How to Create a HomePage on the Alachua Freenet

THIS PAGE IS OBSOLETE

It will be updated as time permits.

The basic steps are correct, but you must use the FTP program to connect to ftp.afn.org and use FTP commands rather than the methods described below.

This page is intended for folks totally unfamiliar with home pages, HTML, or how to create files in your home directory.

HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language and is the means of telling WWW (World Wide Web) browsing programs (like Lynx, Mosaic, Netscape etc) how to display "Web Pages". It is a very rich "language" with lots of possibilities, but the basics are really quite simple. That's what we're going to deal with here.

• 1) prepare a WWW space for the documents to reside in.
• 2) create the WWW documents. and finally
• 3) place your WWW documents in your WWW space.(under construction).

You will eventually want to grab a pen and paper or print these screens.
Here are the steps:

How to Create your own "public_html" subdirectory

It's gotten easier! Now there's a MENU item that does it all for you!

• quit your browser, and dialup your account on AFN.
• Go into Information Supplier menu ('infosup' from any menu prompt).
• Select option #5.
• You're done! You've got a new directory called public_html and it's ready to receive your homepages.

You can create them on your home machine and upload them (preferred method).

or you can create them on the spot with one of Freenet's text editors.

Here's how to do the latter:

1. Login to your AFN account (if you haven't already done so).
   Note: this is still most practical in the early morning..

2. When you get to a menu (e.g. "main"), type this:
   fileshell.
   and press the "return" or "enter" key. (Press "enter" after each of the commands given below). This will take you to your "home" directory and to a set of commands for operating on your files and subdirectories.

   (Alternatively, you can choose "fileshell" (#6) from the "Local" menu or (#13) from the "Homefiles" menu.)

3. Now, study the fileshell screen a little, to get familiar with the available commands. It's commandline- (not menu-)driven like the usual ones on AFN.

4. Now you can "cd" or change directory to make public_html the current directory.
   like this:
   cd public_html

5. At this point you can create and/or edit your home page by typing:
   e index.html
   But, you have to know what to put in it first! That comes next!

6. You shouldn't have to set the protection for your file. If you do need to, use the "p" command (when using the Fileshell menu). Type p open public_html/file.html or just p <enter> and follow the instructions.

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Creating your HTML file "index.html"

Basically, an html file contains the text you want to display, and "tags" that inform browsers how to display it.

Tags are always enclosed in angle brackets < and >. They are usually paired: one begins the tagged text, and one ends it, like this: < tag > and </tag >

1. Click here to see what an html file looks like when you are editing it (not "browsing" it).

2. Then click here to see the same file with the WWW browser

3. You can click here for a collection of HTML Tutorials with a lot more details.

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Closing notes

A few reminders..

• Put your "index.html" in your public_html under your home directory (i.e. ~/public_html).

• You now have 2 options for getting your HTML on the Freenet:
  1) create and edit the file with the Freenet editor
  2) create your file on your own machine, and upload it to your public_html directory.
  IMPORTANT NOTE: if you're on a PC, you'll have to rename it from index.htm to index.html once it has been uploaded. The rename function is "R" on the "fileshell" menu.

  Uploading is a lot easier if you're already using Slip or PPP and have an FTP client like WS_FTP which is an outstanding piece of freeware for Windows (you only really need an FTP client to upload, your web browser can already do the downloading). If you have trouble with uploading with Kermit, or x/y/zmodem, take a look at this note on uploading problems.

  A couple notes on common error messages

  The most common error messages have the codes 403 & 404.

  • 404 means "file not found" which probably means you have mistyped something in the name of the file or directory or perhaps you forgot to rename the file from something.htm to something.html.

    Remember, you never need to specifically mention "public_html" in a web address.

  • 403 means your file is not set to be publicly readable. The web server has found the file but doesn't have permission to display it. Files created in the public_html directory are (by default) publicly readable, so make sure you placed the file there. Otherwise you may have to change the permission status. This is accomplished using the "p" command in the fileshell menu.

  • Broken Images: If you upload images (*.gif or *.jpg) be sure to do so in binary mode. Otherwise your pictures will just produce a "broken" icon.

• Here's how to "point to" your HTML file from other HTML files:
  The URL (Uniform Resource Locator--WWWeb-ese for WWW address) for your home page will be:
  http://www.afn.org/~username/
  where username is your username. Note the trailing slash "/". You can tell your friends with Web access, (anywhere in the world!), "Here's my URL" and they can browse your files whenever they like!

  The relative URL, by which we mean the address used by browsers already at the Alachua Freenet, would be simply
  /~username/.

• Once created, your home page will be added automatically to the AFN Users list within 24 hours.

And that's it! You should be ready to create your own WWW Home page! If you have any trouble with it, send an email to the author or try this MAIL Form.

Good luck!

ps. If you have an organization that would like to have an "information supplier" menu, check out the the WWW tutorial for information suppliers.

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