Information Technology Services
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA | CANADA B3H 4R2 | +1 (902) 494-3472

Personal Web Sites

Interested in publishing a personal website?

Your NetID is the key to many computing services on campus.

Apart from being the username part of your Dalhousie Email Address, it is also the basis of the URL for the personal webpage taking the following form:

http://myweb.dal.ca/netid*

* The NetID is unique to every student, faculty or staff. It should always be used in lower-case.

Important Notes:

  • All Personal Webspace URLs are case-sensitive.
    A very good rule of thumb is to use all lower-case characters when naming files and creating links in your web pages. This will help to ensure that your web pages function properly and are portable to other web servers.
  • Never delete your "public_www" folder!

 

Creating your Personal Website

  1. Create/edit a main Web Page file, also known called a Home page.  This file should be named "index.html".  To create/edit your index.html, you can use:
    • Text editors such as Notepad or Wordpad.
    • WordProcessors such as MS Word or WordPerfect
    • HTML editors such as MS Netscape composer, Microsoft Front page or Macromedia Dreamweaver.

  2. Examples:
    • If you are using a text editor like NotePad, type in the following text and save it as "index.html":

      <html>
      <head><title>Test Web Page</title></head>
      <body>
      This is a test Web Page
      </body>
      </html>

    • If you are using a WordProcessor like MS Word, you can enter some text for your webpage and format it as you desire. Then use "Save as" from the File menu to save your file.  Name your file "index.html" and save it as type "Web Page (*.htm,*.html)"


  3. Once you have a home page, you can add hyperlinks, images, documents, etc. Remember, any files saved in your public_www folder are automatically published on the Internet under your personal URL.

  4. Training in website authoring is available from ComputerTraining@Dalhousie.  A free online website (HTML) tutorial is available at http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp

Uploading Your Webpage

Using On-Campus Computers

  1. Login to your Novell account using your NetID and password.

  2. Under "My Computer", and in your G: Drive, you will find a "public_www " folder.

  3. Save your previously created "index.html" in the "public_www" folder.

  4. Make sure that your "index.html" file is saved in your "public_www" folder.

  5. In your browser, go to http://myweb.dal.ca/netid to see your test page.

Using NetStorage through the Dalhousie Portal (my.dal.ca)

  1. Go to my.dal.ca.

  2. Login using your NetID and password.

  3. Under the "NetStorage" section, click on NetStorage.

  4. A Pop-Up window will appear, double click on "My Drive G" then again on the "public_www" directory.

  5. Click on "file -> upload" and select you "index.html" file that you previously created to upload it to the to the "public_www" folder on your G: drive.

upload

  1. Make sure that your "index.html" file is saved in your "public_www" folder.

  2. In your browser, go to http://myweb.dal.ca/netid to see your test page.
 

Additional Features:

  • Directory Indexing
  • Password Protection
  • No special tools required for moving files to the webserver such as ftp*, just save the files in your G:\public_www folder or transfer files to G:\public_www using the NetStorage channel of the Dalhousie Portal, http://my.dal.ca/ *(Note: FTP access is available using your netID via ftp.novell.dal.ca )
  • New documents are ready for viewing on the Internet immediately, no special permissions settings are required on directories or files
  • All files are backed up nightly along with files in your home directory (G: Drive)
  • This service does not support cgi-scripts or executable code, however you may of course include java (jar files) and javascipt in your documents.