Web Site Management -- What You Can Do
From Intranet Document Management, by Joan Bannan. Published by Addison-Wesley Developers Press. Reprinted with permission.
By Joan Bannan
Chapter 7
The evolution of your Web site is inevitable. Once you've authored documents and designed your
site, there's still a lot more you need to know. In the rest of the chapters in this book we discuss
ways to orchestrate the symphony of formatted and huge documents on your Intranet. As always,
the size of your company and its Intranet will help determine the choices you will need to make. In
small companies it only takes a person or two to run a Web site. If you are in a high-tech
environment, however, with lots of workstations and lots of employees, the payoff is greater but so
is the effort and cost to keep things managed and running smoothly.
As you may remember from Chapter 1, for simplicity of reference, this book categorizes
documents in three ways: unformatted (for example, e-mail kinda docs), formatted (primarily the
kind we are used to seeing produced by a word processor), and huge or self-describing
documents (SGML). This chapter deals primarily with managing the formatted variety on an Internal
Web.
What You Will Need
You need to do a lot of planning to make all this work. For one thing, you need to know how to load
documents on the Web, which documents should go on the Web, and who controls the decisions.
This chapter will overview the distributed hypermedia system and discuss how to plan for the
following:
uploading files to your Web servers
home pages, "What's New" pages, and symbolic links
managing common Web site tasks
managing changes in Web site design and strategy
managing user help
pushing information to users
How to Manage a Web Site
We'll begin our discussion with the most basic task: getting your files on the server.
Uploading Files to Your Web Server
Before you can copy your files to the server, you must have write privileges to the directory and an
application for uploading files.
Depending on the size of your company and your Web site needs, you will need to determine who
can write to the site and set privileges or create accounts accordingly. Chapter 11 discusses plans
for setting up write privileges.
As always, we cannot list all file-loading applications, but we'll discuss some of your options.
FTP
The most frequently asked question I get from neophyte Web site managers is "How do I load the
files from my local drive to the Web server?" Most networking software, like Windows for
Workgroups, includes an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client. With luck this section will explore
enough possibilities that no matter what platform you operate from, the mystery of loading files will
be solved. First of all, if you are a UNIX guru you probably have skipped this section. You already
know how to sit at a UNIX prompt and use FTP, typing one line at a time to transfer files all over the
world. Once in a while, some wannabe geek, like me, stops by to ask you a question so you give
her an answer as you continue to type commands and laudably interpret each command. After a
year of stopping by the desk of my favorite UNIX prince and asking questions about FTP, it finally
dawned on me to ask this question: "Is there a list somewhere of FTP commands?" The answer I
received was something like this: "FTP is FTP is FTP is FTP. There may be some annoying
Microsnotisms on NT, but it's a simple protocol (in terms of the relatively limited command set) and
is supposed to stay that way, so I doubt there are many, if any." I said "Huh?" So I searched the Net.
I don't know why it took me a year to figure that one out. Just in case you haven't thought of it
yourself, I have something important to tell you: FTP commands are UNIX commands. That's why
FTP is easy for UNIX princes and princesses and confusing to the rest of us. Table 7.1 lists some
URLs where you can find info about FTP commands and how to use them.
Take the Mystery Out of FTP Commands:
Transferring
files using the
FTP program
List of FTP
commands
List of FTP
commands and
how to get help
List of useful
FTP
commands
FTP commands and
tutorial
Using FTP. If you have a DOS background you will find using a non-Windows FTP client a lot like
executing commands from a DOS prompt. As I said earlier, if you are a UNIX user you have
probably skipped this section. If you are a MacUser see the MacLoading section later in this
chapter.
The first thing you need to do is open your FTP application. You then type "open" and the name of
the computer you would like to FTP to:
ftp home.yourcompany.com
You will then be connected to two computers:
Local host: the one you have the FTP application loaded on. This is probably the computer on
your desk where you execute the commands of most of the software applications you run.
This computer may also be connected to shared drives on a network, which are of course on
other computers. This means that even though you are a "local host" you can transfer files
from any drive you can open on your computer. For instance, you may have a group shared
drive called g:\. As Web site manager you can instruct others who have access to this drive to
put their files on the shared drive for you to load to the server.
Remote host: the Web server. You get the name of the remote host from the Webmaster who
gives you write privileges.
