Internet-Wide Courseware Server

For the HMC Community

• What is this?
• I have a question...

For Students

• Where are the materials for my course?
• I have a question...

For Faculty

• How do I link a new course into this server?
• Some hints for effective use of this server.
• Advanced topics: forms, frames, HTML extensions, maps, quizzes, serving and searching documents, sound, and video.
• Server statistics
• I have a question...

What is this?

This is a Macintosh-based WWW (World Wide Web) server for support of courses. Faculty can create web pages using either a PC or Macintosh and make them available to the Internet here. Material designed for an Claremont-only should be posted on the Claremont server.

Where are the materials for my course?

Web pages on this server are grouped by departments. Current directories include:

• Biology
• CompSci
• Chemistry
• Engineering
• Humanities
• Mathematics
• Physics

Generally, you need to know the name of the department offering the course and the course number. For example, the URL (Universal Resource Locator) for Chemistry 114 would be http://www4.hmc.edu:8001/Chemistry/114/. Of course, your instructor may have another naming scheme--see your course instructor if the scheme presented here does not work. Finally, be aware that not all courses which use the Web utilize this server, i.e., the Computer Science Department maintains its own Web server.

How do I link a new course into this server?

1. Create a sub-directory in your departmental folder on Charlie.Courses which will contain all of your HTML documents for a given course. ("How do I do that," you ask?)
2. Using Mac- or PC-based tools, create your HTML documents and save them in this sub-directory (folder to those in the Macintosh world). Be sure to place a document named index.html in your sub-directory which contains links to all the pages for that course.
3. Using a Macintosh,
   1. make an alias of this sub-directory (folder). (How do I do that?)
   2. rename the alias with your course number. For example, if you are teaching Mathematics 4, rename the alias "4" (How do I do that?)
   3. drop the alias into the folder Charlie:WorldWeb:Mathematics, where Mathematics is your department. (How do I do that?)
   For those in the PC world, note that the alias steps only need to be done once for any given course.
4. Your course will now be available to anyone at the URL http://www4.hmc.edu:8001/Mathematics/4/

Some hints for effective use of this server.

• Good programming practice would have you include a file named index.html in each directory you create. This file should contain links to all active html pages in that directory. In this fashion, users of your pages will have an HTML "road map" for your course. In addition, users who reach your folder but do not specify a file will view the index file by default. Finally, it is possible to have the server create an index for you.
• Use relative URLs rather than absolute URLs for other documents in your directories.

  Relative URLs point to a document on the current server. Relative URLs with no leading slashes inside the quotes point to documents in the directory containing the current document. For example, if the HTML document assignments.html resides in the same directory as index.html, then the best way to link to it from index.html would be using the relative URL

  <a href="assignments.html">Assignments</a>

  Relative URLs with a leading slash inside the quotes define a path from the server root directory to that document; this type of URL is useful for linking to a document in another directory on the current server. For example, if the document syllabus.html is located in the Mathematics 3 directory, then the correct relative address from index.html in the Mathematics 4 directory would be

  <a href="/Mathematics/3/syllabus.html">Math 3 syllabus</a>

  Absolute URLs contain the complete address of a resource; they are used to link to resources on another server. Absolute URLs for hypertext start with http:// and include the name of the server. For example, consider the assignments.html document for the Mathematics 4 course. Its absolute URL would be http://www4.hmc.edu:8001/Mathematics/4/assignments.html, where the name of the server is www4.hmc.edu:8001.

  When you are linking to a document on another server, you must use an absolute URL. For example, a link to the main HMC Web Page would be

  <a href="http://www.hmc.edu">Harvey Mudd College</a>

Advanced Topics: forms, frames, HTML extensions, maps, quizzes, serving and searching documents, sound, and video

More information is available regarding:

• Frames, those funky windows-within-a-window.
• Forms. A brief overview of forms is available, as is a short-course. This server runs the commercial forms package called NetCloak Pro. To learn how to use NetCloak Pro visit the NetCloak Getting Started page. NetCloak Pro combines the functionality of both NetForms and NetCloak in one package. In addition to processing forms, NetCloak can be used to password-protect pages and create dynamic pages.
• Quizzes. This server runs the Quiz Generator package developed at HMC. This package allows you to write quizzes and programmed learning exercises without any knowledge of HTML. To see the end results, take a sample quiz.
• Tables.
• This server supports NCSA-format server-side image maps.

Given sufficient demand, this server can also be configured to handle text-based searching.

I have a question

We will try to find the answer. Try:

• E-mail Elizabeth Hodas, User Support Coordinator at Computing and Information Services.
• Call the CIS Help Desk at x7-7777.
• You may also want to subscribe to our mailing list, www4-l@hmc.edu. This mailing list is used to disseminate information about the server including upgrades to the software and scheduled downtimes. To subscribe send e-mail to listkeeper@hmc.edu with the message "subscribe www4-l" in the body of the message.

Harvey Mudd College

Revised: August 12, 2003 by Elizabeth Hodas
URL http://www4.hmc.edu:8001/index.html