This document is an introduction to the creation of departmental web pages for both academic and administrative departments at Rice University.

This document covers both what to think about before building a departmental web page and the mechanics of how to build a departmental web page. A list of places to look for more information can be found at the end.

Before you begin

• Departmental permission
  Make sure that you have the permission of the department before creating a web page. This step may seem obvious, but maybe it isn't. Don't make anything accessible to the public as a departmental page unless you have the department's permission. If in doubt, talk to the department chair and ask them to designate someone to work with you to make sure the information is accurate.

• What information do you want to include?
  • Who is your audience?
    • Current students and faculty
    • Prospective students and faculty
    • Colleagues in your field at other institutions

  • What sort of information do you want to focus on?
    • Information about your department
      (e.g. contact information, faculty CVs or admissions procedures)
    • Information of use to your department
      (e.g. student lab procedures or links to online resources in your field)
    • Information produced by your department
      (e.g. tech reports or software)
    • A combination of the above

  • Is there information already in RiceInfo which you can link to rather than duplicating?
    • For example, academic departments can link to the Registrar's online course schedules rather than maintaining their own copies of the same information. The URLs for linking to the current and upcoming fall and spring schedules for a given department are in a format like the following (the department in this example is ELEC, Electrical Engineering):

         http://www.rice.edu/projects/courses/fall/ELEC.html
         http://www.rice.edu/projects/courses/spring/ELEC.html
      

  • Can you "package" the various pieces of information you produce so that we can easily link to them from various places in RiceInfo?
    • For an academic department, that means breaking out your course syllabi or tech reports onto separate pages so we can list all of the Rice course web pages (http://www.rice.edu/academic/courseweb.html) or tech reports (http://www.rice.edu/welcome/papers/) at Rice in one place.
    • For an administrative department, it means coordinating with other departments at Rice that offer similar services so users don't have to understand Rice's org chart to find your services.

  You may wish to find other departmental web pages to use as models, both inside and outside Rice. At Rice, the pages for Asian Studies (http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~asia/) and Delivery Services (http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~delivery/) are good examples of simple, well-organized pages.

• Copyright
  Like it or not, anyone who places images or text excerpts online needs to be aware of copyright issues. See the copyright primer (http://www.rice.edu/about/copyright.html) for an introduction.

• Style
  Careful thought about World-Wide Web style can be the difference between an effective and an ineffective departmental web page. See the RiceInfo WWW Style Guide (http://www.rice.edu/web/style.html) for helpful tips and a recommended style.

How to create a departmental web page

1. Decide who will work on the departmental web page
   One person from your department, either a faculty member or Rice staff member, will be the "owner" of your departmental account and responsible for the account password (this does not have to be the person who does the hands-on web construction). Other individuals of your choosing may share the ability to edit your departmental web pages by being members of a Unix "group" of the same name as your departmental account. You need to identify these people at the outset, although you can change the membership of your group at any time by sending e-mail to problem@rice.edu. You may find it useful to have a faculty member, a full-time staff member and one or more student employees who share the ability to maintain your web pages.

2. Apply for your individual RUF account(s)
   The RUF is the primary network for Rice staff and some faculty. The "owner" of your departmental web page as well as each user who is going to work on it must first have their own RUF accounts. If you don't have an account, you can get one by directing your web browser to the location http://apply.rice.edu and going through the application procedure there. Your account should be created within two working days after you apply.

3. Apply for a RUF departmental account
   The "owner" should then apply for a departmental account by sending the following information to problem@rice.edu:

      Please create a departmental account on the RUF as follows.
   
      Name of department:
      Departmental userid desired:
      Account owner (name and userid):
      Other userids to put in associated Unix group:
      Additional instructions if any (special handling of e-mail, etc.):
   

   (Note that an online departmental account application procedure is planned for http://apply.rice.edu, but as of this writing it is not yet available.)

4. Create the directory where your web page will live
   This is one of the few steps that must be done by the owner of the departmental account.
   • Log into the departmental account on the RUF. (If this is the first time the account has been used, remember to change the password by typing passwd.)
   • Type the following commands to create the directory and make it writable by the user group:

         cd
         mkdir public_html
         chmod g+w public_html
     

5. Create the departmental web files themselves
   Now comes the core of the task: creating the world-wide web pages themselves under the public_html directory of the departmental account. If your departmental account was created with the name "blah", then that directory will be:

       /home/blah/public_html
   

   Your main web page will be the file in that directory called "index.html". The corresponding location on the World-Wide Web (also known as your page's URL) will be:

       http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~blah/
   

   Your documents themselves should mostly be in the format known as HyperText Markup Language or HTML. There are two basic ways to edit your HTML documents:

   • Use a text editor to edit your HTML files directly.
     Any member of the departmental group can log into their RUF account and use their favorite Unix text editor (pico, vi, emacs, etc.) to edit your department's HTML files. For example:

         cd /home/blah/public_html
         pico index.html
     

     A good introduction to HTML can be found in the Beginner's Guide to HTML (http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html) as well as in other references listed in the World-Wide Web documentation in RiceInfo (http://www.rice.edu/about/index.html#WWW).

     You can also learn HTML by examining the HTML behind other people's web pages. Most WWW browsers like Netscape, Internet Explorer and lynx will let you view the HTML source for any WWW document. Look for a choice like "View Source" in a "File" or "View" pull-down menu, or in lynx use the "\" command.

     - or -

   • Use an HTML editor.
     Some people find it easier to use an HTML editor than to learn the nitty-gritty of HTML themselves. An HTML editor runs on your desktop computer and offers a graphical user interface much like a familiar word processor. The copy of a new or existing web document is stored on your desktop computer while you are editing it; when you are finished you must instruct the HTML editor to upload it to the departmental account on the RUF using FTP. Any member of your departmental group can carry out this upload step by specifying their personal RUF account and password together with the location of the file in the departmental account, for example:

         /home/blah/public_html/index.html
     

     A list of HTML editors in use at Rice is available in the RiceInfo WWW documentation (http://www.rice.edu/about/index.html#webedit).

6. Review your web page
   Now is a good time to exert quality control over your departmental web page. Have you included the appropriate information (see "before you begin" above)? Do your graphics and layout enhance the clarity of your web page? Have you followed the recommendations of the RiceInfo WWW Style Guide (http://www.rice.edu/web/style.html)?

7. Announce your web page
   Send e-mail to riceinfo@rice.edu announcing your page when it is ready. Include the URL of your page.

For more information

World-Wide Web documentation

http://www.rice.edu/about/index.html#WWW

A Beginner's Guide to HTML

http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html

Existing departmental web pages at Rice

http://www.rice.edu/directory/departments.html

Where to find other departmental web pages to use as models

http://is.rice.edu/~riddle/web/finding-depts.html

RiceInfo WWW Style Guide

http://www.rice.edu/web/style.html

If you have questions or need assistance, contact your divisional computing support representative, submit your problem or question online at http://problem.rice.edu, or send e-mail to riceinfo@rice.edu.

Copyright 1996-1997 Rice University
URL: http://www.rice.edu/web/dept.html