Usually after a brief network delay, you will get a message that says you are connected to your
remote host, probably some warning message, some server operating system information, good
news that it's "ready," and a prompt for you to type in your password:
connected to home.yourcompany.com
Use of this FTP server is limited to Your Company business activities.
ComputerName FTP server (Version wu-2.4(3) Sun Mar 26 12:34:57 PST 1995) ready.
User (ComputerName.yourcompany.com:(none)):
At the prompt, type in your user ID (depending on the security setup at your company, you may be
able to log on to this computer as anonymous and enter your user ID as your password):
User (ComputerName.yourcompany.com:(none)): joanbann
Password required for joanbann.
Password:
Once you type in your password the computer should answer with something like this:
User joanbann logged in.
Now it's time to use all those great commands that you can find using Table 7.1. The most common
ones are listed in Table 7.2.
Common FTP Commands and Their Purpose
FTP Command
cd (change directory):
Moves to whatever directory you would like to send files to on the
remote host.
lcd (local change directory):
Goes to the directory on your local host where all the cool HTML and
GIF files you have created and tested are anxiously waiting for their
public appearance.
binary:
Sends the next files in binary exchange. For example, I want to upload
graphics, which are binary files.
ascii:
Sends the next files in ASCII format. The best way to send HTML files
is in ASCII format. The FTP client I use defaults to ASCII when it
opens.
put:
Followed by the filename. This loads your file or files if you use mput.
get:
Reverse of put
Definition:
ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange).
Definition
Binary is the basic numbering system for calculations, codes, and data in all computers,
consisting only of the digits 0 and 1, in contrast to the 10-digit decimal system.
WS_FTP. WS_FTP is an intuitive program available for 16- and 32-bit Windows machines. You
still have to set up the "open" process in the same way you do in the command-line version of FTP,
but you only have to do it once. You can save access to each FTP server, including your password,
if that is prudent. It is not prudent if your local host computer is not in a secure location.
Once you are logged on to the remote host, you can select your local drives and server drives with
the mouse and view everything that is in them. You can load a whole bunch of documents and
graphics at the same time by selecting them the way you do in File Manager or NT or the Win95
Explorer: Use the Shift key to select consecutive entries, and the Ctrl key to select one at a time.
Then click the arrow and the files go to the server one at a time (my computer announces each
arrival with a pleasant little "gong"). If you click on the Auto checkbox it detects whether the files you
are loading are ASCII or binary friendly and ports them accordingly. Figure 7.1 shows the WS_FTP
connected to a public drive at ftp.pacbell.com. You can order a licensed copy of WS_FTP or
download an evaluation copy, which will expire after 30 days, at
http://www.csra.net/junodj/ws_ftp32.htm
 Figure 7.1 The WS_FTP window
Other FTP Applications. There are other FTP applications out on the Web. For example, I hear that
Win_FTP is almost like WS_FTP. Please do not limit your search to the products I mention in this
book. As stated earlier, I just want to get you started.
MacLoading
"Fetch" is the overwhelming favorite uploading tool among my MacFriends. Since I rarely have the
opportunity to sit down at a Mac, I asked my friend John Pendleton to write the following steps on
how to MacUse it. This is the formula for first-time use. Thereafter, steps 110 can be eliminated:
1. Double-click on the Fetch icon.
2. A dialog box appears with the Dartmouth Archives or the Info-Mac Archives as a default
address.
3. Hit Cancel.
4. Select Add Shortcut from the Customize pull-down menu.
5. Enter the name of your host server under both Shortcut and Host.
6. Enter your user ID and password in the appropriate windows.
7. Enter the exact directory path to your folder in the appropriate windows.
8. Click OK.
9. Go to Edit Shortcuts in the Customize pull-down
menu.
10. Highlight the shortcut name you have entered and click on the Make Default button. From
this time on, you will always start at the chosen address.
11. The name of your folder will appear in a window on the left of the dialog box, with your
options displayed on the right.
12. To send files to the server, go to the pull-down menu marked Remote at the top of your
screen.
13. Select Put Folders and Files and a new dialog box will appear.
14. Select the appropriate files from their folders on your hard disk by highlighting them in the
window on the upper-left side of the dialog box and click on the Add button in the lower-right
corner. When you have assembled a complete list, click on Done.
15. Yet another dialog box will appear, asking in which mode you wish to send your text and
files. Set both to raw data.
