Sections 7.2 and 7.4 of the UMUC Programming Guide are obsolete. The purpose of this note is to provide substitute information, which I hope is not obsolete.
Section 7.2 explains how to build a web page. It is a quick tutorial in the use of Netscape Composer, which was bundled with Netscape Communicator. Netscape Communicator is no longer available. The only free download you can find on the Netscape web site is Netscape 8.0, which is just a browser.
There are three ways to build a web page:
Before reading on, please do the following steps:
Now carefully compare the printout of the file to what you see on the screen. Try to figure out the meaning of everything you see in the printout! And, now you know that an HTML file is just a text file of a certain format, that describes the content and layout of a web page.
1. Using a general-purpose text editor
A general-purpose text editor is a program to edit text files. Back in the DOS days, there was a text editor called ed. You controlled it by entering commands, and you had to know the commands. In UNIX systems (including nova.umuc.edu), there are several command-line-oriented text editors including vi, emacs, and pico. In Windows, we have Notepad.
So you can build a web page by writing it directly in Notepad or any other text editor, saving it, and changing its name to end in .html.
2. Using an HTML-specific text editor
There are a number of text editors on the market that include features to make writing correct HTML a lot easier. For example, highlight some text and click the Italic icon, and the editor inserts <i> and </i> around it. There is a Preview button that opens the page in your browser so you can see what your page will look like without closing the editor. Close the browser and you are back to editing mode.
The HTML editor that I use is CoffeeCup, but there are lots of competing products out there. Most (including CoffeeCup) offer 30-day free trials. That should be adequate for doing your project.
3. Using a WYSIWYG HTML composer
WYSIWYG stands for What You See is What You Get. A WYSIWYG HTML composer is like a GUI word processing progam: you type, and click on any of a few dozen icons or menus to call up features, and the program composes HTML for you. Netscape Composer was a relatively basic WYSIWYG HTML composer. Of full-featured HTML composers, the best known are Microsoft FrontPage and Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Dreamweaver. Both are pricey and take a goodly amount of time to master. There may be some inexpensive basic WYSIWYG HTML composers on the market, but I have not researched this.
Do not use a WYSIWYG HTML composer for your project. Because a WYSIWYG HTML composer does all the dirty work for you and hides the result, you don't learn anything, which defeats the purpose of doing this little project.
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocols. It defines a procedure and method for transferring files from one computer on the Internet to another. It is one of the oldest of the Internet protocols.
There are two ways to use FTP:
1. The original command-line way
FTP is designed to be run in a command-line environment, like DOS or UNIX. Try it briefly. In Windows, select START, then Run, then enter ftp nova.umuc.edu. You will be asked to log in to your class account. Do so. Then enter the following commands:| help | You will see a list of all the commands available |
| help [enter the name of any command from the above list] | You will see an extremely terse description of the command whose name you entered. |
| dir | You will see a list of all the files in your directory on nova. |
| get .login | The .login file will be copied from nova to your computer. |
| quit | You will be disconnected from nova. |
In the process, the .login file on nova will have been copied to your computer. Try to find the copy. Good luck!
Of course, you would expect command-line FTP to provide a way for you to specify a folder on your PC to which (and from which) files will be transferred. There is; it is the lcd command. My colleague Prof. Morad has constructed a "Flash" video on the subject; you can view it at http://rosettastonela.com/Resources/UMUC/FTPNovaToWinXP/FTPNovaToWinXP.html
Here are two more important commands:
| lcd | That stands for "local change directory". As shown in the flash video, you use it to select a folder on your own computer. |
| binary | Needed for transferring binary files such as .doc and .pdf |
| send [enter the name of the file in your selected folder that you want to upload to nova] | The named file is uploaded. |
OK, now you've got the idea. If you're lucky, you will never have to touch the command line interface to FTP again.
2. The modern GUI way
A GUI FTP program is a graphical front-end to the command-line FTP. Typically, it shows you two panes, each of which resembles Windows Explorer. The left pane is for your computer, the right pane is for the remote computer. You can copy and paste files much like you would if you had two copies of Windows Explorer open on your computer. When you want to do something, the program composes an appropriate FTP command, sends it off, receives the response, interprets the response, and tells you what happened in an easily understandable way. (But remember, if you were to look under the covers, you would find the command-line interface.)
Many companies market GIU FTP programs. Among them is Ipswitch, which offers WS_FTP. They used to offer WS_FTP LE (that's Limited Edition) free to educational users, but no longer do so. WS_FTP LE has been superseded by WS_FTP Home. WS_FTP Home is not free, but you can get a 30-day free trial.
Another product, Core FTP LE from Core FTP is free. Information on the use of Core FTP may be found at http://polaris.umuc.edu/de/ezine/how_to/publish/coreftp/coreftp.htm
I use Coffee Cup Direct FTP, and have been quite satisfied with it. They offer a 30-day free trial too.
If you build and maintain any Web Site, even the most trivial personal one-page site, you need to have some GUI FTP program available.