WP-ORG Web-Publishing Using Netscape 4.x

Pictures is based on Netscape® Communicator 4.5

NOTE	Do not use this as a model for the NetScape Publishing Server. The server-side does not use the same protocol.

Assumptions

• It is assumed that you have a copy of Netscape Communicator 4.x
• It is assumed that you already know how to use the Netscape Composer that came free with Netscape Communicator.
• It is assumed that you already know something about HyperText Markup Language (HTML).
• Lastly, you have an FTP account at WP-ORG for publishing.

If you do not have Netscape, you can download the browser for free at the Netscape homepage.

If you want to learn more about HTML, here are some good sites:

• htmlcompendium.org -- The Compendium of HTML Elements
• Ask Jeeves -- Enter "What is HTML" in the query box.
• webReview.com -- Anything you want to know about Web-Publishing

If you do not have a WP-ORG FTP Account for publishing, go get one here!

Basic Instructions

When you start up Netscape Composer, take note of your menu options:

Once you have completed your "composition" and you are ready to put your work into your home at WP-ORG, follow the following steps:

1. Ensure that your publication is saved. Press the "Save" button if highlighted.
2. It may be a good idea to "Preview" your work to ensure that you are not putting anything to the web that looks awful.
   
   NOTE: Once your documents are published to the web, they are "live" -- that is they are immediately available to the general public.
   
3. Click on the "Publish" button. This will actually initiate the "publishing" process.
4. The "Publish" window will open and it will look something like this: (Click on figure to get a more detail discription)
   
   
   
   
5. The "Page Title" is left for you to decide what to put on there.
6. The HTML Filename could be anything, but ensure you follow these guidelines. Otherwise your page may not show up.

   The filename should not have any spaces The filename should only use alphanumeric characters, period, underline, and dash. The filename should never use "(" or ")", brackets "[" or "]", and !@#$%^&*+= The filename is recommended to end with ".html" IMPORTANT The web server default file is "index.html". The default file is the file that the webserver will return if you typed only the path of your URL (not including the actual document filename).

7. On the "HTTP or FTP Location to publish to", you will enter the URL path or directory. Since you will be using FTP, ensure to follow this format:

   ftp://argon.west-point.org/<directory> The ftp:// is the syntax to tell Netscape Composer how to send your document. In this cas, your document will be send using FTP. The argon.west-point.org/ tells Netscape Composer the address of the server. "argon.west-point.org" is WP-ORG's default publishing server. The <directory> is the path to your document. DO NOT INCLUDE the filename. The filename goes in the "HTML Filename:" field. Here are some pointers about the <directory>: Lets assume that you are publishing a document to this location: http://www.west-point.org/users/usma1964/25244/ which just so happens to be Jack Price's (USMA '64) homepage. The publication path will look something like this: ftp://argon.west-point.org/users/usma1964/25244/ Note that the "/users/usma1964/25244/" portions match. This is always the case unless we specifically tell you otherwise.

8. Enter your WP-ORG username in the "User name" field. The word username means the same thing as "User name". If you do not have one, get one by visiting WP-ORG's Ftpusers homepage at:

   http://www.west-point.org/service/ftpusers/

9. Enter your password. You can change your password here.
10. The "Other files to include" section is left as an exercise.
11. Press the "OK" button and the publication will start. When the file is transfered completely to the server, Netscape Composer will notify you. The tool is also very nice when it encounters an error.
12. Now, review your work. Use your browser to navigate to the WP-ORG and check out if your document actually got there. When checking your document, make sure you do a reload or turn off your browsers caching. If you have caching turned "on", the changes you made my not show up immediately, because the browser keeps giving you its copy of the document, which just so happens to be the old one.
13. If everything checks out, YOU ARE DONE!

Advanced Instructions

When publishing, the stuff you are publishing will be dumped directly into the path you specified. For general use, this may be okay. BUT if you are the organizer-type, you may like to organize your site into different subdirectories and/or categories. To create a subdirectory, you will need to do a little bit more work. If you do not know FTP or Telnet, I suggest you learn at least the basics.

If you are a Windows users, there are programs you can purchase inexpensively. A Windows program that comes highly recommended is AbsoluteFTP by Van Dyke Technologies. AbsoluteFTP has a rich set of features, including a familiar Windows Explorer interface, drag-and-drop file transfers, resume for interrupted transfers, customizable file types, and multiple simultaneous connections and transfers (including direct, server-to-server transfers). Browsing your site(s) to download HTML files, images, and other files is relatively easy with AbsoluteFTP.

An alternate FTP program is WS_FTP Pro by Ipswitch, Inc.http://www.ipswitch.com. This program will navigate the FTP site as if its a windows directory using the familiar explorer interface.

Another program we recommend is Adobe's PageMill. It is a far more advanced publishing package than the Composer. It is compeletely compatible with our system and it is a very simple program to learn.

You can also use Microsoft's FrontPage, but you cannot use the server side extension because we do not support it. You would have to use its FTP-based publishing processes.

Lastly, if you can afford Macromedia's Dreamweaver 2, go for it. It is rated as the "best-of-breed" in its class of HTML publishing packages.

Problems

If you think your publication failed, here's are some things to do.

• Make sure that the URL is typed correctly in the "HTTP or FTP Location to publish to" textfield.
• If you have gif files included with your publication, unselect them.

If you are totally lost, contact feedback.

Considerations

If you managed to create a new directory to categorize and/or classify your publication, the new directory when accessed will return the directory listing. If this feature is okay, then all is well. However, if you want to make sure that a page is always returned, you need to save a file called index.html into the new directory.

The process of saving an index.html file is left to the user as an exercise.

Deleting Files

To delete unwanted files in your homesite, see File Removal.