Using the Contrib Server

Included here is:

How to set up a home page.
How to see your page through the server.
How to add a home page listing to the User's page.
How to add a server listing to the User's page.
How to modify your existing entry.
How to use a counter.
How to use an imagemap.
How to forward (redirect) a page.

This page assumes that you are familiar with a Web brower, such as Mosaic, Netscape or Lynx.

Users are strongly encouraged to read the bboard "andrew.contributed" for current updates about the server.

To set up a home page to use with the Contributed server:

If you'd like to have your home page listed in the Campus Users' page, you need to first create a home page. If you don't know how to write in HTML, I suggest following this link to the Beginners Guide to HTML from NCSA. There's lots of good examples and hints on what to do (and what not to do).

Once you have a Home Page written, you must place it in a subdirectory of your Andrew account called "www". Important! The protections of this (www) directory must be "system:anyuser rl". To do this, use the command "fs sa ~/www system:anyuser rl".

NOTE!!! See the "protection overview" help file for more information about these commands. It is very important that you do not execute commands other people tell you to without understanding what you are doing (and the consequences of them).

To see your home page through the Contributed server:

You may access your page throught the contributed server without it being listed on the Campus User's page. The contributed server translates

"/afs/andrew/usr/{userid}/www"

to to

"/usr/{userid}".

For example, my home page is "/afs/andrew/usr/moose/www/homepage.html".
The server see this as "http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/usr/moose/homepage.html".
(Substitute your own userid and page name(s) to try this out :).

Alternately, you may shorten "/usr/{userid}" to "~{userid}", such as "http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~moose/homepage.html".

Hint: The server considers the name "index" to be the default page. So if you use that name [with the tag .html, .htm, .shtml, whichever] you will be able to use "http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~{userid}/" for your URL.

If you would like the page to be listed on the Campus User's page

You will need the following information:

Your Andrew userid.
The name of the file of your home page [ie. homepage.html] OR
the full URL to your home page [ie. http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~moose/]
Exactly how you wish your name to appear [ie. "Joe Bob" or "MJ 'Moose' Finklestein"].
(Optional) You may include a one line blurb about your page. Please try to rememember that the Campus Users' page is seen by people all over the world. You don't have to be Disney, but you don't have to be Andrew Dice Clay either. Think before you send.

Mail me the above info at moose+@cmu.edu.

To add a server to the Campus User's page:

You need to tell me:

The URL to your server.
Exactly how you wish your name or the server's name to appear.
(Optional) You may send me a one line blurb about your server. As above, please think before sending.

Mail me the above info at moose+@cmu.edu.

To modify your existing entry:

If you wish to change how your name appears or have a blurb about your page with your name, please let me know at moose+@cmu.edu.

To use a counter:

Each user on the Contrib Server may have one counter. To request a counter, please send mail to me at moose+@cmu.edu.

Once you have received your counter number, you use a tag like this: where "n" is your assigned counter number. An example would be:

You are visitor number <COUNTER TAG=0> to my home page.

NOTE: Your file must end in .shtml for the file to work. So if you are using a file called "index.html" you MUST rename it to "index.shtml".

Hint: If you are currently using a different name than "index" for your main page and don't wish to have everyone under the sun get a new URL, you may use a symbolic to point to your old page name.

Example: My page was "homepage.html" but now I wish to use a counter. I use these steps to keep the file "homepage.html" valid:

% mv homepage.html homepage.shtml
% ln -s homepage.shtml homepage.html

Now both pages are valid, and point to the same file.

To use an imagemap:

Image maps must be called filename.map. An example of how to link one in your page follows, using the name "foo" for the files:

Currently only CERN rectangles are being supported. Stay tuned for more formats to come.

To forward (redirect) a page:

The server will forward anything ending in .response. Use the following steps to have people accessing URL A to automagically be moved to URL B.

First create a file called {filename}.response. The "Location" field should contain the new URL you are forwarding to (URL B).

An example file is below:

HTTP/1.0 301 Moved
Content-Type: text/html
Location: http://www.psc.edu/~ecf/

<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Document Moved</TITLE></HEAD><BODY>
This document has moved to
<A HREF="http://www.psc.edu/~ecf/">http://www.psc.edu/~ecf/</A>
</BODY></HTML>

Next, you must link this file to the file you are forwarding -from- (URL A).

Example: I want to redirect people who access my file foopage.html. I use the following steps to link in my file, foopage.response, so that the server will forward.

% mv foopage.html foopage.html.old
% ln -s foopage.response foopage.html

Now people who access foopage.html will be redirected by foopage.response. I am also free to remove foopage.html.old now or save it, if the move is temporary.

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me. Please note that I only maintain the pages; general questions about the server itself should go to the server maintainer, Rob Earhart (rob+).Please try to remember that we do this as volunteers and both have 'real' jobs that keep us busy othertimes.

Esther Filderman (moose+@cmu.edu)