Area 10 [archive] - BUILD YOUR OWN WEBSITE PART FIVE

These notes are designed to help you to upload using Cute FTP (the only FTP program I have personal experience of). I believe most work on a similar basis, but you will need to adapt where necessary if using a different program.

A shareware version of Cute FTP came with our Internet Access from Force 9: presumably all servers will offer you some type of FTP option. You will need to install the FTP program before starting to follow the instructions given here.

Once your FTP program is installed (ideally you will have this on your "main options" from the Start Menu (Start button bottom left of your screen) you will need to be connected to the Internet before you start uploading files.

Once you're connected, select Start - Cute FTP - Cute FTP (this second option comes up as one of four from the first Cute FTP option). This will open up the main FTP screen, which is divided in two (much like Windows Explorer). However this screen is somewhat different. On the left is "you" (your computer, your hard drive); on the right is "the Internet", effectively, or at least your space on it. Try to imagine the central dividing line as some sort of a mirror. The filepaths you specify for your own hard drive have obliques (slashes) which slope downwards from left to right; on the Internet your obliques slope upwards from left to right. This can take a bit of getting used to.

In Cute FTP it's relatively simple in that all you are dealing with is a directory structure (like the one you're already used to, in Internet Explorer). More or less, you are going to recreate what's on your hard drive, in your home page space, stage by stage.

The first step is to click on "add site" on the right-hand-side of the mirror. This will bring you up a fairly complex-looking page. Curiously (with Force 9, at any rate) the only items you need to fill in are the four boxes on the left. The first is called "Site Label" - and it's what you choose to call your site. We input "Project HappyChild" in this box [this is what comes up subsequently on your main Cute FTP opening screen as the site title].

Next option is: "Host Address". For us this was "homepages.force9.net" (no quotes). You will need to modify this according to information provided by your own server.

User ID: fill in your "host name" here. This is the user name you first chose when you signed on with your server [eg rainbow, or johnbull, or whatever]. Even if you (like us) have a "domain name", it's the username that is required in this box.

Password: fill in your log-in password here. You'll just get "stars" come up, probably, as we do, for password protection.

And that's it. Click on OK. I never discovered what all the other items were for (or the "Advanced" options) - but it works, just with those four items input.

You'll find yourself returned to the main screen, and your "site label" [whatever you named your site] will have come up on the right-hand-side of the mirror. Double-click on it and wait a little while (usually from 5-30 seconds) and you'll get a message like "user johnbull logged in". Click on OK.

The right-hand-side of your screen will probably be blank, part from a header "unknown" and a little bendy arrow. Ignore this for now.

On the left hand side you have your computer with its various drives. Drive C is probably shown, with a down arrow by the C. If your main site-name-folder is on another drive, use the down arrow to locate the correct drive. When you have the main folders of the drive where your site-name-folder is, shown on the left, click on the site-name-folder and you should then find the folders you created (as per Part 1) shown in the big box on the left. As you know, we started with seven main folders, plus our Welcome folder, which got called Penny.

Double-click on your "welcome" folder, if you used one for your main page [if you just put this within the main site-name-folder it will already be visible and you won't need to do this].

If you used the "welcome" folder and have double-clicked on it, all you will now see on the left-hand-side of your screen (underneath the drive letter and the bendy arrow) should be a folder called Webimage (or whatever you called your graphics file) and the index.htm page you have just built in WordPerfect Suite 8.

The first thing you need to do is to create a matching graphics folder on the right-hand-side of the mirror. To do this, click (once only) on the right-hand-side bendy arrow to highlight it (effectively it makes a highlight next to it, on our screen). Then select "Commands" [at the top of your page] and select "Make New Directory". This will bring you up a title box into which you type the name of your graphics folder (eg Webimage); then click on OK.

You will find you now have a Webimage folder on the right-hand-side to match the one on the left. Double-click on the Webimage folder on the left-hand-side, and it will "open" so that you now have "light texture" and "redline" visible on the left.

Now double-click on the Webimage folder on the right-hand-side, and this too will open, this time giving you a blank screen apart from "Unknown" and the bendy arrow.

You now want to copy your graphics across. As mentioned previously, you may find yourself with two versions of your "background wallpaper" on the left-hand-side; if so these are likely to be a .bmp and a .gif . It's the .gif you want.

Click on your .gif once to highlight it, and then press and hold down the CONTROL KEY extreme bottom right-hand-corner of your keyboard. Now use your mouse to click on the redline.gif, and you will find that both .gif files are now highlighted (you can now let go of the Control key).

Now use your mouse to "drag" the highlighted files across to the right-hand-side of the screen, and let go of them there. You'll get a message like "Upload 2 selected files?" - click on OK. The two files will then reproduce themselves on the right.

