Please Note: UAF is in the process of migrating our web pages from our current Apache web server to a new Roxen Content Management System, and new accounts will be created on Roxen

Because of the need during the migration period to service requests from migrated sites on the new Roxen server and as yet unmigrated sites still on the old Apache server, as of Monday, the 10th of March 2008, the hostname will begin to serve documents from both servers, locating migrated sites on Roxen and unmigrated sites on Apache transparent to the requester. That is, pages from either server (depending on the department's migration status) will be accessible through the name .

One notable side effect of this process is the need for a mechanism for our web authors and content providers to be able to specify which actual server they wish to access. Since the name is no longer available for that purpose, a new name is being attached to the old Apache web server. To access/update files on the old Apache server using SSH, SFTP, or an HTML editor like Dreamweaver, the new hostname will be . Web authors and content providers who wish to add new files, modify or remove existing files, or to change the account password on the old Apache web server will use the new hostname . Standard web page requests via a web browser will still use the name as usual.

If you're interested in putting a UAF website on line, you've come to the right place. We've assembled resources to help make your venture onto the UAF web world as painless as possible. If you run into problems or have comments or questions about these instructions, please feel free to drop us email. For those interested, the OIT Support Center offers training seminars to develop your web skills.

1) The best place to start a home page is in your head. Ask yourself some questions:

• What do I want to say?
• Who am I trying to inform (who is my audience)?
• What kind of information will my audience need?
• What is the best way to organize that information?

2) Plan your site organization. On a web site, organization is more important than anything else. The best sites on the web are easy to navigate. Assume your user knows nothing about your department (or site) and inform them from the ground up. Give your links logical, obvious names. Map out on paper what you want to include and how it will all fit together.

3) Review UAF Guidelines for creating web pages. Below is a quick preview of the most important topics of the Guidelines.

4) Collect and prepare the material you'll need for your web page.

The text in your document can be created in a word processing program, text editor or html editor. HTML editors are available from the OIT Download site.

Images for web use (photos, logos, line drawings, etc.) must be saved either in .gif or .jpg format.

Your website MUST include accessibility features to make the page work for people with special needs. Most of these features are simple and straightforward, and can easily be included in your html coding.

5) Once your page has been generated, save files on your hard disk with the .html extension. You must have the ".html" or .htm" after your document name, or it will not be recognized by some Internet browsers.

DO NOT USE spaces, slashes, or backshashes in the html filename. Underline, periods and hypens are allowed.

Name your main page "index.html". This will assure that users will land on the proper page when they come to your site. Give all pages in your site unique names. Make sure that you use the alt attribute for images in your html files.

6) Check to see if your department has an account on the UAF web servers. If you don't know, you may email or call the Office of Information Technology Support Center.

If your department has an existing account, someone in your department is responsible for that account. Contact that person and ask for the account location. If the site has already been transferred to the Roxen server, then this person should be able to help set you up to edit the content in the Roxen CMS. If the site has not yet been migrated to the Roxen server, then this person should be able to provide you with the name and the password for the account on apache.uaf.edu.

If you don't know who the responsible person is, you should email or call the Office of Information Technology Support Center and ask.

UAF departments and organizations are provided space on the UAF web servers. Faculty looking for individual accounts can get web space on the Faculty Web Server. Faculty wishing to have web space for online classes should check out the Blackboard web server. Staff have web space on the Staff Web Server.

Important Note: As of Monday, 10 March 2008, the hostname for connecting to www.uaf.edu via SSH, SFTP, and HTML Editors like Dreamweaver for updating your files or your account password will be apache.uaf.edu.

7) Upload your graphics and .html files onto your UAF web account using Secure FTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) software. If you use the latest version of Dreamweaver, the Secure FTP program is built into it on both PC and Mac versions. Dreamweaver MX is available as a key-served program. If you wish to use other html editors or older versions of Dreamweaver, PC users and Mac Users both will need SFTP, which is available from the OIT Download Site.
Please see Setting up FTP connection with Dreamweaver

ALWAYS keep a backup copy of your files either on your computer, cd, zip disk or some other storage media.

8) Validate your html files with some type of validation program. This cleans up your html so that it works on all browsers.

9) Announce your web site to the world! Email fyweb@uaf.edu and tell them what your site is about, the url of your site and the UAF page(s) you want a link on. It will then be linked from the appropriate UAF page.

10) Want to include an email form, a counter, a search engine, or a guestbook? Check out OIT's CGI programs that you can call from within your pages.

For a complete listing of web resources, from html tutorials to html validation to browser checks, see our list of Web Resource Links.