Instructions for maintaining web pages on SnowCrest for Macintosh

When you sign up for a www home page you will be given your own directory (or folder) which will contain a sample home page. This page will be located just off of the Snowcrest Home Page under "Snowcrest Users' Home Pages" and then under a link you can choose. You can view your page by using Internet Explorer or Netscape This sample page contains links to sound, pictures, mpeg movie clips, and other home pages.

You should take a look at the sample home page links as they will answer many of your questions about the web, HTML(the language that home pages are written in), and home pages. One of the links will also allow you to get HTML editors for programming your home page.

Go the File menu and select New Folder. For the name of the folder type "Web Page" or "Home Page".

This should be something you are used to. If you use ConfigPPP, open it up through the Apple menu (or double-click the ConfigPPP alias) and click Open. If you use FreePPP, go to the phone menu and select Open PPP Connection.

Find and open the Fetch program. It should be in your Internet folder with the rest of your Internet programs. When Fetch opens you will get a New Connection window. The following table shows a list of the entries and what you should type into each of them (replace acctname with your account or login name and replace password with your password):

After you click OK you will see the cursor turn into a dog for a few seconds and then you will see a listing of the files that make up the sample page. Above the listing you will see "www" in a box. This shows what folder (or directory) you are in right now. If you click on the "www" a small menu will pop up allowing you to back out of the folder you are in.

Click once on the file called "index.html" and click Get File. A window will pop up asking where to put the index.html file on your computer. Find and open your new Web Page folder and click Save.

Now go to File and choose Quit. At this point you can use any editor you choose. Any text editor or word processor will work fine (if you use a word processor remember to always save your files as Text or ASCII.) For now we'll just use Simpletext.

Find and open Simpletext on your computer. It will probably be in your hard disk window. Once in Simpletext go to File and select Open. Find and open your Web Page folder, then double-click the index.html file. In the window you should now see the source for your current web page.

We included a few things in the sample page that people might want to use in their own page to give you a taste of the action. Some of these are images, links to other pages or Internet sites, as well as links to sound and a movie. The sample page also contains a form and counter. These are CGI scripts that are all ready functional and it would be a good idea to back up the index.html document (as sample.html etc.) before you begin changing it.

The following are some examples for you to see how HTML source is created:

• Example one -- text for people to read

  <DL>

  <DT> Write what you want to say here, it will appear in black.

  Example two -- Link for someone to click on a go to.

  <A HREF="http://www.snowcrest.net">SnowCrest's home page.</A>

  the (http://www.snowcrest.net) is the URL or address of the link

  the (SnowCrest's home page) is the part people will see and be able to click

  Example three -- Links your ftp site for others to download files

  <A HREF="ftp://ftp.snowcrest.net/pub/users/acctname ">Files to Download</A>

  Example four -- Show them a movie (mpg)

  <A HREF="http://www.snowcrest.net/acctname /filename.mpg">Movie Name</A>

  Example five -- Sound and pictures (snd,wav,voc,gif,jpg)

  exactly the same as movie except put the sound or picture file in place of the .mpg file.

  Example six -- Other examples on the Internet

  You can either find a FAQ on the net to give you more ideas or check out the links off this page: Creating Net Sites

  Have you ever seen something on a web page want to know how they did it? When at the page on the Internet you can go to the View menu and choose Document Source or maybe just Source. A window will open and the HTML source for the page you are looking at will be displayed.

  Step 7 -- Uploading your HTML document

  Quit Simpletext and reconnect to the Internet. Open Fetch again. Use the same procedure as above in Step 3 to connect to the web server (see addition 1 below). After the dog changes back into an arrow click on the Put File button. A window will come up asking which file to upload. Find and open your Web Page folder and double-click on index.html. Another window will come up asking what to call the file. Leave the filename as index.html and make sure the file type is set to Text, then click OK. The current index.html file will automatically overwritten on the server. You can now immediately view your edited page with a web browser.

  Step 8 -- Uploading picture, sound, and movie files

  This is almost exactly like uploading the index.html document. You put the files in your folder on the server by using Fetch. Connect to the web server (same as Step 3 again). Click on Put File and select a picture you want to upload. When the window comes up asking you what to call the file make sure that the file type is set to "Raw Data". Otherwise your picture, sound, etc. will come out as garbage.

  Step 9 -- Upload files into your ftp site for others to download

  Along with a web page (www) folder (or directory) you also have upload rights to a folder on the ftp server. You may put files there for others to download. Make sure you are connected to the Internet. Open Fetch and connect to the web server (Step 3 again). Click on the "www" above the listing of your files and you will see a pop-up menu with your account name above the www and a "/" (forward slash) above that. Select the forward slash. The listing below will change. Scroll down and double-click on "ftp". This will put you on the ftp server. Now double-click on pub, then users, and then again on your account name. Now you may put any files here you wish. As far as file types go, always upload text or HTML as Text; pictures, sound, and video as Raw Data; and programs as BinHex.

