Advice for authoring your homepage
Resources
Guidelines
Template
People
in EECE
What can I do?
- Get hold of a template to help you get started;
- set up your own web page;
- put it on-line;
- update it as often as you like;
- add separate pages, e.g., describing your research project;
- provide useful files for downloading, such as images or sound files demonstrating some of your results, copies of reports, etc.
How do I begin?
There are three basic steps to getting a web page up and running.
You need to:
- have some file space allocated on a web server;
- put a file containing Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) there;
- make it accessible for anyone to read.
Getting some file space
This year, a new server has been introduced in the School, called postgrad.eee.bham.ac.uk where you are entitled to your own web account. You will need to apply via IT Service Desk to get it set up, which normally takes a day or so. You will be given your own directory, and url whose URL will be http://postgrad.eee.bham.ac.uk/familyname+initial or something similar, and where you will be allocated a few Mb of space.
Make sure you read the official guidelines governing the use of this web space.
While you are waiting, you can plough ahead making your web page(s), which you will be able to view locally using any web browser, like Netscape Communicator or Microsoft Explorer. This will give you a chance to check the presentation of your homepage before laying it open to the scrutiny of the rest of the planet!
Making your homepage
You can get hold of an HTML file either by downloading the School template or by copying someone else's homepage ( File | Save As ). You are strongly recommended to use the template, since it is likely to make your life easier in the long run and, more importantly, it will make it easier for people outside the university to find the information they want if we all maintain a similar format. Of course, if you want to add fancy extras, you are welcome to do so, but you are encouraged to do so on a personal page and keep your front page looking smart and professional. Not only can too many additions make the page look cluttered, but gimicks can go out of date very quickly - you don't have to look far to know what I mean!!
It's probably worth spending some time looking at the file in a text editor and trying to understand a bit about it's structure. There are plenty of HTML guides available, both on- and off-line, but you needn't be daunted. Most pages are generated using very few commands or tags, and you can create a perfectly acceptable page by simply filling in the blanks on the template.
Guidance
In the first instance, it is better to pinch the most of your page content from things you already have: your PhD proposal, photos that can be scanned, 3-month report, 6-month report, etc. Not only does it make your life easier, but it will probably be of a higher quality than something newly chucked together. There are some official guidelines as to what must be included (name, email address, research interests, description of your project, supervisor's name), and what might be better left out (phone numbers, personal information).
A good rule of thumb is always to go for the lowest common denominator (the KISS principle!) for questions of style, whether to use frames or not, and issues backward compatibility. As for the layout and content, make sure you think about the user. Ask yourself, "Who am I writing this for: my supervisor, my research group, researchers in other universities, in other countries, a potential employer, ...? What information will they be looking for?"
Remember: whatever you put on the internet will be there for the whole world to see, to criticise, to copy and to learn about you. Therefore, it is worth spending a good deal of effort to make it right, and you should perhaps treat it as you would a conference paper or your thesis. Think about the intended readers, such as a researcher abroad. Also, different people will be using different platforms (DOS, Unix, Mac, WAP), different web browsers (Explorer, Netscape communicator, Opera, etc.) and different sized screens. It is best to design your pages to cope with a minimum size of something like 800 x 600 pixels, but to test it for various sizes, browsers and platforms.
Allowing others to view it
First you need to transfer your file to the appropriate place.
From Windows
You can do this by running \\eeestuweb\postroot, opening up your directory (Your Username), and dragging your file across. You need to be logged into the ADF domain before you can do this.
You may also wish to map a drive letter which you can do from the Tools menu in Windows Explorer.
From the Suns
You need to put the following command in your .cshrc file
alias postroot smbclient //eeestuweb/postroot -W ADF Log out, log in again and then issue the following command whenever you need to connect to the web server:
postroot Type in your ADF password, and then use "cd", "dir", "get" and "put" to change directory, list directory, send and retrieve files respectively. The commands are identical to those of the "ftp" command.
If your Sun and NT usernames are different, then you will need to use the following command in your .cshrc file:
alias postroot smbclient //eeestuweb/postroot -W ADF -U username2
where "username2" is your username on the ADF server.The procedure from Linux is very similar to the Suns. You need to have the "Samba" package installed if you are using smbclient.
Finally, you need let people know your URL, so they can find your web page. The full address might be something like http://postgrad.eee.bham.ac.uk/familyname+initial/index.html, but since index.html is the default filename, you can just use http://postgrad.bham.ac.uk/familyname+initial/.
Thank you for showing an interest in getting yourself on-line.