Now you need to get your main page up, as well. To do this, you need to "go back one folder". To do this, double-click on the bendy arrow near the top of the left-hand-side of your screen, and you'll see the Webimage folder reappear. Do the same on the right and you'll have the Webimage folder back there also [contents of Webimage folders now hidden].

On your left-hand side you should also have the file for the page you created, index.htm. Simply click on this once to highlight, and drag it across to the right-hand-side. Again you'll get the message "Upload 1 selected file?". Click on okay, and it will appear on the right-hand-side, below the Webimage folder on the right.

Congratulations! You have now uploaded your first page and its associated graphics.

Before you leave the Cute FTP screen, you can (if you wish) upload the folders you created for the other areas of your site. If you are using a "welcome" folder for your main page, you will need to use the bendy arrow on the left-hand-side to go back one level to where all your folders including the welcome folder, are stored.

What you should now have on the left-hand-side of your screen is all your main site folders. You can now create matching folders on the right [or you can leave this until later, whatever you prefer]. To create each folder, click by the bendy arrow on the right, then choose Commands - Make New Directory, and type in the name for the first one. When you have it appear on your right-hand-screen, you can then double-click on it to go into the next level to create your Webimage graphics folder [like you did for the Welcome folder]. Then you use the bendy arrow to go back one level, so the folder name appears again on the right, and follow exactly the same procedure to add matching folders for everything you have on the left hand side. You won't need to amend anything on the left (as you already know each folder has nothing inside it but an empty Webimage folder): it isn't essential you do any of this now, it will just make it easier next time you come back, if you have already created a basic matching structure on the Internet for what you've set up on your hard drive.

Later .... when you've made amendments to your main page and want to re-upload it, you can follow the same procedure you've learned already. However .... from recent experience where one copy of a page overlay a previous copy which hadn't deleted itself properly .... it is probably a good idea to delete the first copy before you upload the second one. E.g. open your welcome folder, then highlight your copy of index.htm on the right-hand-side, and press the delete key on your keyboard (the one with Delete written on it, not the back-delete). You'll get the option "Delete 1 file?" - click on okay. Then drag the new version of index.htm across from your welcome folder.

One important point - it's a good idea to do your delete on the right-hand-side BEFORE you highlight any of the files on the left-hand-side (you can only un-highlight these I've discovered by going backwards or forwards one folder, using the bendy arrow) - otherwise you may find yourself deleting files off your own hard drive, inadvertently.

However, if you should later delete a left-hand-side file by mistake, and you already have a copy of whatever-it-was on the Internet, you can drag the file on the right-hand-side into the appropriate folder on the left, so you again have a working copy. This is handy to know if you ever mess up a page you're working on, on your hard drive (eg I recently made some unintended amendments to our Site Map file when using WordPad to make bulk amendments to the html for the colours [my html's not that good, yet!] - and was able to download another "clean copy" of the Site Map, using the FTP program). You'll find this option is useful, on occasion.

To return to your uploading - you have now uploaded your first page. The reason you called it "index" is that this title is some sort of "primary instruction", i.e. it will always be the first main page to appear, like some sort of default. When people access our site (http://www.happychild.org.uk ) it is the index page which comes up on their screen, even when they haven't used /index.htm at the end of the address (though we use the full address in hyperlinks to our welcome page, within the site itself).

Similarly, the first page within any sub-directory on our site is always called "index" - it makes the different areas easier to work with, I've found. I'll discuss page-building within different areas of your site in Part 6, which talks about Tables and Hyperlinks.

Meanwhile, it's time for you to exit the FTP program (simply use File - Exit). This should bring you back to the page you were on before you entered it. Now type your website address (preceded, probably, by http://www.(etc) in the usual place - and your first home page should come up. It should look exactly how it did when you checked it in the browser whilst you were page-building: allow 30-60 seconds for the background wallpaper to load up for the first time. It will load quicker, later, once you have an Internet-version on your hard drive. If for any reason it doesn't appear, check you didn't use any capitals for graphic titles on the Internet side of the mirror in Cute FTP; failing that, log off and go back and re-input your background into your page (I've found it simplest to physically delete it, and return to a page-without-background, then go back and re-insert it from the correct folder). One item to check - if, when saving [publishing to HTML] or exit-ing, your version of WordPerfect Suite 8 offers you the option to "overwrite your graphics gif?" - select NO. I don't know quite what this does but it has previously removed the background from the saved version, so you may experience the same problem.

Well, I hope your home page has loaded up successfully. You've covered most of the "difficult bits" already - just tables, hyperlinks and meta-tags to learn now, and then you'll have covered all the basics.

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