Working with Group Websites

Working With Group Websites

STEP	PROCESS
Step 1: Setting up	You need to be able to log in to apollo.physics.tamu.edu in order to access any webpages. This requires several things: NetID: You have to have a valid NetID. If you have a NetID skip this part. If you don't: If you are a TAMU student/researcher, you should claim your NetID at Aggie Account Gateway using Activating/Creating a NetID IT Self-Service Webpage instructions. If you are a remote collaborator, please read Getting a NetID for Remote Collaborators guide. Apollo account and tobackgroup AND/OR mitchcomp Web Support: Email csg@physics.tamu.edu with your NetID and ask them to create an account for you in Apollo and grant you tobackgroup AND/OR mitchcomp Web Support access A terminal that allows you to use ssh: If you are using Linux or Mac it can be done directly in your terminal. If you are using Windows, you should either get a WSL for your Windows to get access to a Linux terminal or you have to download PuTTY or something similar.
Step 2: Learning HTML coding	You will need to know how to operate in a UNIX/LINUX command-line system to navigate in apollo and know how to write HTML to create/modify the webpages. TAMU usually has LINUX workshops every semester, or you can find information online. You can use the following guides to take get started: Somewhat extensive lessons and references for HTML and other website code A more simple set of introductions for HTML, UNIX/LINUX, and other computing subjects
Step 3: Group Pages	(This section is mostly for the group webmaster) There are several directories in Apollo (in `/home/websites/`) you should be aware of: mitchcomp: for our computational projects tobackgroup: everything that is not project-specific (including these pages) tobackgroup/htdocs/supercdms: for A&M CDMS projects tobackgroup/htdocs/collider: for projects like CDF tobackgroup/htdocs/DUNE: for A&M DUNE projects tobackgroup/htdocs/bigbang: for the Big Bang, Black Holes, No Math class tobackgroup/htdocs/QIS: for Quantum Information Science projects (The htmls (or shtmls) will be in htdocs within the above directories. For nested directories past that point, you can check the URL of the webpage. For example, this page's code is in `/home/websites/tobackgroup/htdocs/useful/website_person.shtml`) If you are new to HTML, you can create new pages by copying the source code of existing pages into a new file and editing in new content (in the new file!). If you're able to create pages from scratch, just remember to include things like links to site indices, 'homepage' buttons, etc. Be sure you also set the file permissions so other group members can edit the page as well (e.g. `chmod 775 filename` in your terminal). When editing pages in apollo using vi (or something similar), remember that once you save over a file, there's no easy way to undo whatever changes you made (though there are backups). If you are worried about messing up a page, you can just copy and save the original source code somewhere, then make edits, and then--should you break something and not know how to fix it--just paste in the code you saved originally to get back to the original unedited webpage. Note that we also try to keep track of when pages have been updated (see the bottom). Some pages have scripts currently set to update automatically; to do this, insert `<!--#echo var="LAST_MODIFIED"-->` in your html (note that you probably won't see this if you view the source code in a browser; check the original). See this page for a bit more information, including formatting. (Some pages are currently set manually, as the updating code we used previously didn't always work.) NOTE: If you want to use one of your own text editors with its own window instead of using vi or nano in the terminal, you'll have to mount the directories from apollo into your own computer's space. For Macs/OS X: You'll need to have "Fuse for OS X"/"Fuse for macOS" and SSHFS installed. Both are available from here (see here for more information). Usage is described on those pages, but you will generally just be doing: `sshfs username@apollo.physics.tamu.edu:dir/to/get local/dir -o auto_cache` (replacing the italics for your username and the relevant directories) in your terminal. This will basically copy all the files in the apollo directory to the local space you specify. The `-o auto_cache` option helps keep your local versions up-to-date if someone else changes them. To unmount the directory, do: `umount local/dir`