Computing Services Group

Policy on Web Pages

This policy statement is intended to:

1. determine the people and organizations within the CS department which are eligible for web pages.
2. inform web users of an organized structure which should be followed when presenting material through the CS web system.

• Personal Web Pages
• Web Project Pages
• Course Information
• Research Groups
• Student Organizations

Anyone with a CS computer account has the ability to create a personal web site hosted by CS servers. The files for your site will be stored in your home directory on the departmental filer, and will count against your quota. You can activate this web site by creating a directory called web_home inside your home directory. Your home direcory must be world executable, so the web server can look through it, and the web_home directory must be world readable and executable, and all files in it must be world readable:

	cd ~
	chmod o+x .
	mkdir web_home
	chmod 705 web_home
	cd web_home
	...make files...
	chmod 704 *

Once you create the directory, any files you place there will be accessible online at one of the following URLs, depending on your classification:

• http://faculty.cs.tamu.edu/username/
• http://staff.cs.tamu.edu/username/
• http://students.cs.tamu.edu/username/

This web site will allow static content only. If you require dynamic content, you should either create a web project site, or utilize a different server.

Course Information

Professors may publish information about courses that they are teaching in their home directory (/user/username/) on the departmental filer. This would be the appropriate place to publish syllabi, course notes, etc. You can activate this web site by creating a directory called web_courses inside your home directory. Like a personal home page, your home directory must be world executable, the web_courses directory must be world readable and executable, and all files in it must be world readable:

	cd ~
	chmod o+x .
	mkdir web_courses
	chmod 705 web_courses
	cd web_courses
	...make files...
	chmod 704 *

All rules regarding personal websites apply to this server as well. Once you create the directory, any files you place there will be accessible online at the following URL:

http://courses.cs.tamu.edu/username/

Research Groups

Any faculty member has the ability to create a research web page which will be hosted by CS servers. The URL for these web sites will match one to these two patterns:

• http://research.cs.tamu.edu/groupname/
• http://research.cs.tamu.edu/username/

The files for the /username/ URL will be stored in your share directory (/pub/username/) on the departmental filer, and will count against your share quota. You can activate this web site by creating a directory called web_research inside your share directory. Like a personal home page, the share directory must be world executable, the web_research directory must be world readable and executable, and all files in it must be world readable:

	cd /pub/username/
	chmod o+x .
	mkdir web_research
	chmod 705 web_research
	cd web_research
	...make files...
	chmod 704 *

To setup the /groupname/ URL, you will need to email webadmin@cs.tamu.edu and request the URL, specifying where the files are located. The files for this site may be located on any publicly mounted path in the new CS NIS domain (anything under /user, /share, or /pub). This means that if you have a NAS device that CSG has added to the pub maps, you can store your web files there, and they will be accessible from the CS webserver.

Unless there is a specific reason, we would ask that you store your research web files in your share directory in a subfolder called web_research, simply to maintain consistency with the other web shares.

This web site will allow static content only. Also, the only URLs that will be served from CS servers will conform to the examples above. If you require dynamic content or special needs for your URL (such as a tamu.edu domain, or a different hostname), you should either create a web project site, or utilize a different server.

Student Organizations

A listing of organizations of particular interest to computer scientists and engineers is provided at http://www.cs.tamu.edu/people/student_org. An organization which would like to be added to this list may mail webadmin@cs.tamu.edu for consideration. Those organizations that are of interest to our students will be added, but only those organizations with close ties to the CS department will be given directory space for the location of a homepage.