Trying to get the hang of uploading a website

[Doc]

I've put together a very basic practice website. Just a single picture and a
few words. I'm trying to nail down an understanding of certain aspects of
putting the site on the internet. While I do have a domain name, in this
case, I'm using the free webspace my ISP provides. In this case I'm not
using a program, I'm writing the site content manually.

I made a folder called "Test Website". Inside that I put the actual html
text document and am calling it index.html . Also inside this "Test
Website" folder, I created another folder called "images" inside of which
I've put the .jpg file that I've used as part of this webpage.

First, it's my understanding that a typical way to organize site content is
to put pics in one folder, sound files in another, etc., and the html
document outside of these content folders. Is this the correct way to do it?
This appears to be the way the books and sites I've looked at on web
authoring advise to do it, yet I run into a problem when trying to upload
the site contents when doing it this way, which I'll get to in a moment.

I open the file transfer program I have called FTP max and it asks for some
info. One of them is "remote folder". Is it correct that this is the
location to load the site content? Something that's not clear to me, is
there more than one remote folder? FTP Max appears to give the option to
create more than one.

The default remote appears to be /www. If you want to create multiple
individual sites, would you use different remote folders?

When I attempt to upload the source files from my computer, am I supposed to
upload the entire "Test Website" folder as a whole? It won't allow me to do
this, saying "folder contains files which cannot be uploaded." If I open the
"Test Website" folder, it will upload the index.html text file, but it won't
upload the "images" folder. If I open the "images" folder it will let upload
the jpeg file. This is a point of confusion to me. Since the server doesn't
let me upload folders, instead of organizing the site content in folders as
I've done, am I supposed to just dump all the site contents into one folder
and dump it all into the remote folder?

Now, regarding the site address, according to my ISP (earthlink) the format
is http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/ However, if I want to have
separate, discrete websites under this, should I define the individual sites
as, for example http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/Test_Wesite/
http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/Test_Website2/

etc? Or is this completely off the mark?

Thanks for any assistance.

 

[Spartanicus]

First, it's my understanding that a typical way to organize site content is
to put pics in one folder, sound files in another, etc., and the html
document outside of these content folders. Is this the correct way to do it?

There is no correct or incorrect way regarding folder usage. Sub folders
are common, but their use should be governed by your preferred file
handling. Note that it's recommended to plan ahead, currently you may
only have a few files for which sub folders are of little use, but that
may change in future and url's should if possible remain the same to
prevent link rot.

This appears to be the way the books and sites I've looked at on web
authoring advise to do it, yet I run into a problem when trying to upload
the site contents when doing it this way, which I'll get to in a moment.

I open the file transfer program I have called FTP max and it asks for some
info. One of them is "remote folder". Is it correct that this is the
location to load the site content? Something that's not clear to me, is
there more than one remote folder? FTP Max appears to give the option to
create more than one.

I don't know FTP max, but typically you specify a single root to create
your files and folders in, in your case specifying "/" (sans quotes)
should do it.

The default remote appears to be /www.

Check FTP max's website for a FAQ and/or a forum for program specific
info.

If you want to create multiple
individual sites, would you use different remote folders?

Multiple individual sites typically use individual domains, hence they
would require multiple ftp profiles.

When I attempt to upload the source files from my computer, am I supposed to
upload the entire "Test Website" folder as a whole?

FTP software typically needs a path to a local folder, your FTP software
may use profiles to store jobs, or if it's fully manual you may need to
browse to the correct local and remote folder, again see the help and
website of your particular FTP software.

Now, regarding the site address, according to my ISP (earthlink) the format
is http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/ However, if I want to have
separate, discrete websites under this, should I define the individual sites
as, for example http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/Test_Wesite/
http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/Test_Website2/

http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/ will bring up index.htm(l), to
create separate sites you need to use a different index file name and
append that like so:
http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/othersite1.html
http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/othersite2.html

Note that this is the cheapskate way of doing it, a proper (sub) domain
per site would be preferred.

 

[Matt N. Jones]

I've put together a very basic practice website. Just a single picture and a
few words. I'm trying to nail down an understanding of certain aspects of
putting the site on the internet. While I do have a domain name, in this
case, I'm using the free webspace my ISP provides. In this case I'm not
using a program, I'm writing the site content manually.

I made a folder called "Test Website". Inside that I put the actual html
text document and am calling it index.html . Also inside this "Test
Website" folder, I created another folder called "images" inside of which
I've put the .jpg file that I've used as part of this webpage.

First, it's my understanding that a typical way to organize site content is
to put pics in one folder, sound files in another, etc., and the html
document outside of these content folders. Is this the correct way to do it?

