Guide to FTP and Your Web Page

 

(I) Creating Your Web-Based Power Point Presentation, Excel Spreadsheet, or Word Document.

When you have finished creating you Power Point presentation, choose Save as Web Page from the File menu to your J-drive folder or c:\temp.

Notice that Power Point will convert your original document (for example, presentation.ppt) into two sets of files: (1) presentation.htm (which is the actual “web page”) and (2) presentation_files[1].

·        Presentation.htm à contains the actual commands for running the presentation as a web page.

·        Presentation_files à this is the “supporting folder;” it contains all the images, character animations, and slide transitions that are included in your presentation

Note that these two files together run your presentation on the web. Accordingly, if you want your presentation to work, you must transfer both the presentation.htm file and the presentation_files folder.

 

(II) The Public_HTML Folder and Your Web Page

Any files you want included on your web page must be physically located on a server designed to handle connections to the Internet. In this case, SUNY Brockport provides the server; the College has, moreover, created space on this server specifically for each student. On this server, your files are saved in a folder which has as its name your Brockport e-mail username (e.g., mine is “gsaxton”). For all of you, within this folder, there is a sub-folder called “public_html). This is the “web-enabled” folder; any files you want to include on your web page must therefore be transferred to your public_html folder.

You can think of your folder on the Brockport server as similar to your folder on the J-Drive. However, unlike the J-Drive, the server is a “remote server.” This means that you cannot access this folder via the “My Computer” or “Windows Explorer” programs on your computer. Instead, you can access your public_html folder only through a program enabled to transfer files to remote servers. This program is WS_FTP.

 

(III) Transferring Your Files to Your Public_HTML Folder Using FTP

Your newly created web-based presentation will not be accessible via your web page unless you transfer the files there. The programs generally used for such transfers are called FTP programs (“file transfer protocol”).

First, open up the WS_FTP program.

Second, similarly to Netscape Communicator or Internet Explorer, which need directions to a specific web page address (URL) in order to work, you must tell WS_FTP “where to go.” This is done by manipulating the options below. Note that your account on the server is password protected—unlike the J-Drive, nobody else can access or alter the files you place on the public_html folder, unless you include those files on your web page.

Profile Name:              (any name you want, such as “Brockport”)

Host Name/Address:    po.brockport.edu

Host Type:                   Automatic Detect

User ID:                       (your Brockport e-mail user ID)

Password:                    (your Brockport e-mail password)

Connect to this address. Once you are connected to the Brockport server, FTP works much like Windows Explorer or My Computer. On the left hand side of your FTP screen are all the files on the “local system” (the computer you’re working on, along with the J-Drive). On the right hand side are all the files on the “remote system.”

For the transfer to be successful, you must first make active on the left hand side of the screen the folder that contains the files you want to transfer (either c:\temp or j:\….). To change the directory, click on the ChgDir button, type in  j:\  and click OK. Then, find your folder on the j-drive and double click. You should now see all the files that are contained in your j-drive folder.

Next, you must make active on the right hand side of the screen the folder to which you want to transfer your files. You should already see the “public_html” folder on the screen. In order to transfer the files there, however, you must double-click on this folder. Once you have done so, you will probably see a blank folder (if you have never transferred files to public_html before, the folder will be empty).

Finally, single-click on the file you want to transfer (if you want to transfer two or more files simultaneously, hold down the Ctrl button while you are selecting files) and press the  --->  to transfer the files. For the Power Point presentation, you would select both presentation.htm and the presentation_files folder (the transfer may take several minutes).

You’re done! Your public_html folder should now contain the presentation.htm file and the presentation_files folder, which is everything needed for your on-line presentation to work.

 

(IV) Tips for Running Files from Your Home Page

Here are several further points to remember regarding your web page.

·        Your home page URL is: http://www.acs.brockport.edu/~username/index.htm

·        In order for your web page to work, you must first create an index.htm file. This is your “home page.” It will contain everything you want visitors to see when they first access your web page. For this class, on this page you will include hyperlinks to your graded course assignments (presentation.htm, etc.)

·        URL addresses and file names for FTP and hyperlinks are case-sensitive. This means that you must type them in exactly as they are called (e.g., Presentation.htm will not work if you saved it as presentation.htm).

·        If you want to create a hyperlink to your Power Point presentation, Word document, or Excel spreadsheet, the hyperlink should go to the *.htm file, not the supporting folder. For example, you would include a link on your index.htm page to presentation.htm, and not to presentation_files.