The process of publishing a document on the web is, conceptually at least, surprisingly simple. Basically, all you need to do is to place an HTML document file, plus any image files that may be referred to by that document, into a document repository, or webspace, which is visible to the web server.
HTML document files are nothing more than text files containing HTML markup (special sequences of characters). (See the section on HTML Basics for more information about HTML.) Image files are binary files in (normally) one of two formats: GIF or JPEG; such files can be obtained in a variety of ways. (See the section on web graphics for more information.)
The "webspace" referred to above is nothing more than a special directory within each user's AFS space. For an account named "userid" this is the directory accessible from the Network and Compute servers as:
/ahome/userid/public/www-data
It's real name is:
/afs/cc.lehigh.edu/home/userid/public/www-data
(there are several briefer ways of referring to this directory, depending on where you do it from, but this is the complete name, which works from any system that can see AFS space. See Uploading: putting your files and pictures on the web for more information.
The web server uses the ending of the file name to determine the type of each file, so document files need to be given names that end in .html or .htm, and image files need to have names ending in .gif or .jpg (depending on the format of the image in the file).
And that's all there is to it.
The confusing part of this comes about because there are so many different ways to accomplish the task(s) just described. And, in a general sense, all of the possible methods are equally good, as long as the following conditions are satisfied:
It doesn't matter how you accomplish this. The instant the conditions above are satisfied, the document is "on the web."
How many tasks are involved, and how many steps there are for each, can depend upon what method(s) you choose and what tools you use to accomplish the general goal described above. For example, the document file can be created and modified directly in the webspace, acquiring a name as part of the process of creation. In this case, putting up a web page would be seen as a single task.
On the other hand, the document might be created on a personal computer and moved (or copied) to the webspace, so that there are two easily-separated tasks involved. These might be done as two steps using a single tool, or might be done with two completely separate tools.
There is no "right" or "wrong" about any of this; what is easiest depends upon your personal preferences and the tools with which you are most familiar. (Ultimately, of course, it is also important which tools happen to be available for you to use.) Even if the process requires you to learn a new tool, the decision of which one will be easiest for you to learn will depend upon what other tools and processes you already know.
There are a number of software tools that you may find useful in helping you put documents up on the web. These tools differ in their capabilities, depending upon the specific purpose for which they were designed. Furthermore, many of these are only available on one particular platform, so which one you use may depend upon the computer and operating system that is your preferred environment.
Here are some of the kinds of tools that exist. Many of these are available at public sites at Lehigh, or in specialized facilities (such as the Media Center); others you may have to obtain for yourself if you wish to use them. Notice that the categories below are neither absolutely definitive nor mutually-exclusive: some tools would be classified as belonging in more than one category, or can be used in more than one way.
These are used to create and modify text files. When using this type of tool, you have to type in the HTML markup yourself. A "text editor" is a program that only creates text files, whereas a "word processor" typically saves files in a non-text format that includes style information. However, most word processors can save files in plain text format as well. These tools provide an extremely basic, bare-bones approach to web page creation, although some of them (such as emacs and BBEdit Lite) may have macro facilities that are especially useful.
Examples: dte, emacs, vi (UNIX/AFS); mg, Windows Notepad (DOS/Windows); SimpleText, BBEdit Lite (Mac).
These are tools specifically designed to create web documents. They typically include special functions for generating markup, which makes it easier than having to type all the codes by hand. Many also include verification functions that allow you to easily check that the HTML code is correct. These tools are typically very powerful, and make high-volume production of web pages much easier for the experienced web author. They are also somewhat easier for the novice to learn and easier to use than simple text editors.
Examples:
This category includes programs with "What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get" (WYSIWYG) web page editing capabilities. It includes browser-editor combination programs, as well as word processors with a save-to-HTML option. You edit the document visually, without entering any markup--the program inserts the markup for you. In addition, the browser-editor programs also usually incorporate a way of uploading and downloading files between the webspace and the platform on which you are editing, thus avoiding the need for a separate tool for this purpose. The advantage is that these are characteristically extremely easy to learn and to use. The drawback is that the HTML they generate is of rather inconsistent quality, and the web author has little or no control over the code that is produced.
Examples: Netscape Communicator, Macromedia Dreamweaver, WordPerfect, Microsoft Word, FrontPage.
This category includes programs in which original images can be created from scratch (as opposed to being scanned in, or captured from video). Various types include draw programs (object and/or vector-oriented), paint programs (bitmap-oriented), CAD/drafting programs (like draw, but intended for more technical applications, such as architecture), 3D-modeling programs, and a few more specialized types (including, for example, KPT Bryce, which creates photorealistic landscapes using fractals, or Poser, which models the human figure).
Examples: PaintShop, Canvas, AutoCad.
This category includes programs for editing and manipulating existing images, either scanned in, captured, or created in another program.
Examples: Photoshop (available in the Media Production area).
When you are editing pages outside the webspace, you have to upload all new or changed pages to the web. Some Web Page editing tools, such as Netscape Communicator and FrontPage Express, include a feature for uploading your new pages. However, most tools do not.
This means that you must use a file transfer tool to upload these documents. Lehigh servers require Secure File Transfer (SSH protocol 2) for uploading. The Uploading document contains instructions for using SSH Secure File transfer tools to upload to Lehigh's webspace.
Examples: SSH Secure File Transfer, WinSCP
<>TOOLSLast updated: December 8, 2002