Creating a World Wide Web Site Tutorial

The World Wide Web has become the most popular feature of the Internet, and organizations of all sizes (and even individuals) are eager to participate. To get your site on the Web, you'll need to understand how to set up a Web server, organize and author Web pages, and build the scripts and forms appropriate to your site's plans. This tutorial will examine everything you need to create a complete Web site, including server configuration, HTML authoring, image handling, and scripts.

After an introduction to the fundamentals of the Web, we begin by explaining how to configure your Web server. The server that is used as an example is NCSA's httpd, a powerful, freely-available server for UNIX systems. Users of other servers will find this section useful from a conceptual standpoint, since most of the general features are common to most servers. A brief comparison of the strengths and weaknesses of a variety of servers will be offered as well.

The tutorial continues with an overview of HyperText Markup Language (HTML) -- the basis for Web documents -- including a discussion of both the current version, HTML-2, and the increasingly-popular HTML-3, as well as Netscape extensions such as tables and backgrounds. Differences between the two HTML standards and numerous "gotchas" will be pointed out. You'll learn how to author HTML efficiently and effectively, getting the most from the powerful new additions while maintaining backward compatibility.

In addition to HTML authoring, you'll learn how to create interactive Web pages, including forms, CGI scripts, and creating dynamic documents. The tutorial also includes an overview of other Web site issues including publicity for your new Web pages, security and privacy, legal issues, statistics-gathering, and server maintenance.

Each tutorial participant will receive a comprehensive package of materials, including a full copy of the tutorial presentation and reference materials.

Who Should Attend

The intended audience for this tutorial includes anyone who plans to set up a new World Wide Web site, maintains an existing Web site, or will be developing Web pages or Web-related scripts.

The tutorial materials assume that all attendees have basic experience as an Internet user as well as some basic knowledge of UNIX system administration and UNIX commands.

Topics Covered

Setting Up a Web Site
- Requirements - line speed, connection type; 24x7x52 uptime; Hot backups, flexible name service; Conflicts between privacy and publication of data; Legal issues and liabilities
Configuring Your Web Server (NCSA httpd)
- Basic configuration; Standalone vs. inetd; The "root" of your pages; User web pages; Security concerns; Executable files; Throttling system load; Simulating multiple hosts; Planning for future growth
Overview of HTML
- HTML-2; HTML-3; Netscape extensions; Multi-client compatibility issues; Performance considerations
Image Files
- Types of files (gif, jpg, xbm, mpg); In-line animation; Image tools; Imaging issues; Performance issues
HTML Writing Utilities
CGI Programming
- How CGI works; Fill-in forms; Dynamic documents; Image maps; CGI examples - perl, csh, C; Performance issues - server load
Publicizing Your Site and Pages
- What's New indices; Search engines; Web crawlers; Newsgroups; Links
Hiding Your Site and Pages
- Cleanly removing pages; Restrictions via firewalls and inetd.conf; Restrictions with httpd; Security through obscurity, hidden directories; Multiple servers per machine, different ports
Gathering Statistics
- What you can collect; How you can process it; What to look for; Managing logfile overload; Sample scripts

About the Author

Daniel Klein is Vice President of the Internet Business Pages, a service of LoneWolf Systems specializing in Internet advertising and providing World Wide Web presence. He has been using the Internet since 1974, and has been involved with UNIX since 1976. Dan has taught a wide variety of UNIX-related topics since 1984, and is also the tutorial coordinator for the USENIX Association. He was the program chair for the Winter 1990 USENIX Conference, and has served on the program committee for numerous USENIX, EUUG, and SUUG conferences.

Pricing

The price for a private presentation of any of our one-day tutorials is US$3000 plus travel and lodging costs (airfare, hotel, local transportation, meals, etc.) for up to 8 students. Additional students cost US$250 each.

For example, here is what a private presentation of a tutorial for 15 people would cost, assuming US$800 travel/lodging costs:

Item	Quantity	Each	Total
Base Tutorial fee (8 people)	1	$3000	$3000
Additional students	7	$250	$1750
Travel and lodging	1	$800	$800
Total			$5500

Educational institutions (accredited colleges, universities, etc.) are eligible for a 20% discount on the non-travel/lodging portion of the fee. The educational institution price for a private presentation of any of our one-day tutorials is US$2400 plus travel and lodging costs (airfare, hotel, local transportation, meals, etc.) for up to 8 students. Additional students are US$200 each.

For tutorials outside the USA and Canada, there is a US$5000 minimum (exclusive of travel/lodging costs), travel/lodging costs will be for business class accomodations, and customers should plan for an extra two days of accomodations for travel and jetlag.

Scheduling, or For More Information