Course Web Pages

If you are making web pages for APPM courses,
please read this document carefully.

However, the number of files which accumulate over the years causes extra work for the computer system and for those who maintain web pages. By following the following guidelines, we can keep the web structure intelligible and workable.

Applied Mathematics has been using course web pages since 1992.

1. Directory Structure -- how we organize the web files and directories for a course
2. Files to save -- Some web pages/documents are forever, and some are not; read these guidelines
3. Location and Permissions -- to work with web files & directories you need ``write permission''
4. General Information -- assorted pearls of wisdom about how to create and post files
5. Accessibility -- don't forget that web pages should be accessible to people with disabilities
6. Check your HTML using LinkScan -- detect broken links and faulty structure
7. Feedback -- help us improve the usefulness and appearance of the APPM web pages

Semester files

		/www/courses/4650/2004Spr/
		/www/courses/4650/2004Spr/index.html   (home page!)

* Students can be given the ``short'' web address for a course, e.g., http://amath.colorado.edu/courses/1350/. They do not need to be concerned about adding the semester name; if there is a home page for the current semester, then browsers are automatically redirected to it; otherwise, the user can choose from among previous semesters.

* Some files & directories are used semester after semester by the main course page. Examples include PNG images and banners and icons, course expectations, reference materials, and anything else which could be expected to be used in *unchanged form* next semester. Rather than copy them anew into each semester's subdirectory, they can go into subdirectory "All" of the main course directory, e.g.,

	/www/courses/4650/All/

* links to other files in the semester's subdirectory need only be referenced by name.   Links to files in the "All" subdirectory can be referenced with "../All/filename".   Links to other APPM courses can be referenced with "/courses/1350/...".   Images in (say) the PNG directory can be referenced with "/PNGs/...".   Most links and images, therefore, can be referenced very simply.

Sections or Recitations groups

		/www/courses/4650/2004Spr/R013/
		/www/courses/4650/2004Spr/R014/
		/www/courses/4650/2004Spr/R015/

Naming peculiarities?

amath>   cd /www/courses/2350

amath>   ls -F
OLDER/       2002fall/    2003fall    2004fall/
2002Spr/     2003Spr/     2003fall    2005Spr/
2002Sum/     2003Sum/     2004Spr     All/       index.php@
                          	               (linked to current semester)

New Semester

However, some files are meant to be deleted at the end of the semester. In particular, scanned homework solutions not only tend to be large PNG files which use lots of disk space and backup-tape space, but are only supposed to be viewed for a few weeks at most. It is inappropriate to leave such files in place after the semester is over -- think of what you are doing to next semester's instructor!! Therefore, all scanned homework solutions for the semester should go into a well-named subdirectory like "HWsolns" so that they can easily be identified and made unreadable after the course, e.g.,

		/www/courses/4650/2004Spr/HWsolns/

Your efforts to delete obsolete files, or at least confine them to easily identifiable directories, is appreciated, primarily because it saves time and effort by the webmaster and by future instructors, and secondarily because it speeds up the nightly backups and saves disk space.

You may only edit files for which you have write permission, and you may only add or delete files from directories for which you have write permission. If you have trouble with creating/editing/deleting web pages or subdirectories, do check the "write permissions" before emailing "webmaster" with your problem.

How do you know if you have write permission? Use the command "ls -al" to see the owner, group, and permissions of any file or directory. For this you must actually log on to one of the three hosts listed above using ssh (or, less preferably, rlogin or telnet), and cd to the right directory

A file must be world-readable -- not just owner-readable -- in order for Netscape (or other web browser) to be able to display it. So, if your browser refuses to display a web page or image that you know exists, first check to see whether it is world-readable. When in doubt, use the command ``chmod'' to change the permission modes for your web stuff.

	for a file:		chmod 664 filename
	for a directory:	chmod 771 directoryname

Read about chmod (change mode) and chgrp (change group) if you're not already an expert.

NOTE: normally you will not be permitted to edit files in a course's main directory, only in the current semester's subdirectory. For example, the spring 2004 instructor of 1350 can create & edit files in /www/courses/1350/2004Spr/, but not one level higher in /www/courses/1350/.

• Look over the list of W3C web page Quality Tips -- all excellent pieces of advice.

• using the scanner
  When you are scanning photographs, save in JPEG format.
  When you are scanning anything else, save in PNG format.

  Text and formulae and diagrams and drawings, whether printed or computer-generated or scanned or hand-drawn, all suffer in quality when saved as JPEG, so don't do it. Neither should you opt for older graphics formats like TIFF and GIF. Use PNG.

  As mentioned above, the exception is for photographs -- faces, plants, buildings, natural scenes -- for which JPEG was created.

• Postscript
  You should post PDF files rather than PostScript files.
  If creating a PDF file from LaTeX, either use pdflatex, or convert your DVI to PostScript (dvips) using the options ``-t letter -Ppdf'' and convert that to PDF (ps2pdf), e.g.,
  dvips -t letter -Ppdf -o myfile.pdf myfile.ps

  Once you have a document in good PDF form (crisp clean fonts etc.), you can delete the equivalent PostScript file.

• statistics
  Statistics about the usage of our web pages -- how many times each web page is ``hit'' -- are tabulated nightly and are viewed at http://amath.colorado.edu/stats/

• error log
  For fancier web pages involving CGI scripts (especially with forms) it is often useful to see the error log when something doesn't work. If you are logged on to amath itself you can see the last (say) 20 lines of the error log by typing the command tail -20 /www/logs/error_log

• They may not be able to see, hear, move, or may not be able to process some types of information easily or at all.
• They may have difficulty reading or comprehending text.
• They may not have or be able to use a keyboard or mouse.
• They may have a text-only screen, a small screen, or a slow Internet connection.
• They may not speak or understand fluently the language in which the document is written.
• They may be in a situation where their eyes, ears, or hands are busy or interfered with (e.g., driving to work, working in a loud environment, etc.).
• They may have an early version of a browser, a different browser entirely, a voice browser, or a different operating system.

The design of the top-level web pages is a matter of balancing efficiency with acceptable looks. Folks who access the main APPM pages do so from a variety of locations throughout the world, often through a modem or an otherwise slow connection. Thus it is crucial to keep those top-level web pages as quick-loading and easy to navigate as possible. Numerous/large images or applets, in particular, are not a good idea.

On the other hand, specific course web pages have more freedom to use the cool, fancy stuff. Generally we expect course pages to be accessed more often from on/near campus, with higher access speeds. So background images, animations, Java applets, javascript, etc., are fine.