INTRODUCTION

The following instructions describe how to upload a website that you have constructed on your desktop computer to your personal homedir space. These instructions are written for Windows users and describe the use of a program called WinSCP that allows you to securely transport files between your desktop computer and the unix web server.

If you use an Apple computer, you will use the same general process described below, although you will use a different program. University Technology Services is currently recommending a program called FUGU for Apple; this can be donwloaded from many shareware internet sites.

Basic Assumptions The instructions below assume you have a decent working understanding of your computer, especially the following processes: how to locate files on your hard drive that you've previously saved how to download programs off the internet and install them to your computer how to perform basic file management tasks, like drag-and-drop and rename. If you don't possess this level of proficiency with your computer, stop now and obtain some instruction. You should be able to obtain this instruction for any computer savvy friend or family member, or alternately many fine books are also available on the subject.

PERSONAL WEB SITES ON PERSONALWEBS.OAKLAND.EDU

1. Download a copy of winscp application to your desktop. You can obtain a copy of this program from WinSCP home page. If this link does not work, try visiting an internet search engine and searching for WINSCP.
2. Once you have the winscp program file on your desktop, double click on it to start it. A window titled "Login" should appear.
3. Click on SESSION in the left. For hostname, use homefs.oakland.edu. For username, use your OU e-mail name minus the @oakland.edu part (so if your OU-email is smith@oakland.edu, you would use smith). For password use your OU e-mail password. Once you have typed all this in, click on LOGIN. When you do, you may receive a message about key registry and cache ... just bypass this by clicking OK or CONTINUE.
4. A new window with two panes should appear. The left pane represents your computer, while the right pane represents your homedir on the web server. You should see an html folder in the RIGHT pane ... double click on it to open it. A new set of files or an empty directory should appear.
5. Now find the file(s) you want to copy up to the server in the LEFT pane. If you're not able to do this, see the note in the introduction on "basic assumptions".
6. Now drag the files you want to move up to the server from the LEFT pane over to the RIGHT pane and release. Click on the COPY button, and the files will be copied up to the server. You should see the files appear in the right pane. Note that you can select multiple files by holding down CTRL and then clicking on each file in turn.

Once you have copied the files up to the html folder on the web server, you should be able to visit your web site by typing the following URL: http://personalwebs.oakland.edu/~myusername where mysuername is your OU e-mail name. Review the important related issues below for some information about naming your files, especially the index file.

WinSCP has much greater functionality than what is just described here. For more information about WinSCP, you should review the help screens within the program or visit the web site and read the documentation.

IMPORTANT RELATED ISSUES

The following three issues really have nothing to do with copying files to and from the server, but they are worth mentioning here since a great many users get tripped up on them.

1. You should ALWAYS call the starting page of your site index.htm or index.html. Naming your starting page this way allows a visitor to visit your web site without having to qualify a filename.
2. Make sure that your index file filename is all in lowercase (e.g., index.htm rather than INDEX.HTM or Index.htm). The server is unix, and if you name the index file with uppercase letters ***it will not work***.
3. Save yourself some major headaches...when naming the files that make up your website make every filename lowercase.
4. Do not use spaces in your filenames ... some browsers cannot read files that have spaces in their names.

ORGANIZATIONAL/DEPARTMENT WEB SITES ON WWW.OAKLAND.EDU

The process for maintaining an organizational/departmental site not located on a user homedir is totally different than the one described above. You can review that process here:

http://www2.oakland.edu/uts/files/UpdatingWWWsites.pdf

INSTRUCTIONAL MEDIA FILES

The following instructional videos are available for you to view to better familiarize yourself with the core concepts described above. Some users may find the visual presentation more understandable.

Note that in order to watch the videos you must have the flash player installed on your system. If you do not have the flash player, you can download it for free from the Flash web site. Your computer must also have the ability to play sound.

Media files range in size from 1-5 megabytes. Please be patient if you are on a slow connection.