Upload Your Home Page

To upload your completed home page to www.tdl.com, and to edit it once it is uploaded, you will have to understand your directory structure, and you will have to learn to use an FTP client program. Don't panic. Both are easy.

Each user at TDL has their own directory on our www server. It is symbolically referred to as ~username. In other words, a user whose address was confused@tdl.com would have a home directory of ~confused. The absolute path to this directory is: www.tdl.com/home/confused -- you might need this information for some scripts.

The home directory ~confused has one sub-directory, public_html. This is the directory where you want to upload your files. There is also a sub-directory in public_html called cgi-bin. Your cgi scripts will be placed there. You can create sub-directories under public_html and upload files there to help you stay organized. Your initial home page should be called index.html.

To transfer your completed html documents, graphics and scripts to your website, you will need to use an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client. The one we recommend and provide is called WS-FTP for IBM, and Fetch for Macintosh. The basic use of FTP is simple. You give the FTP client an address (www.tdl.com) a username (confused) and a password (I_forget), then you tell it to connect. After completing the connection, you will be placed in your root directory (~confused).

You will "cd" to "public_html," then "put" your files there. To download a file that is already there, you "get" it. You can also rename a file, delete a file and make a directory.

Now, let's look at how this will actually be done using WS-FTP. The first chore is to set up a profile in WS-FTP for the TDL web server. When you open WS-FTP, you will see a profile screen. First, click on the new button, then change the values on the profile screen to match the values in the image below, but substitute your user name and password for the ones shown. Remember to check the box that says save password. When you have filled in all the required information, click on the button labled save.

Now, and from now on, all you have to do is click on OK to connect.

Now for uploading your files. As you can see from the graphics below, the Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 versions of WS-FTP look a little different, but are actualy organized much the same way. The upper left corner contains the "current" directory on your hard drive, and under it is the list of files in that directory. On the right is the directory and contents in the current directory of your website.

To upload your files, cd into the public_html sub-directory on the right by clicking on it. Then, on the left, find and highlight the files you want to upload, then push the left to right arrow button to start the transfer. You may download just as easily using the right side for source, the left for where you want the files to end up, and the right to left arrow. Clicking on a file name with the right mouse button will give you another menu of commands such as chmod.

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