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Note: These instructions are written for transferring web documents and images to your web space provided as part of your ISU (CWIS) account using the ftp utility provided as part of the Windows operating system. For information about transferring files to a different server, please email Sue Carter.

Before you transfer your finished HTML document to the server, you need to do the following:

• Be sure the file to be transferred has been saved as an ASCII text file (not in WordPerfect or MS Word format). If you are using Composer, click on file, then "Save" or "Save As", type your file name is the box next to "File name" and choose HTML for "Save as type". If you are using Notepad or WordPad, choose text document for the "Save as type".
  • Preferably the file extension should be .htm but .html is also acceptable (from Composer the default extension, if you don't provide an extension for your file name will be .htm when you choose to save as file type, HTML). Whichever extension you use, be consistent. You don't want to have to remember which files end in htm and which end in html.

  • The filename should be in lowercase letters. Web browsers (and the server to which you are posting your files) are case sensitive. If the filename begins with a capital letter, all links to or references to the file must begin with a capital letter; if the filename is in all caps, all links to or references to the file must be in all caps. The standard is for filenames to be all lowercase. (You can change the filename to lowercase at the server if you accidentally transfer a file that is all caps or begins with a capital letter but it takes a few extra steps.) If you find after you have transferred a file that it begins with a capital letter or is in all caps, please contact a systems staff person or Sue Carter who will assist you in renaming the file using all lowercase.

• Be sure you know the location where you saved the file (the A: drive or which folder on C: drive).

• Check spelling and grammar (you can use the spellcheck feature in Composer, or use Word or WordPerfect to check spelling and grammar). Also, be sure to read the document for appropriate content and edit as necessary.

• Preview the document in a browser. It is a good idea to preview it in both Netscape and Explorer (if you have access to both). Files display differently depending on the browser you use.

To preview the document, open Netscape or Internet Explorer. Click on File (located at the top left corner of the screen), go down to Open Page, and click on Choose File when the window below appears.
 

The Open window appears. Navigate to the file you want to view, highlight it and click on Open.
 

After selecting the file you want to preview, you are returned to the window shown below. For the "Open location or file in" option, make sure the radio button next to Navigator is selected. Click on Open or press Enter.
 

When you are satisfied that your document is ready to publish, the next step is to copy it to the CWIS Web Server.

To transfer (upload) the pages to your personal storage area on the CWIS server, you need to use the ftp program that comes with your Windows operating system.

NOTE: In these instructions, when it says type "xxxx xx xxxxx" , just type in what in surrounded by quotes. DO NOT type the quotes.

From the Start menu, Click on Run

 

The window shown below will open. In the box next to Open, type in "c:\windows\ftp.exe cwis.isu.edu" (do not include quotes) and either press Enter or click on OK. If you have a newer version of Windows, ftp.exe may be in a different directory. In Windows 2000, for example, the file is located in c:\WINNT\system32\ directory, so the command "c:\WINNT\system32\ftp.exe cwis.isu.edu" must be typed in the box next to open. You might need to click on Browse to find the file ftp.exe. I am not familiar with Linux, OS2 or Macintosh so I cannot tell you where to find the file in those operating systems.
 

*Note: Be sure your Caps Lock is off. Once you open the ftp session, you are using the UNIX operating system on the server. In UNIX, everything is case sensitive; cd is a different command than CD.

The ftp window shown below opens. The cursor will be in the position at the end of the line that reads User <cwis.isu.edu:<none>>: Type in your user name, which is the same as your email user name, and press Enter. Example, if your name is John Smith and your email address is smitjohn@isu.edu, your user name is smitjohn.
 

You will then be prompted to enter your password. This password is the same as your email password. Type in your password and press Enter.
 

At the ftp> prompt, type "cd public_html" and press Enter. This is the directory where the files for your individual account are stored and where you need to transfer your HTML documents (web pages).
 

Notice that after each command has been completed, you are returned to the ftp> prompt.

If you aren’t sure which directory you are in, you can type "pwd" (print working directory) to display the path of the current directory.
 

At the ftp> prompt:

Type "asc" (for ASCII) and press Enter if you are transferring htm documents (edbib.htm, ejournal.htm or reference.htm). If you are transferring graphics (tiger.gif, tiger.bmp or tiger.jpg files), then type "bin" (for BINARY) and press Enter.

This step is very important!!! You want to make sure your files are transferred to the server in the proper mode. The files may not work correctly if not transferred in the appropriate mode.

If you typed "asc", you should see Type set to A on the line above the ftp> prompt (current cursor position).

If you typed "bin", you should see Type set to I on the line above the ftp> prompt (current cursor position).

At the ftp> prompt, type "put c:\directory\filename.htm" (substitute the directory on your hard drive where the file is located for the word directory and substitute the actual name of your file (it should end in .htm for filename.htm) and press Enter. (If your file is on a floppy disk, substitute a:\ for c:\and the actual name of your file for filename.htm).
 

You should see something similar to the window above. Notice the four lines following the command, "put c:\sue\test.htm".

To transfer more than one document, go back to the paragraph with the star and repeat the steps for each file you want to transfer.
OR
Type "mput a:\*.htm" to transfer ALL the files on the disk in your A: drive which have the .htm extension to the server.

BE SURE TO TYPE "asc" OR "bin" IF YOU CHANGE THE TYPE OF FILE YOU ARE TRANSFERRING (.htm, .gif, .bmp or .jpg).

When you have finished transferring your files, type "bye" and press Enter to exit the ftp program.

Voilà! You have transferred your HTML document to the server
 
 

This step is no longer required. File permissions are now automatically set.

You will probably want to check out your Web page(s) now that you have transferred the files to the CWIS server.

Open Netscape or Internet Explorer. In the box next to Location, type the URL for your web page.

The URL for your page will be http://www.isu.edu/~username/filename.htm (replace username with your username and replace filename.htm with the actual name of your Web page).

Remember, your username is the same as your email username (the first 4 letters of your last name and the first 4 letters of your first name - the part of your email address that comes before @isu.edu).

If a user types a URL without including a specific file name to display (i.e., http://www.isu.edu/~cartsusa/) then web browser softwares look for one of six "default" file names to display: default.htm, default.html, home.htm, home.html, index.htm, or index.html.

If the browser finds a file with one of the six default file names, then it will retrieve and display that specific page. If none of the six default file names is specified in the URL or the browser can't find a file with one of the six default file names, then it will simply display a file listing of all the files stored in the directory (unless permissions do not allow viewing the directory listing).

(*Note: For the bibliographer pages, links from the ISU page(s) will specify the URL, complete with the filename for the first page to be displayed (i.e., http://www.isu.edu/~cartsusa/bib.htm).
 
 

Last updated 07/07/2004 sc