  Step 10 -- Advertising your home page

  The extent to which you do this is done is up to you. You don't have to advertise. But if you wish to, a good place to look is on the questions FAQ on our users sample home page. Once there cycle down on the menu until you get to the link called "How do I publicize my work?". Click there and read all about it!

  HAVE FUN!!!

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  ADDITION 1 - Saving the connection information as a Shortcut

  So that you don't have to type the information in every time you connect to the web server, you can save this as a Shortcut. In Fetch, go to the Customize menu and select New Bookmark. For the Name type "SnowCrest" and for the Type select "Folder". The rest of the entries should be typed exactly as in Step 3 above. Click OK on the window to save the Shortcut. The next time you open Fetch just click on the down arrow next to Shortcuts: and select SnowCrest. The information will be automatically entered into the fields you just have to click OK to connect.

  ADDITION 2 - Facts and Tips

  1. Our system in case sensitive! Always remember that if you name a file in all caps or with the first letter a capital then you must call for that file as EXACTLY that. For example, if you call a graphic file "BigLogo.gif", then try to put that graphic on your page with a line like this: <IMG SRC="biglogo.gif"> then your picture won't show up.

     Also, when naming your files don't use ANY SPACES or special characters (besides periods, dashes "-", and underscores "_"). Spaces and other special characters are interpreted as the end of a name or are special commands reserved for UNIX.

  2. You have 10 MB of space in both you www folder and your ftp folder combined. The server will not let you upload any more than you have space. If you need additional space you can get an additional 10 MB. Call SnowCrest or email to support@snowcrest.net for current information on pricing.

  3. You can always view your web pages on your own computer, even if you aren't connected to the Internet. If you keep copies of all your webpage files on your own computer you can view them through your web browser simply by going to File and choosing Open File or Open Local File, depending on your web browser. Then go into your Web Page folder and open your index.html document or any other file.

  4. If you have problems seeing changes you just made to any of your pages here are some things to try:
     1. Push the Reload or Refresh button
     2. Try saving or uploading your document again
     3. Clear you browsers' cache file (or even set it to zero)
     4. Close your web browser and open it again

     Web browsers save copies of pages that you visit in their cache. That way when you push the Back button it loads the page in a couple seconds rather than redownloading it from the Internet. Sometimes this can work against you when designing web pages when you make a change and you can't get it to register when you view the page. Try the above tips before pulling your hair out.

  5. Not all web browsers are the same. The most popular web browsers are the Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. People will be viewing your page with both of these so you will want to test you page with both browsers to make sure things look OK. Also, remember that people have different versions of these browsers and that could even change the way your page looks to them. One major difference is that Internet Explorer 2.0 can't view frames or java. If you get into adding either of these features to your page you might want to consider having a secondary page for those whose web browsers don't support these features.

  ADDITION 3 - About adding forms to your home page:

  Forms are an exciting way to receive information from users accessing your home page. SnowCrest has recently added a quick and easy way to enable HTML forms. First you will have to write the HTML for the form you wish to publish on your home page. This information can be found on various different sites on the web, in books, or can be done with some HTML editors. The trickiest part of getting your form functional is the CGI programming. In the first line of your form HTML document you need to have your CGI line. This line should read as follows...

  <FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="/cgi-bin/response.cgi?account/file">

  where "account" is your login name. In the e-mail name joe@snowcrest.net the login name is simply joe

  where "file" is your file name for the html document containing the form. In the file name form.html the "file" would be "form".

  You can put the form in an already existing html document or in a separate document as long as you put the file name in the correct spot in the CGI line.

  Once your form is written and uploaded to your folder on our server you need to set up some way for the computer to send/store the information it receives.

  1. Open Simpletext. Now you need to make one new file. Lets say that you created your form and called it form.html Make one file called --- form.mail All that needs to be in this file is your e-mail address. ie. joe@snowcrest.net

  If you added the form to your index.html document then the file would be called---index.mail ---and contain the same information.

  2. You need to put your new file into your directory on our server. To do this connect to www.snowcrest.net with the program Fetch as in Step 3 above. Once connected you should be in the "www" directory where your web page files are stored. Click on the "www" and in the pop-up list select your account name. The list of files below will change and you should have a couple files and the www folder. This is where the form.mail document should be put (save it as Text). At this point you can disconnect. Now when someone responds to your form on your home page the response will be automatically e-mailed right to you!! Also, be sure to test your own form by filling it out and seeing if you receive your automated response.

  ADDITION 4 - Adding other CGI scripts

  If you're up for a challenge, you can try adding one of the CGI scripts which SnowCrest has made available to you to your page. CGI scripts allow your page to do much more than simple HTML commands allow. They do require a little more effort to get them to work, though. Instructions for the CGI scripts SnowCrest has available can be accessed at http://www.snowcrest.net/cgi/index.html.

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