ITSS WebDev Guide

Samba MyWeb: Easy web editing

So, you've finally decided to put up that home page. You've got your tools (a web editor, a graphics editor, a twelve-pack of Coke) and you're ready to start.

Now you need to decide where you will store the files as you work on them - on your local hard drive or in your WWW directory on the web server. At one time, storing your files on the web server meant you could only edit the files using a Unix-based editor (vi, pico).

However, ITSS offers a service (Samba) that allows users to edit files in their personal web directory using any PC-based editor (Dreamweaver, Word, Notepad, etc.) This means you can edit your personal web pages in real-time, without bothering about uploading and downloading via ftp and making file permission changes. Also, because the files are stored on the web server, you can access them from any computer that is set up for Samba services, either at home or in the office.

Configuring your computer for Samba services

MyWeb is your personal Samba web page storage. Pages you put here can be viewed by using the address: www.d.umn.edu/~username where you substitute your Internet ID (email name) for the 'username' shown above. Once your Samba MyWeb directory is set up, you access the files just as you do files on your hard drive.

For detailed instructions on how to set up Samba MyWeb services on your computer, please see "Samba: Windows Network File & Print Services".

Edit your web files

Once you have configured your computer for Samba services, you can access the files from within your web editing program. Start your editing program (such as Dreamweaver or Notepad) and browse the MyWeb drive you mapped (in this example, W:) for the files. You can set up directories (or folders) within your MyWeb directory just as you would on your local hard drive.

Rev: sab 06.08 xs