Using the World Wide Web: Common Questions

Using the WWW Home Page On this page Common Questions Download files from the Web Update department Web pages quickly Move/replace Web pages Create a Web form Use cgi-bin scripts and guestbooks Create clickable imagemaps Advanced HTML topics "You don't have permission" error message Offer files of types other than HTML Restrict access to Web pages (password-protected pages) Disk space for Web pages Additional Resources Other WWW pages How to Access the Web How to Publish Information on the Web IT Help Center Last Updated: 4/18/05 Copyright © 2005 University of Delaware

Common Questions How can I download files from the Web? See About Downloading for information on how to do this. Top I have to change my department's Web page quickly, and I don't know anything about editing Web pages. What can I do? Using Mozilla Navigator, view the page you need to edit. From the Mozilla "File" menu, choose Edit Page. Use the Mozilla "Composer" editor as you would a word processing program to make the necessary changes. When you finish making changes, save your file, then from the "File" menu, select Browse Page to see how your page will appear on the Web. If you have no more changes to make, close the Composer file. Use SSH Secure File Transfer to publish your file to the Web. The location to type in the "Remote" server box in SSH is /www/htdocs/directory_name where you replace directory_name with the name of your department's Web directory. (In order to publish the new page, you must be a member of the Web project and have write access to the file; see Maintaining Web Pages.) Consult UD's tutorial on using Mozilla Composer for more information. Top I have moved my Web pages to a new location. Should I delete the old pages? or I've replaced a Web page with a new one. Should I delete the old one? If you move a page to a new Web address, redirect your old files so that people who link to your pages or those who find them through searches will have the latest information. If you are replacing a page, use the same file name for the new page so that people who have bookmarked the page will have your current information. Top How can I create a Web form? Web page publishing programs like Macromedia Dreamweaver or Adobe GoLive also offer the ability to create forms. You can also learn how to create a Web form by doing a forms tutorial, many of which are available through a Web search. Once you've learned how to create the form, you have to decide how to process the information you receive from it. You can either use "mailto:" as the action or you can collect the information using the guestbook script (see the Guestbook Help Page for specific instructions). If you use "mailto:," the information each person enters into your form is sent to you in an e-mail message; see the sample form for a quick way to create a "mailto:" form. If you use the guestbook script, all the information from every user who fills out your form is collected in a single file in your Web directory. Top I would like to use a cgi-bin script to collect and process information. How can I do this? There is one cgi-bin script available for files on the central Web server (www.udel.edu) or the Copland Web server (udel.edu). The "guestbook script" can be customized to enable you to collect information through a form. See the Guestbook Help Page for specific instructions. Personal cgi scripts may not be placed on UD's servers. There are also some cgi forms you can use at the IdeaCenter under the tab "How To." Top How can I put a clickable image on my page? To create a clickable image (an imagemap), you need an image and a map-editing program. See the Imagemap Help Page for information on map editing. Follow the directions for client-side image maps. Once you have created your image and a map file for it, add a link to the imagemap in the file in which the image will appear. Top How can I find out about advanced HTML features? You can find information about topics such as Java, Javascript, and PHP at the IdeaCenter. You can also obtain information at the Webmonkey Web Developer's Resource; it has links to many topics of interest to Web page authors. Top I've written my Web pages and uploaded them to the Web server, but when I try to look at them in a browser, I get an error message that says I don't have permission to access them. What am I doing wrong? You probably need to change your files' permissions so that they can be viewed on the Web. Go to the directory in which your Web files are located and make one of the changes below: If only you should be able to change your Web pages, type chmod 644 * If your Web pages are associated with a computing project, type chmod 664 * Note: If you use SSH Secure File Transfer to upload your files, you can change file permissions from within that program. Top I want to publish non-HTML files (e.g., files created by a program like Word or Excel, etc.), but the files don't look right when accessed by a browser. What am I doing wrong? In order for a browser to be able to handle such a file properly, you may have to define the file type for the server. Top How can I set up Web pages that can be viewed only by people, groups, or IP addresses that I designate? See Restricting Access to Web Pages for information on restricting access. Top How much disk space do I have for Web pages? Students' personal Web pages are part of their regular disk quota, generally 10MB. Type quota -v to ascertain how much disk space you have used. A student organization is given disk space for Web pages. This is separate from an individual student's disk quota. There is no set limit on disk space for official University Web pages, those stored on www.udel.edu, the central Web server. Top Other Resources UD Web Developer IdeaCenter See the IT Learning Resources page for UD faculty, staff, and students The World Wide Web Consortium. Search the Internet Top