Yep. The way you've got your files set up sounds good to me.

This appears to be the way the books and sites I've looked at on web
authoring advise to do it, yet I run into a problem when trying to upload
the site contents when doing it this way, which I'll get to in a moment.

I open the file transfer program I have called FTP max and it asks for some
info. One of them is "remote folder". Is it correct that this is the
location to load the site content? Something that's not clear to me, is
there more than one remote folder? FTP Max appears to give the option to
create more than one.

The default remote appears to be /www. If you want to create multiple
individual sites, would you use different remote folders?

The /www is your remote folder. If you open a web browser and go to the web
address supplied by your ISP, you will see the contents of the
/www folder. With free web hosting supplied by ISPs there usually only
one remote folder you can upload to because you're only give one web
address.

Therefore, to create more sites, you just add more folders to
you www/ folder.

http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/ = www/index.html
http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/site2/ = www/site2/index.html
http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/site3/ = www/site3/index.html

When I attempt to upload the source files from my computer, am I supposed to
upload the entire "Test Website" folder as a whole?

Well if you upload the *contents* of "Test Website" to the www/ folder on the
remote host. Then your site will be at:

http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/

If you uploaded the "Test Website" folder *and* its contents, your site
will be at:

http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/Test Website/

(Note the weird '%20' in the web address, this is becuase the folder has
a space in it. Try to name your web folders with all lowercase letters
and no spaces)

It won't allow me to do
this, saying "folder contains files which cannot be uploaded." If I open the
"Test Website" folder, it will upload the index.html text file, but it won't
upload the "images" folder. If I open the "images" folder it will let upload
the jpeg file. This is a point of confusion to me. Since the server doesn't
let me upload folders, instead of organizing the site content in folders as
I've done, am I supposed to just dump all the site contents into one folder
and dump it all into the remote folder?

Your FTP program should enable you to make folders on your remote
filespace (look for something like 'Make Direcory' or 'Create
Folder'). Just create folders on the remote space that exactly match
the folders you have set up on your computer. Then copy the files into
them.

HTH
Matt

 

[marcus]

The default remote appears to be /www. If you want to create multiple
individual sites, would you use different remote folders?

Yes - the new folders would be beneath that remote folder.

When I attempt to upload the source files from my computer, am I supposed to
upload the entire "Test Website" folder as a whole? It won't allow me to do
this, saying "folder contains files which cannot be uploaded." If I open the
"Test Website" folder, it will upload the index.html text file, but it won't
upload the "images" folder. If I open the "images" folder it will let upload
the jpeg file. This is a point of confusion to me. Since the server doesn't
let me upload folders, instead of organizing the site content in folders as
I've done, am I supposed to just dump all the site contents into one folder
and dump it all into the remote folder?

I would suggest you just upload the index.html file first. From looking at the
site here:

http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/

it is evident that you have been successful in the past in uploading several
files. You now need a file index.html to prevent the current directory listing
from being shown.

Now, regarding the site address, according to my ISP (earthlink) the format
is http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/ However, if I want to have
separate, discrete websites under this, should I define the individual sites
as, for example http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/Test_Wesite/
http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/Test_Website2/

That's correct. So, for example:

index.html will hold your main site

bruddah/index.html will hold pages about your brother
rover/index.html will hold pages about the Rover malfunction

etc, etc...

Hope this helps.

regards
Marcus

 

[Doc]

I would suggest you just upload the index.html file first. From looking at the
site here:

http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/

it is evident that you have been successful in the past in uploading several
files.

Yes, but these were done using a program that did it automatically and I
still had problems with making the sites work right. I'm trying to learn to
do it manually and actually understand what the heck is going on. Actually,
I thought I had deleted these files, not sure why they're still there. Will
have to investigate that.

I appreciate the input.

 

[Doc]

The /www is your remote folder. If you open a web browser and go to the web
address supplied by your ISP, you will see the contents of the
/www folder. With free web hosting supplied by ISPs there usually only
one remote folder you can upload to because you're only give one web
address.

Therefore, to create more sites, you just add more folders to
you www/ folder.

http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/ = www/index.html
http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/site2/ = www/site2/index.html
http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/site3/ = www/site3/index.html

Excellent info, much appreciated.

 

[marcus]

I'm trying to learn to
do it manually and actually understand what the heck is going on.

I would suggest using ws_ftp LE. This shows the local files and remote files
and allows you to transfer easily using a simple interface.

You can download from here:

ftp://ftp.ipswitch.com/Ipswitch/Product_Downloads/WS_FTPLE.exe

Hope this helps.

regards
Marcus

 

[Frogleg]

I made a folder called "Test Website".

