Lesson Practice 1-3: Make it Public!

Lesson Purpose:

As you continue to create your Lessons 'website', you will need to keep it organized. To make a website easier to work with, you need to create an organized file structure. You will set up some folders for storage of future files you create.

After creating web pages and/or websites, they are saved only on your computer, but no one else can see them. You need to publish them for your users to see (and admire!). You will do the equivalent of that in this lesson.

Task 1: Creating a Website File Structure

1. Open My Computer. If you have not already done so, create a folder for your Web Design class.
2. Inside that folder, create a folder named Lesson Site.
3. Inside the Lesson Site folder, create the following new folders: text, links, images, graphics, table, layout
4. Move your page1 and text1 files to the Text folder. Leave the Template folder either at the root of the Lesson Site, or outside the Lesson Site, as you choose.
5. You now have a directory structure for your site.

Task 2: Publishing Your Site

A published website needs two different 'locations' where it is saved, or housed. A local server is where you save the working copy of your site. No one can see it but you. A web server is the location of your published site, that allows your users to view your pages and interact with your site.

You should never publish your pages until you have tested them in your local location and you are satisfied that they look right and work correctly. Then you 'upload' one or more files to your web server. For our class purposes, your school H: drive functions as your local server. We do not yet have an actual 'public' site, so we will use a section of the Student Common as your web server. Rather than uploading via FTP, you will copy and paste your work into your publish folder.

1. Open a My Computer window.
2. Navigate to your Home directory, inside your class folder, and select (but do not open) the Lesson Site folder.
3. On the left pane of the My Computer window, click Copy this folder.
4. In the dialog box window, navigate to Student Common / kerri.pangman / Classes / Web Design / Share /
   Web Publish. Inside this folder you will see a folder with your name. Click your folder, and then click Copy.
   (you could instead use standard copy/paste commands, or drag and drop from one folder in file structure to another)
5. Now navigate to your named Publish folder in Mrs. Pangman's share folder and examine the results. You should see an exact duplicate of your Lesson Site folder from the H: drive.
6. Close the My Computer window and go on to the next activity.