Trainer's Outline for IP Training 3 - Getting Your Files onto CCN

Handouts

Topics covered

Instructions for Trainers

Ideally, at this point, the IP organization should have sent in the signed IP agreement, naming the IP representatives. If the paperwork has been processed, then the organization has been assigned a directory and the IP reps have given editing privileges to this directory. If this has not yet been done, then the IP reps will not be able to install their files.

Having the signed IP agreement and the IP directory set up is not a strict prerequisite for taking this course, i.e. we are not going to turn people away because this has not been done. However, if the IPs have not yet done their paperwork, you must emphasize that they cannot install their files or get a link from one of the main pages until this is done.

We are also assuming that the IP reps now have HTML files that they are ready to upload to CCN. This means that they have tested them on their own PCs and are satisfied with them.

Time Limit: 1 hour

Suggested Outline

Introduction

Mention the prerequisites to the IPs (see trainer's instructions above). If IPs have not sent in the IP agreement (or have only just sent them in), point out that we will not be able to properly demonstrate the install in this session [unless the instructor has install permission on some directory].

In this session we will be discussing the steps to get the IP's files onto Chebucto Community Net.

Transfer their HTML files from their own PC to their home directory on CCN.
Test the files in their own directory.
Install the files to the directory assigned to the IP organization.
Request a link to from the appropriate "second page" to the organization's home page.

Transfer the HTML files to your home directory on CCN

If the IP reps usually connect to Chebucto Community Net through dial-up, then they can upload the files to their home directory (or a subdirectory of your home directory). Uploading should have been covered in User Training 3. A brief review of uploading at this point would be good. If they don't know how to upload with their communications software and you are not familiar with it, they will have to ask someone at user support (probably someone on the userhelp team).

An alternative to uploading with Kermit, Zmodem, etc. is to do a text file send. The user would create a new file, open it in the PICO editor, then get the comm program to send a text file, i.e. type it out to the host.

If the IP reps usually log in to CCN via telnet, then they will not be able to upload using the usual protocols. If this is the situation, they can mail the files to their CCN account. If they have a mail program that can do MIME attachments, then that is probably the easiest way to handle it. Just attach all the HTML files to a mail message and mail it to their CCN account. If they don't know how to view and save attachments in PINE, you should go through this.

If their mailer can't do attachments, then they will have to include the file in the body of your mail message. In this case, they should mail each file separately (it will make life easier on the receiving end). When they receive these mail messages at CCN, they can export each message to a separate text file. Unfortunately, with this method, some extra editing is required to remove the mail headers from the top of each file.

FTP has also been enabled on CCN. If IPs have access to a conventional FTP program then they can ftp to ccn.cs.dal.ca and login to their account. They will then be presented with their home directory. Note that this does not seem to work using the ftp:// protocol in HTML.

Note that the IPs may want to keep all their HTML in a subdirectory, to keep their directories neat.

Also note that if the files were developed on a DOS or Windows system, they will have to rename all the files to have the extension .html (instead of .htm).

Test the files in your own directory

Testing the files in the IP rep's home directory means viewing the files (use the file manager) and making sure that everything works okay. A list of suggestions for testing:

Try out all the links and make sure they still work (should not be a problem if you used relative filenames)
View all your files and check that they look okay in Lynx.
If something looks really ugly in Lynx, check the tags you used and consider an alternative way of formatting the information.
If you see [IMAGE] anywhere where you put in inline images, add the alt="" attribute to your IMG tag to suppress these.
Copy (or move) the files to your public_html directory. Make a link in your profile to the home page of the files. Login as guest, do a search on yourself, look at your files from your profile. If you have access to a graphical browser on the Internet (e.g. PAT), try it out from there.
Use the HTML Lint option in the full menu of the file browser to check the files for errors. The output to the screen will be blank if there are no errors.

[The above suggestions are just off the top of my head. Please email me more useful tips on testing if you have them. - BL or CS]

Install your files to your assigned IP directory

Go through the steps to install a file ([go files], choose a file, hit F for full menu, choose the Install option, choose a directory to install to). If the IPs are set up properly, they should see at least one directory after they choose the Install option.

Explain what "install" actually does: copies the file to the directory assigned to the IP and also puts the file into RCS (Revision Control System). RCS keeps track of the changes made to the file. It stamps each file with a version number, the date and time it was last modified, and by whom. With RCS, it is possible to retrieve old versions of the file. This way, changes to a file do not make the previous version irretrievable.

Go to some already installed IP files on CCN and look at the HTML source using the backslash key (\). Point out the two lines that are inserted by the installation program, with the version number, date and time of modification, user id of the person who modified it. Point out that it also sets the destination email address for any comments (i.e. where to send any comments made by pressing the c key).

IPs have been asking how to verify that files have actually been installed. Here's an HTML tip: if a URL points to a directory rather than a file and if this directory does not contain a file called index.html, the browser will display the contents of the directory. So they can edit their bookmark file to add a URL that will point to the IP directory. Then they will be able to view the contents of this directory.

Get a link from the appropriate second page

At this point, the IP information is all installed, and all they need is a link from one of the "second pages". Explain that "second pages" are what we call the menu pages which are one step away from the home page. Example: Science, Environment, and Technology is one of the "second pages", so is the Health, Recreation, and Fitness page.

Each IP organization needs to decide which second page should contain a link to their information. If more than one page seems appropriate, then they can have a link on those pages too.

When they know where you want to be linked in, email to fn- edit with a request. The email request should contain the following information:

the name of the second page where the IP wants their link to appear
the name of the IP's home page
the name of the IP directory where the files are installed

The volunteer in charge of editing that particular second page will make the link. It should appear within a few days. If not, email to fn-edit again.

Maintenance

As the IP information changes, it needs to be updated.

Small changes can be most easily handled by directly editing the installed files. To do this, view the file you want to change, then type e for edit. If you are the IP rep for this organization (i.e. you are named in the signed IP agreement), you should have the proper editing privileges and should be able to do this. When you exit the editor and save the file, the RCS system will ask you for a comment. Type in a brief note on the nature of the changes made (e.g. "corrected typos" or "added link to Blahblah"). Typing a period and then [RETURN] will get you out of this mode.

For more major changes, it is usually easier to do it the same way as the files were developed: write and test the HTML on the home PC, upload, install. Installing over existing files will work okay; i.e. RCS will number the version correctly.

IPs should check their links periodically, especially those to off-site locations. If a link is broken, either repair it or remove it.

If an IP organization changes their representatives, they should notify ccn-ip by email and the editing privileges (and mail aliases) will get rearranged accordingly.