Bad idea. Both the embedded space and mixed case name may get you into
trouble with some systems. A better name would be "test" or
"test_website". However, you don't need to wrap your test page/site
into a folder at all. Use default properties, name your page
"index.html" (or "index.htm"), and you can see it by using the URL
http://home.earthlink.net/~docwhatever

rather than

http://home.earthlink.net/!docwhatever/test/something.html

The name "index.html" (or "default.html" in some cases) is the default
for the home page of an address.

Inside that I put the actual html
text document and am calling it index.html . Also inside this "Test
Website" folder, I created another folder called "images" inside of which
I've put the .jpg file that I've used as part of this webpage.

(Earthlink has already set up an 'images' and a 'data' folder in your
webspace. If you use their FTP option [under the 'tools' menu], you
will see them.)

First, it's my understanding that a typical way to organize site content is
to put pics in one folder, sound files in another, etc., and the html
document outside of these content folders. Is this the correct way to do it?

It is optional. If you have 2 .html files and 3-4 images, it's
perfectly OK to have them all in the same directory and refer to them
directly. If you have dozens of images that need to be sorted into
categories, it may be easier to have them in an 'images' folder or
possibly 'images/spring', 'images/summer', etc. series.

I open the file transfer program I have called FTP max

Again, you might want to try Earthlink's little FTP tool. It's simple
and straightforward.

and it asks for some
info. One of them is "remote folder". Is it correct that this is the
location to load the site content? Something that's not clear to me, is
there more than one remote folder? FTP Max appears to give the option to
create more than one.

The default remote appears to be /www. If you want to create multiple
individual sites, would you use different remote folders?

You could. If you create a 'cats' folder, and store an 'index.html'
there, you would access that page by

http://home.earthlink.net/~docwhatever/cats/

If you have 'cats.html' in the www directory, the address would be

http://home.earthlink.net/~docwhatever./cats.html

If the address does not include a specific html file, the browser will
look for and open 'index.html'.

When I attempt to upload the source files from my computer, am I supposed to
upload the entire "Test Website" folder as a whole? It won't allow me to do
this, saying "folder contains files which cannot be uploaded." If I open the
"Test Website" folder, it will upload the index.html text file, but it won't
upload the "images" folder. If I open the "images" folder it will let upload
the jpeg file. This is a point of confusion to me. Since the server doesn't
let me upload folders, instead of organizing the site content in folders as
I've done, am I supposed to just dump all the site contents into one folder
and dump it all into the remote folder?

Folders (directories) on your home computer may contain logfiles or
database indexes the remote system doesn't want to accept. Once you
have the folders (directories) set up on the remote system, it's
pretty easy to select, say, all the image files in your local 'images'
folder/directory and send them to the remote 'images'
folder/directory. The remote site's facility for creating new
directories/folders may or may not be a part of it's file transfer
setup.

Now, regarding the site address, according to my ISP (earthlink) the format
is http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/ However, if I want to have
separate, discrete websites under this, should I define the individual sites
as, for example http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/Test_Wesite/
http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/Test_Website2/

Yes.

 

[Toby Inkster]

you can see it by using the URL
http://home.earthlink.net/~docwhatever

You forgot the final '/'.

 

[Neal]

I would suggest using ws_ftp LE. This shows the local files and remote
files
and allows you to transfer easily using a simple interface.

You can download from here:

ftp://ftp.ipswitch.com/Ipswitch/Product_Downloads/WS_FTPLE.exe

Note that this is a direct download, and the Ipswitch site does not link
to it from their page any longer. But it is a powerful piece of free- or
shareware, forget which...

 

[Toby Inkster]

Note that this is a direct download, and the Ipswitch site does not link
to it from their page any longer. But it is a powerful piece of free- or
shareware, forget which...

It's freeware but only for educational, personal and IIRC non-commercial
use. If you want to use it in a commercial environment, you should upgrade
to the paid version.

 

[Doc]

I would suggest using ws_ftp LE. This shows the local files and remote files
and allows you to transfer easily using a simple interface.

You can download from here:

ftp://ftp.ipswitch.com/Ipswitch/Product_Downloads/WS_FTPLE.exe

I'll give it a shot, but since posting this I've discovered that there's a
direct ftp page that I can log onto that makes it a moot point. I can just
drag and paste the whole thing, folders and all, right onto the ftp page.
Works great.

