Putting Your Stuff Online
From CTLpedia
Goal:
Introduce the principles of making usable content available online.
Objectives:
- Discuss the benefit of putting "stuff" online.
- Identify content that is usable for the web.
- Establish a connection to web space on Homedirs.
- Upload / Download "stuff" from the server with file transfer protocols.
- Discuss file naming conventions.
- Discuss principles of organization on the server.
- Access the content once it’s available online.
Instructional Methods:
- Overhead presentation.
- Reference handout.
- Working hands on with utilities on PC.
Introduction:
Did you know MCC offers 300 megabytes of web space to each faculty member? The real question is: do you know how to access this space and what it can be used for?
What is the benefit of putting "stuff" online?
Have you ever been at home and desperately needed a document you were working with on campus? By putting the document online it will be available to you wherever you are in the world.
By putting your "stuff" online you will have:
- Content accessible to you wherever a computer with Internet access is available.
- If desired, content accessible to others.
- A backup of your files.
What should I put online?
You can put a variety of things online (e.g. images, word or text documents, html pages, videos, flash movies, audio files, etc.) However, some things are more usable online than others. For example, if I put a 100 megabyte video online it would take several minutes to an hour or more to download depending on the speed of your connection as well as use one third of your available space. This may be acceptable to some, but not to all! In addition, MCC has a few regulations that need to be followed at http://www.maricopa.edu/legal/it/trs.htm
When evaluating what to put online take into consideration the following guidelines:
- Are MCC’s guidelines followed?
- Do you have enough space on the server to store your "stuff"?
- Is the content going to be available to the public?
- If any, who is your audience?
Do you have enough space on the server to store your "stuff"?
Employees receive 300 megabytes of space on the server. If you max-out the space you are allotted on the server you will receive an error message. You will need to remove several files in order to add more files.
Is the content going to be available to the public?
You have the option of making your "stuff" available to everyone or only available to yourself. Things that you want to keep private can be stored in a different folder than the one that is public.
Who is your audience?
If you have chosen to make a file public, who will be accessing the file? For audiences with fast connections it may be appropriate to place larger files on the server. However, if the majority of your audience is known to have slower connections a large file may not be as usable.
If the file you are uploading to the server is a program specific file, make sure your audience has access to the program that can be used to open the file. For example, if a student has Microsoft Word he or she would not be able to open a Microsoft Works document by default.
Establishing a connection to your web space on Homedirs:
What is Homedirs?
Homedirs is the Mesa Community College web server. It has space allotted to each person that receives a username and password including students who receive 10MB of web space.
How to connect to Homedirs On Campus (i.e. your office computer):
- Log on to the computer using your MCC username and password. Double-click "My Computer"
- Click Tools > Map Network Drive…
- Enter \\homedirs\<your username> in the "Folder" space (Note: the \ key is located above the Enter key)
- Click Finish.
Your Homedirs folder will automatically open, but for future reference you can access your folder in My Computer under Network Drives
Anything you place in this folder will be private. You can also create folders (like the "private" folder in the example) that will be accessible only to you. If you wish to make your files available on the web (to the public), place them directly into the "www" folder.
Note that the special index.html file is the homepage for you Homedirs web site. If you are using the default automated homepage, do not delete any unknown file or folder in the "www" folder.
How to connect to Homedirs Off Campus (Note: This method can also be used on Campus):
To connect to Homedirs off campus we will utilize a Secure File Transfer Protocol (sftp). This protocol creates a secure data stream (i.e. connection) to the Homedirs server enabling you to upload and download files to and from the server. Homedirs does not accept connections from passive or unsecure FTP clients, they must be secure.
We will be using a program called FileZilla to accomplish this, but remember, this is not the only SFTP program that can be used to connect to Homedirs from off campus. Some other available programs are: SSH secure shell, Cyberduck (Mac only), and WinFTP. For FileZilla downloading instructions visit:
http://wiki.mc.maricopa.edu/tsswiki/index.php/Filezilla
- Open Filezilla by going to Start > All Programs > FileZilla > FileZilla
- Once FileZilla Loads in the bar located just below the file menu enter:
- sftp://homedirs.mc.maricopa.eduin the Address field
- Your MCC User Name in the User field
- Your MCC Password in the Password field
Click "Quickconnect", the Port field will automatically be set and you will connect to Homedirs.
- Upon connecting to Homedirs you will notice two "exploring" windows. The window on the left is your local file explorer. The window on the right is your remote or online file explorer. You can then proceed to find files on your computer via the local file explorer and drag them to folders on the remote file explorer.
Uploading and Downloading my "stuff"?
We touched on this slightly in the previous section. The process is fairly simple.
To upload a file to the server:
- Locate the file on your computer (In FileZilla locate the file in the local window)
- Drag or copy and paste the file to the Homedirs window in the desired directory (In FileZilla drag the file to the desired directory in the remote file explorer window)
To download a file to your computer:
- Locate the file on the server (In FileZilla locate the file in the remote file explorer window)
- Drag or copy and paste the file to the desired directory on your computer (In FileZilla drag the file to the desired directory in the local file explorer)
File Naming Conventions:
When placing files online, certain file naming conventions should be followed in order to simplify access to the file. Have you ever seen a web address like this:
This example breaks virtually all the naming conventions! Let’s examine it!
- First, the web address is quite long. When choosing file names it is important to use short and descriptive names.
- Second, what do the "%20’s" mean? %20 is the browsers attempt to decipher the spaces that were placed in the file name. Never place spaces in a file name. If you want the effect of having a space, use an underscore "_" by pressing shift and the minus key located to the right of the "0" key on most keyboards.
- Third, there are capital letters in the file name. Web addresses are case sensitive. This means that if a person inadvertently entered a lowercase "a" instead of a capitol "A" the page would not be found. To remedy this someone decided to make web addresses all lowercase eliminating any confusion.
- Fourth, there are misspelled words in the file name. Do your best to spell names correctly so that finding the file is easier. If a misspelled word was intended it is fine, but don’t be surprised if people have a difficult time getting to that file!
As a rule of thumb, evaluate the web address with the phone test…if it’s short, easy to say, and understandable over the phone it’s a good web address!
To re-cap, when naming files that are intended for the web consider the following:
- Never place spaces in a file name. If spaces are desired us an underscore ("_") instead.
- Don’t start a file name with a capital letter.
- Try to come up with short yet descriptive names.
- Do your best to spell the name correctly
Organizing your files:
The way in which you organize the files you upload to the server is your choice. Just remember that if you place a file in the "www" folder it will be available to anyone. It’s a good idea to keep things as neat as possible on the server to facilitate easy access to files.
How do I access the files once they’re available online?
To access the files that you did not place in the public "www" folder:
Simply follow the steps to establish a connection with Homedirs and browse to the file you are interested in.
To access the files that you placed in the public "www" folder:
Open a browser and in the address bar type in: http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~yourmccusername/ followed by the name of the file with the extensions e.g. .doc, .html, .mp3
For example to access the "batman.mp3" file in my web space I would type in: http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~chago/batman.mp3
If I want to access a file within a folder on the server I would type in:
http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~chago/good_title/good_name.doc
Notice that each folder is followed by a"/" character. This is what separates a folder from another folder or a file. So if I wanted to access a file within several folders I would type in:
http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~chago/good_title/my_docs/samples/sample.doc
So the sample.doc file is located in the samples folder which is in the "my_docs" folder which is in the "good_title" folder which is in the www folder on the server.
