Webspace
This is an introduction to HTML and using your Redbrick webspace. It is a simple guide to getting a webpage up and running on Redbrick.
Location
Redbrick sites for each user are located at http://username.redbrick.dcu.ie (where username is your RedBrick username)
In PuTTY or WinSCP your website is contained in a folder called public_html
Permissions
Before you can do anything with your website you need to know a little about permissions. File permissions control who can access your files on the RedBrick server. For your website to be accessible the right permissions need to be set. For files that is 644, and for folders it is 711. (We wont go into what the numbers mean right now, but you can read about it here if you want)
In WinSCP you can change the permissions for a file/folder by right clicking on it, and selecting properties.
In PuTTY permissions can be set with the "chmod" command
chmod 644 public_html/index.html
Making HTML Pages
The language that ordinary webpages are written is called HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). You can create HTML pages on your own computer and upload them to RedBrick.
There are many programs that will make HTML pages for you - both Microsoft Word and Open Office Writer will allow you to save documents as HTML pages you can upload to RedBrick. There are also specialist programs for making webpages such as Macromedia Dreamweaver. Alternatively you could write your own HTML code (the EditPlus installed on CA lab computers is good for this, and this tutorial will help you get started).
Once you're happy with the page(s) you've made you can upload them to your public_html folder with winscp. Don't forget that the permissions for all your files need to be set to 644 and all folders 755 (including the public_html folder)
When people go to your website (http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/~username) the first file they'll see is the index.html, so make sure to call the main page of your website index.html
Writing HTML on RedBrick
If you want to write your pages on RedBrick here's some html code to get your feet off the ground. Just type nano ~/public_html/index.html and insert the following code:
<html> <head> <title> Title of page </title> </head> <body> The actual webpage goes in here </body> </html>
The <head> and </head> tags tell the Web browser where the HTML in your document starts and finishes. After the <html> is where all the document's information should go. Between <title> and </title> is where the title of your page should go. This appears in the bar at the top of the browser. After these come the <body> and </body> tags. This is where you put the information you want displayed on the actual webpage itself.
It is important to make sure to close all the tags in the right order. If you open a head tag and then a title tag, you have to close the title tag first, then the head one.
Install Your Own Blog
Setting up your blog will take slightly longer than putting up your first webpage, but once it's setup editing it and adding new pages is as easy e-mail.
Although you can install any content management system you want on redbrick, Wordpress has a good installation guide which is easy to follow for new users.
To start go to Installing Wordpress and follow the instructions.
File Storage
As well as webpages, you can store other files that you want to share publically (except audio/video, they're not allowed). To do this the first thing you'll need to do is create a directory that is listable (so people can see find the files easily - like this one http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/~receive/temp).
To make this type the following in PuTTY
mkdir ~/public_html/files chmod 755 ~/public_html/files
Now you have a files directory in public_html that can be listed (it's listable because you used chmod 755 rather than 711). You can transfer files up here with WinSCP (just don't forget to chmod them 644)
Further Help
This is just a basic introduction to get you on your feet and you'll find loads of sites online with further details. If you need a hand, feel free to get in contact with a member of Helpdesk.
Links
WinSCP - you can download WinSCP from this link.
tizag.com - how to use html, css, php etc.
MDN - more online web tutorials.