Getting Published on UHINFO by Gordon K. Uyehara One of the many good things about having an ITS username is that you are allotted space to publish your own Web page. If you've been thinking about presenting to the public your master plan for world peace, or just want to share a little something about yourself, this is the place to start. Creating Your Page Publishing Your Page Load Priority Content Quickies More Tips Abuse It & Lose It Final Thoughts 1. Creating Your Page The first thing you must do is to create an index or default page. This is normally called "index.html" and is loaded by the browser when the URL (Web address) for your page is requested. A home page may consist of a single file (index.html) or may, as is often the case, consist of many files. These include subsequent text pages, graphic images, document files, etc. that are referenced from the index page. There is a variety of page creation software you can use to create your home page. Essentially, if you use page creation software, you are creating your home page on a home computer and then uploading or publishing it to your designated Web space. If you are creating a personal home page, the steps on the following link detail how to create a simple index page: Creating Personal Home Pages on uhunix If you need to create a home page for your departmental, please review these documents: FAQ About Adding Info to UHINFO Getting Started with Departmental Home Pages Having a basic understanding of HTML helps too. These documents can assist you with getting familiar with HTML: Web Documents for the Beginner 2. Publishing Your Page Once you have your index page and other files created, you need to upload (copy or publish) them to your Web space. For personal home pages on UHINFO, the URL to access your page will be of the form "www2.hawaii.edu/~username" but where the files need to go is in the "public_html" folder of your uhunix home directory. The easiest way to upload your files is to use a FTP program. ITS recommends using WSFTP for the PC and Fetch for the Macintosh. These programs are available on the ITS CDROM or are downloadable from the ITS Recommended Software list: IBM/Compatible PC Clients or Macintosh Clients. Settings for your FTP program Personal Home Pages Hostname: uhunix1.its.hawaii.edu Username: <Your ITS Username> Password: <Your Password> Directory: public_html Departmental Pages Hostname: webedit.hawaii.edu Username: <Your ITS Username or dept. ID> Password: <Your Password> Directory: /webinfo/1/<directory name> Note: For Personal Home Pages, the Hostname can be any one of uhunix1-5. WS FTP setting example Getting Started with Fetch page Page Creation Software Settings If you are using Frontpage, see publishing settings here: Personal Home Page settings Departmental Page settings Special Note Regarding Your ISP To publish your page, you must upload your files to the ITS Web server from a computer that is "known" to our unix system. This is a standard security practice where our system will try to identify your connection. From campus: Any workstation that ITS installed or a workstation from our ITS Labs should be fine. From home: Connecting through any of the known (popular) Internet Service Providers should be fine. If you are unable to upload your files, try it from a different workstation. Otherwise, write down the error message and send it to: webhead@hawaii.edu. 3. Load Priority When you enter your URL (i.e. www2.hawaii.edu/~username or www.hawaii.edu/deptname) in your browser , by default, the page that gets served up first is "index.html". If that file doesn't exist, the server will look for welcome.html. The files get served in the following priority: index.html welcome.html Index.html Welcome.html index.htm welcome.htm home.html Default.htm This means that if both index.html and index.htm exist, index.html will be the file that your browser loads. 4. Content Quickies Okay, well maybe you don't have something really important to say. Here are some tips on how you can improve the content of your page anyway. Notes on Graphics: High resolution pictures are not needed! No need to go higher than 72 or 96 dpi. Crop your picture for content. Don't size your picture with your page creation software. Use a graphics program to make your picture the exact size you want to display it at. Consider making thumbnail pictures that users can choose from instead of loading all your full size pictures. Less is more. Refrain from using flashing graphics. Remember, when everything stands out nothing stands out. To prevent dithering on graphics use the 216 browser-safe colors. See Lynda Weinman's browser-safe color palette. Spell check! Your page is a reflection of yourself. Every misspelled word will lose you a point in credibility. For you younger people that like to do this: Hi EvErYbOdY! To put it simply, it is difficult to read. Consider load time for people with slower connections. The more you have on your page, the longer it will take to load and nobody likes to wait. If you can say it with less, do so. Remember we are in the short attention span theatre here. Review Jacob Nielson's Ten Good Deeds in Web Design. 5. More Tips After your page has been uploaded, view your page with a browser to see how it will look to the world. Personal home pages use the form: www2.hawaii.edu/~username and departmental pages use the form: www.hawaii.edu/deptname. If your page doesn't display, let us know and we can check it out: webhead@hawaii.edu. Cross Browser Functionality Test your page with at least Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. They display pages differently, sometimes very differently and in unexpected ways. Also, note that pages will display differently on PCs and Macs, and with older versions of browsers. Review our Accessibility page to find out how to make your page accessible to people with disabilities: www.hawaii.edu/access For departmental pages, see tips on helping the search engines to find your page. Sorry, personal home pages are not indexed by the UHINFO search engine. 6. Abuse it and Lose it! You will jeopardize your computing privileges by using your Web space for: Commercial gain (i.e. auctions, selling merchandise, etc.), Publishing anything that can be viewed as harassment, Publishing copyrighted material that you don't own (i.e. images, documents, music, videos, etc.), Anything that causes an unusual amount of traffic. Familiarize yourself with the University computing policy: www.hawaii.edu/infotech/policies/itpolicy.html Normally, we only investigate infractions after receiving complaints. However, do not underestimate how far reaching the eyes of the (self-policing) community are. We will always follow up on complaints. Just don't do it. 7. Final Thoughts Have fun with your Web page. When it is ready to be viewed, let people know about it and let us know (webhead@hawaii.edu) so we can create a link to it on our personal home page listings: For more helpful information, explore these links and don't forget the Web is an invaluable source of information. World-Wide Web documents Help for Departmental Home Pages UH Accessibility Page

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