How do I create a homepage?

If you just want to know where to upload your existing web page, follow this link.

To create your own homepage by hand, you are going to have to do the following things:

1. Create and edit an HTML file
2. Use basic HTML commands
3. Upload the file(s) to the proper directory and set its file permissions

Topic 1: Create and edit a file

Under UNIX: You need to know how to create and edit a file in the unix operating system.

Topic 2: Basic HTML

You will need to know a few basic HTML commands to start your homepage. Some basic HTML commands are available at http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimerAll.html.

Using a Web Authoring Tool
There are other commercial software products that you can purchase designed for HTML authoring such as: Macromedia Dreamweaver (recommended), Adobe GoLive, and Microsoft FrontPage. Any text editor, such as Notepad will work just fine.

Topic 3: Upload the file(s) - Where to put your web page

After creating the HTML content of your homepage, you need to put it into place and set its file permissions. The file permissions need to be set to world readable in order to be viewable over the web. You can make your own pages available for others to view by following one of these two paths:

A) The automated web way (easiest)

1. Visit http://www.seas.upenn.edu/accounts, the Eniac account management website.

 

2. Click on "Configure Your SEAS Account" and log in using your SEAS username and password.

 

3. Click on "Manage Web Page" in the sidebar.

 

4. Click on "Configure my SEAS account for web pages". This will make sure your "html" directory is capable of serving web pages by setting the permissions on the directories for you correctly (it creates the "html" directory if it doesn't exist and sets the permissions correctly on the "html" directory and its contents). (Important Note: SEAS Accounts created after April 2005 have an html directory created in them by default and permissions set properly.)

 

5. Use an ftp program such as FileZilla or your web browser to transfer your web page to the new directory "html" in your SEAS Home Directory. (see: Instructions for configuring FileZilla to connect to your SEAS Home Directory)

 

6. Finally, after the files are uploaded, you have to make sure the permissions are set correctly on all the files in your "html" directory. All of the files in your "html" directory should have the following permission: -rw-r--r--. This means you (the owner) can both read and write the file but other people can only read the file.

 

If you are using FileZilla here's what to do to make sure all your files have the right permissions... If your files say -rw------, then right click on the name of one of the files and select "File Attributes." Click on "Read" in the category "Public Permissions" and in the category "Group Permissions." This will change the file permissions to -rw-r--r--, which is needed to be able to view your web page.

Alternatively, you can do the same thing by clicking on the "Configure my SEAS account for web pages" link on the Accounts Management Site (see steps 1-4 above). This will make sure all the permissions on your files are set correctly to be viewable over the web. (More specifically, it will make all your html files readable, all your html directories readable and executable, your home directory executable, and all of your other files and directories private.

B) The Unix way (recommended for advanced users)

For your web page to be viewable on the Internet the file permissions have to be set correctly to be "world readable." If you have your HTML file(s) on the server but the page is not displaying, most likely your permissions are not set right.

Create an html directory in your home directory:

mkdir ~/html

Make sure the permissions on both your html and home directory allow world excecution:

chmod a+x ~/ ~/html

Toss some cool pages into your new directory and make sure the files are world readable:




find ~/html -type d -print | xargs chmod a+rx
find ~/html -type f -print | xargs chmod a+r



(see http://www.seas.upenn.edu/cets/answers/html-permissions.html for more help on setting your HTML file permissions)

 

* Important Note: SEAS Accounts created after April 2005 have an html directory created in them by default and permissions set properly.

Lastly... Let everyone know where your site is!

These last three steps are optional:

1. Add yourself to the Penn Engineering Personal Home Page List
(Login to the SEAS Accounts Management Website and click on "Manage Home Page")

2. Add yourself to the University main Home Page List

3. Announce to your friends that your website is located at the following URL:
http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~username/filename

Related Links

How to Transfer (FTP, Download, Upload) Files with Filezilla