 

[Adrienne]

I've put together a very basic practice website. Just a single picture
and a few words. I'm trying to nail down an understanding of certain
aspects of putting the site on the internet. While I do have a domain
name, in this case, I'm using the free webspace my ISP provides. In
this case I'm not using a program, I'm writing the site content
manually.

I made a folder called "Test Website". Inside that I put the actual
html text document and am calling it index.html . Also inside this
"Test Website" folder, I created another folder called "images" inside
of which I've put the .jpg file that I've used as part of this
webpage.

First, it's my understanding that a typical way to organize site
content is to put pics in one folder, sound files in another, etc., and
the html document outside of these content folders. Is this the correct
way to do it? This appears to be the way the books and sites I've
looked at on web authoring advise to do it, yet I run into a problem
when trying to upload the site contents when doing it this way, which
I'll get to in a moment.

It's a matter of what you find easiest. If you are not going to have a lot
of images, why bother to create such a folder? If you wanted to have pages
for different people perhaps, you make separate folders, eg.
www.example.com/dick/ or www.example.com/jane/, where all the HTML
documents and images would be stored for Dick and Jane.

I open the file transfer program I have called FTP max and it asks for
some info. One of them is "remote folder". Is it correct that this is
the location to load the site content? Something that's not clear to
me, is there more than one remote folder? FTP Max appears to give the
option to create more than one.

Yes, the remote folder is the folder on the webhost's server. Your webhost
should have given you that information.

The default remote appears to be /www. If you want to create multiple
individual sites, would you use different remote folders?

It depends on what you want to do. If you want different web sites with
different domain names, then those have to be registered with an accredited
registrar. If you want subdomains, like jane.example.com, you probably
have to arrange that with your host.

If you just want to tell people to visit http://www.example.com/jane/ then
you would just make a subdirectory to the root directory with which your
host provided you.

When I attempt to upload the source files from my computer, am I
supposed to upload the entire "Test Website" folder as a whole? It
won't allow me to do this, saying "folder contains files which cannot
be uploaded." If I open the "Test Website" folder, it will upload the
index.html text file, but it won't upload the "images" folder. If I
open the "images" folder it will let upload the jpeg file. This is a
point of confusion to me. Since the server doesn't let me upload
folders, instead of organizing the site content in folders as I've
done, am I supposed to just dump all the site contents into one folder
and dump it all into the remote folder?

See below.

Now, regarding the site address, according to my ISP (earthlink) the
format is http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/ However, if I want to
have separate, discrete websites under this, should I define the
individual sites as, for example
http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/Test_Wesite/
http://home.mpinet.net/~docsavage20/Test_Website2/

etc? Or is this completely off the mark?

That is correct. Make sure that each folder has its own index.html file.

To answer your question above, if you copy a folder to the root folder, the
server will usually create a new folder. For example, if I dropped a
folder called widgets into the root folder, the server would create a new
folder called widgets, and make www.example.com/widgets/ . If there is
some sort of file in the widgets folder that the server will not accept,
then you would talk to your host and see what types of files are not
allowed.

Thanks for any assistance.

HTH

 

[Frogleg]

You forgot the final '/'.

Mox nix. It doesn't make any difference when you want to look at the
page.

 

[Joel Shepherd]

You forgot the final '/'.

Mox nix. It doesn't make any difference when you want to look at the
page.[/QUOTE]

Maybe not to you: it does make a difference to your web server. In fact,
if I'm not mistaken, it results in the server first sending a 302
response (resource temporarily moved) to the browser, and then
internally redirecting to http://home.earthlink.net/~docwhatever/ .

The slash at the end *does* make a difference. It's just that, in this
particular case, you don't see it because the server is covering your
backside. But even if you don't see, it does cause extra (needlessly so)
traffic on the wire and load on the server.

--
Joel.

http://www.cv6.org/
"May she also say with just pride:
I have done the State some service."

 

[Daniel R. Tobias]

The slash at the end *does* make a difference. It's just that, in this
particular case, you don't see it because the server is covering your
backside. But even if you don't see, it does cause extra (needlessly so)
traffic on the wire and load on the server.

Some discussion of directory structures, default index pages, and the
issue of trailing slashes, is in my site:

http://webtips.dan.info/subdir.html

 

[Joel Shepherd]

Some discussion of directory structures, default index pages, and the
issue of trailing slashes, is in my site:

http://webtips.dan.info/subdir.html

Thanks for the link. I initially was going to write that the 302
response did cause a full round-trip between server and client, but came
across something last night that suggested (in this case) that it was
merely a response and an internal redirect.

But, the round-trip explanation seems more solid. For one thing (maybe
the HTTP RFC says something about this), I doubt if most user agents
would be prepared for multiple responses to the same request.