HOW TO CREATE, MANAGE, AND IMPROVE YOUR WEB PAGES INSIDE THE STUDENT CLUBS WEB DIRECTORY


Background

With your personal computing ID, you have access to shared file resources ("AFS"). You can permit file space so others can read it, or write to it. Thus, SHARED FILES SPACE is COOL -- it lets you put, say, Web Pages, in a common spot, and let lots of your buddies have access to make changes to it! Now, when you build a shared Club Web page, then graduate, the files don't dissappear, because they're not tied to your (volatile, private) computing ID!!

It also means that you won't have to violate the Conditions of Use, which state that YOU CANNOT SHARE PASSWORDS, because all legitimate members of the University have their own ID, and can play with the Club's shared space!

The Students' Union has acquired such "shared file space". It's at:

/afs/ualberta.ca/dept/su/clubs

... and is administered by the director of Student Groups for your Students' Union, and that person can create directories for your registered club, so that you have, nice, easy to access shared space!

You'll only need to follow the following simple steps to use this shared Club Space ...


1. Become a Registered Club

Contact the director of Student Groups, and fill out too many forms. After all, this is a University, isn't it?

Part of the registration procedure asks for your "executive", including contact names. For the purposes of these Web Pages, make sure you fill out the part of the form that asks for your CNS Central Computing ID (a.k.a. "GPU ID")

You'll also want to ask for a cute/catchy NAME to attach to your new web space. Your web address ("URL") is going to be:

http://www.ualberta.ca/CLUBS/SomeFancyClubName/

... that's the name you'll put up on all your banners, TShirts, etc


2. Set up your shared file space

From step 1, the director of Student Groups created a new AFS subdirectory for you, which will [kind of] match the URL you asked for...

/afs/ualberta.ca/dept/su/clubs/SomeFancyClubName/

... and the director has permitted that AFS directory to your computing id so that you are now the kingpin/god/master/keeper of that file space.

LOG INTO GPU -- You can now permit that file space to several other of your colleages (e.g. the Vice President, or the Secretary, or the Sciene Officer, etc.), if you want to share the writing responsibility for that shared space:

fs setacl /afs/ualberta.ca/dept/su/clubs/SomeFancyClubName/ yourfriend write
fs setacl /afs/ualberta.ca/dept/su/clubs/SomeFancyClubName/ yourotherfriend write
fs setacl /afs/ualberta.ca/dept/su/clubs/SomeFancyClubName/ yetanotherfriend write

... you may have had to "quit lynx" if you are using the menu-driven lynx help system on GPU...

 


3. Tired of typing that long AFS directory path yet?

While the complete path to get to your new shared space might be eighty-zillion characters...

/afs/ualberta.ca/dept/su/clubs/SomeFancyClubName/

... you can use a very geeky UNIX command to give yourself a shortcut from your "normal" home directory. By doing that, you can save a lot of keystrokes, and won't have to remember a big, long pathname anytime you want to edit/modify one of the club files...

ln -s /afs/ualberta.ca/dept/su/clubs/SomeFancyClubName ~/SomeFancyClubName

To verify that the "symbolic link" is working, why not try logging out, logging back in, [quit lynx, if necessary], then typing:

ls -alF

... to which the computer will respond with a result like:

lrwxr-xr-x   1 george   staff          38 Oct 18 02:03 SomeFancyClubName -> /afs/ualberta.ca/dept/su/clubs/SomeFancyClubName

so you can now get to that new disk space just by saying:

cd ~/SomeFancyClubSpace

rather than:

cd /afs/ualberta.ca/dept/su/clubs/SomeFancyClubName/
 

4. Push Stuff into your new Web Space

Here's where it gets pretty normal. Depending on whether you use a Mac or a PC, or like editing directly via PINE or VI, you'll build web page files exacly like you always have. FTP operations to transfer files work just like always, but your file name is:

/afs/ualberta.ca/dept/su/clubs/SomeFancyClubName/

... so, find your favourite NETSURF package, WS_FTP (for PC), or FETCH (for Mac), and put your web pages up into your new web space!

MORE DETAILS ON BUILDING WEB PAGES (ie how to "write" a web page) can be found at http://www.ualberta.ca/WebSupport/ or http://www.ualberta.ca/CNS/HELP

 

5. COMMON COOL THINGS TO PUT ON YOUR WEB PAGE

Consider adding the following features to your web page:

 

  • CONTACT INFORMATION

    Your Club's Snail Mail Address, phone number, etc

    EMAIL contacts of all executive should be on the page, including who the lucky guy will be who answers the dreaded...

    <a href="mailto:luckyguy@ualberta.ca">For more info, click here</a>

    remember: you do NOT have a new id called "somefancyclubname", so you can NOT use "somefancyclubname@ualberta.ca".

    Also, do eveyone a favour and have links back to The Students' Union Club Page, the University of Alberta Home Page, and the Students' Union Home Page.

 

  • GUESTBOOK

    It's pretty popular for Student Clubs to want to add a "please sign our Guestbook". It can also be used as a bulletin board for upcoming events, or just general gabbing. More info on how to do a Guestbook is available at http://www.ualberta.ca/WebSupport/Tools.html, but briefly, to add a Guestbook to your web page, add these HTML lines:

    <a href="http://www.ualberta.ca/htbin/Geo-Clubguest?SomeFancyClubName">Sign our Guestbook!</a>
    <a href="COMMENTS/Guestbook.html">VIEW our Guestbook!</a>
     
  • COUNTER

    What if you threw a $30M party, and no one came? Wouldn't you like to know that all the effort that you put into this Club page generated a little bit of interest? Add a Counter [details are at http://www.ualberta.ca/WebSupport/Tools.html]:

    <img src="http://www.ualberta.ca/htbin/Geo-counter?ualberta.SomeFancyClubName.gif&full">
    You are visitor # 
    <img border=0 src="http://www.ualberta.ca/htbin/Geo-counter?ualberta.SomeFancyClubName.gif">
    </a>
     
  • SEARCH

    Any site worth a hill 'o beans will allow people to type in a keyword, and search for something in your web space. At the UofA, the Geo-find command does quite nicely for a small directory, like a Student Club: [details are at http://www.ualberta.ca/WebSupport/Tools.html]:

    <a href="http://www.ualberta.ca/htbin/Geo-find?/CLUBS/SomeFancyClubName">Search our Club Site</a>


5. ADDITIONAL HELP

There are four major sources of help available to you:

 

The STUDENTS' UNION DIRECTOR OF STUDENT GROUPS is your CLUB CONTACT.

 

Computing Services' HELP DESK can give you general help.

 

WEB SUPPORT for the CENTRAL WEB SERVER (ie www.ualberta.ca) is maintained by George.Carmichael@ualberta.ca

 

The BEST help you have is your own friends. The Web was built by people sharing information with each other. Find a geek, and latch on!




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