basic (read: ugly) design of my first page
and I had always intended to invest a large amount of time into
developing a better one. The product is what you're looking at now.
There's no shame in having a basic and functional web site, especially
if you are new to building. But having a well-developed site will
certainly help when you start to apply for jobs. Additionally,
developing your skills in graduate school will serve you well in the
future.
The first step toward creating a ''prettier'' web site is understanding
how useful CSS files are. Most of you are familiar with LaTeX so I
offer the following analogy. Having a CSS file is similar to having a
.sty file. Instead of having a messy preamble with a bunch of packages
and commands, you can tell your favorite TeX editor to use a single
package. Changing a single command in your .sty file will change each
document that references it. This is the same way that a CSS file
works. Instead of clogging up your html, you can reference a single CSS
file. Note that this also means you'll need to upload your CSS file to
your public_html folder in addition to your html files.
Now just as when you first learned TeX you looked at a bunch of other
people's TeX files, so too is how you learn to use CSS. Again, I
recommend finding a CSS template that you like and adjusting it to suit
your needs. At the bottom of this page there is a link to the site from
which I got this template. If you do in fact use a template, always
make sure that you follow the wishes of th developer, especially if the
template is free for public use. Editing a CSS file or building an html
file that uses a CSS file requires some knowledge of html. Again, play
around a bit and see what works.
Here
is a wonderful CSS cheat sheet.
You'll also need an html editor. I currently use
Geany, primarily
because of the syntax highlighting (which also comes in handy for
writing SageMath code). I would also recommend
NetBeans,
which is good for editing many different types of files, including CSS
files. It is very helfpul for beginners.
Testing Your Site
If you're using a WYSIWYG editor, then your page is pretty much what
you see. Even before you upload your files, you can see what your pages
look like. Simply click to open them on your computer and your favorite
browser will open the local file. If you're using complicated code, you
need to check the look of your site on every web browser that you can
find. Different browsers read code differently. Most of the time it
will be fine, but you should check to be sure. Especially check
Internet Explorer. To paraphrase Dan Dugger, things
don't always render properly on Internet Explorer. If you're having the
same problems, then I can help; you can download
Google Chrome
or
Mozilla Firefox
and use a real browser.
Using Terminal
When I was first starting out, I uploaded all my files with Terminal
because I didn't know any better. It worked just fine, and it forced me
to learn something new, but FileZilla is much more user-friendly,
particularly if you are new to coding.
In general, I use Terminal. The following will be useful if either you
decide to use Terminal, or if you are away from your usual computer and
need to edit your website.
Getting Started with Terminal
Open Terminal in your computer. If Terminal was already
open, and if you are already logged into ssh (from setting up your
site) type ''exit''. If you're not sure, close Terminal and reopen it.
After each of these following steps, hit the enter/return button.
Type in
sftp yourDuckId@shell.uoregon.edu
Note that you can't cut and paste in Terminal. Make sure you leave a
space between sftp and the rest. Then type in your password; it won't
actually show up as you type it so don't be alarmed!
Simple Method for Uploading Files
Determine the path to the file you want to upload. You can
do this by control-clicking on the filed you want and selecting ''Get
Info.'' Under ''Where,'' it should give you a path that looks similar
to this: /Users/kgedeon/Desktop/Website (my files are in a folder named
''Website'' that I keep on my desktop). Note that it is a coincidence
that my MacBook username and DuckId are the same. Since I want to
upload this page, I'm going to use this full path:
/Users/kgedeon/Desktop/Website/building.html
My next step in terminal is to type
put /Users/kgedeon/Desktop/Website/building.html public_html
Again, be careful to include spaces. This tells Terminal to ``put'' or
upload the specified file in the specified place. Now this page is
accessible at pages.uoregon.edu/kgedeon/building.html!
Alternate Method for Uploading Files
This method is a little more complex as it involves diving
into files on your computer via Terminal. I think overall it is neater
than the simple method and much faster. Since I keep all my files for
my web site in a folder named ''Website'' on my desktop, I will present
the method that works for me. Adjust your paths to suit your needs.
First let's talk about the commands we'll use to upload files.
lcd folder
This tells terminal to look in the place called ''folder.'' Here I
would replace ''folder'' with ''desktop,'' ''website,'' ''teaching
stuff,'' etc. We've already seen that spaces are special in Terminal.
So if I actually wanted to go to the folder called ''teaching stuff''
on my desktop, I would type
lcd desktop
lcd ''teaching stuff''
hitting the Enter button after each line. ''lcd'' stands for ''local
change directory.'' If we want to change the directory on the server,
we use
cd public_html
Remember that we want to upload all of our files into this folder. So
this should be the only time we use the ''cd'' command. Once you've
used ''lcd'' to look in the correct folder on your laptop and you've in
your public_html folder, then you can upload files. If I was going to
upload this page, I would now type
put building.html
into Terminal and hit enter. Maybe I want to go back out to the desktop
so I can upload a file there or look into a different folder. I would
use the following command
lcd ..
This tells Terminal to go ''up'' one folder. If you want to see all of
the files in a particular folder, Terminal can show you. For that we
would use
lls
This would list all files in the local folder. We can similarly use
ls
Let's see all of these steps together. Here is what a normal sequence
of commands would be if I wanted to upload this page onto my site:
lcd desktop
lcd website
cd public_html
put building.html
Again, I would hit enter after each line. Suppose I had prepared some
review for my class and I wanted to post the PDF online. My Terminal
commands might look something like this:
lcd desktop
lcd ''teaching stuff''
lcd ''math 243''
lcd ''quizzes and worksheets''
cd public_html
put ''Quiz 1 Review Solutions.pdf''
You can see that I used quotation marks when necessary. Suppose that
I'm currently ''looking'' in my teaching stuff folder, but now I want
to upload something from my website folder. My Terminal commands might
look something like this:
lcd desktop
lcd ''teaching stuff''
lcd ''math 243''
lcd ''quizzes and worksheets''
cd public_html
put ''Quiz 1 Review Solutions.pdf''
lcd ..
lcd ..
lcd ..
lcd website
put building.html
Note how many times I had to use the ''lcd ..'' command! Often I'll
loose track of how many times I've used the command. This is where
''lls'' comes in handy.
A plus side with this method is now that Terminal is 'looking' in the
right folders, you can upload a whole bunch of files quickly. This
comes in handy when updating many pages at once.
Links for More Help with Terminal
http://answers.stat.ucla.edu/groups/answers/wiki/7a848/
http://www.hosting.com/support/ftp/ftp-from-mac-osx-terminal
© copyright 2016 Katie Gedeon