16. When the doggie stops running, you're done. Click Close Connection and then quit the
program.
When sending a mapped image and the associated map to some servers, send the image as raw
data and the map document as text. The map document will have the same name as the
associated image, except that the suffix will be .map instead of .gif. Once the map document gets
to the server, it will have acquired a new, additional suffix. If it started out as acme.map, it will now
be acme.map.txt. You need to go into the server and rename the file as acme.map before it will
work. Why this happens is beyond me, but it is important to remember to fix it.
Home Pages, Symbolic Links, and "What's New" Pages
Home Pages
One of the Web site management tasks you will do often is set up what's commonly called a "home
page." This can be the front page of an organizational Web site, the first page of a chunked
multipage document, or an employee's "personal home page." When you post a home page you
will want it to be the default first page users see when they get to a subdirectory. For example,
here's the URL for the Addison-Wesley Developers Press Web site. Notice in Figure 7.2 that the
URL in the Location text bar at the top of the Netscape window is
http://www.awl.com/devpress/
More powerful Web servers, such as Netscape's Enterprise, use a "~" mechanism for denoting
personal directories and home page areas. It's commonly used for client-site directories and can
be pressed into service for departmental, group-level, or personal home pages.
Figure 7.2 A home page that defaults to the subdirectory
Definition
A home page is often used to refer to the main document or top page in a collection of organized
information. For example, the Addison-Wesley Developers Press home page in Figure 7.2 is a
front page to all that Addison-Wesley Developers Press on their Web site including info about
them, what's new, what's coming up, how to contact them, and how to order books, like this one,
directly.
In the truest sense, many "personal home pages" are not "home pages" at all but any page that
contains biographical and sometimes personal information about a person. A page about a person
has become known as a personal "home page" even if it has no introductory links to anything else.
Far be it for me to defy what people readily understand even if it doesn't fit a mold.
The Addison-Wesley Developers Press home page has no .htm or .html file listed after the last
forward slash, yet the Web server default for a URL like that is to display an index of all files in the
subdirectory such as the list shown in Figure 7.3. So how did they do that? There are two ways. The
index has a name that the Web server creates automatically. On UNIX servers it's called index.html.
You can rename your home page index.html and it will come up instead of the default list of files.
However, if you have a large site and edit pages locally and then move them to the server (as
opposed to super-UNIX users who make edits directly on the server copy), it's possible that you
might forget which subdirectory you're in. It would therefore be very easy on some late night (geeks
do that) to accidentally overwrite the one department's home page with another department's home
page. The way to avoid this confusion is to create a symbolic link.
Figure 7.3 An index of a subdirectory is the usual default.
Symbolic Links
There are two kinds of symbolic links that I find most handy. The first is a symbolic link from a
subdirectory index to a home page. The syntax for this command in UNIX is
ln -s homepage.htm index.html
As soon as you create a symbolic link (I use Telnet to execute that command) you can go into your
browser to the subdirectory where you created the symbolic link and click on Reload. If all has gone
well, sans typos and all that, the index (similar to the one in Figure 7.3) will be replaced by the home
page you linked it to. Now when you want to update the home page, all you have to do is update it
on your local host and then upload it to the server using its more descriptive name. Click on Reload
again and you will see the updated home page.
The second symbolic link I use is one that saves new Web site managers a lot of time and
confusion. It links their entry into the Web server to the site on the server where they have write
privileges. For instance, you may "own" a server subdirectory called Security. When you FTP or
Telnet into a session with the Web server, you may need to change directories by typing a lengthy
string (or clicking several times in a Windows FTP client) to get to the Security directory, for
example,
cd home.company.com/Maindir/Organizations/Security
Added to this confusion, it's very likely that when you gain entry to the remote host, you enter buried
in a subdirectory whose user IDs are stored and have to figure out how to get to the root. So the
answer is to set up a symbolic link to the directory the user owns. For example, say you're in
pop/joanbann; to set up a symbolic link in this directory to "security" use the following syntax:
ln -s home.company.com/Maindir/Organizations/
Security
Then the next time you log in you can just change directories by typing
cd Security
After changing to the directory, if you type pwd you will see that you have jumped into the full path of
the directory you own. If you use a Windows FTP client you will see Security as one of the
directories on the remote host side of the window. When you click on it, the path at the top of the
Windows FTP client will be the full path--so much easier.
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