SVPAL: Hosted Web Site

What is a Hosted Web Site?

Your hosted web site is set up by the SVPAL operations staff. Unlike a personal web page, a hosted site has it's own web address distinct from SVPAL's web address. If you have registered the Internet name svpal.org (note that this name is SVPAL's domain name and web site and is used here as an example), then users access your web site using the name www.svpal.org thus:

http://www.svpal.org

Your own Internet name (aka Domain name) provides your own unique Internet identity that you can keep even if you change Internet Service Providers. It's also generally shorter and easier for people to remember.

How do I set up my Hosted Web Site?

SVPAL handles registering your domain name and setting up your account for hosting the website. You must supply the web pages. Your web site files are stored in a directory (folder) under your SVPAL account. The folder name is the same as your web site name. Using the example www.svpal.org, the folder for your web site would be named www.svpal.org.

You should upload a primary web page for your site named index.html. This page is the one that is displayed when users browse your web site's home page (http://www.svpal.org/) The full name for this file would be www.svpal.org/index.html (or in Windows parlance www.svpal.org\index.html).

You may create as many other pages as you like and include other content such as PDF, GIF, JPG, WAV as you like. You may create subdirectories (subfolders) as needed to help organize your web site. For example you might create a subdirectory called info under the www.svpal.org directory. In this directory place another file named index.html. This file is presented when users browse to the url http://www.svpal.org/info. The full name for this file would be www.svpal.org/info/index.html (or in Windows parlance www.svpal.org\info\index.html). This allows you provide shortcuts directly to particular parts of your web site.

Creating Web Pages

You can create your web pages by using the tools in SVPAL's menu system to create directories and edit files with the text editor. This is adequate for simple pages and a working knowledge of HTML. However, a much simpler method is to use an HTML editor program such as Netscape Composer (included with the full version of Netscape [a free download from Netscape]) or Microsoft's Frontpage or Frontpage Express (a free download from Microsoft). These programs both provide visual tools for creating web pages. You create your pages on your local disk drive and then upload the files to SVPAL.

After creating your web pages you must upload them and any images to your SVPAL account using FTP. Log into your account with FTP and look for a your web site directory (e.g. www.svpal.org). Open/browse this directory. Then upload your index.html file and any images that you have included in your home page.

You may create other web pages and directories for your web site and upload them to your SVPAL account in the same fashion.

Log Files

The access log file may be accessed at

/usr/local/www/logs/www.svpal.org/access_log

Replace www.svpal.org in the example with the name of your web site. You may download this file via ftp for analysis. Also the error log file

/usr/local/www/logs/www.svpal.org/error_log

can be useful for finding bad links on your web site.

Advanced Features

The SVPAL web server is configured to support file includes. To use file inclusion name your web pages with the extension of "shtml". Insert into web page a line of the form:

In this example, the "head.txt" file contains HTML defining a standard header for your site's web pages. You might also use this feature to include a standard navigation bar into all your web pages.