Using Your Space

Shared Space vs Virtual Web Hosts

These instructions are specific to users of the StuOrg shared space. This space is free to all registered student organizations. These instructions do not apply to organizations who are using the ITS Web Development Services "Virtual Web Host" service. Please note the examples below to determine which type your organization is using:

Shared Space

• http://www.stuorg.iastate.edu/groupname/

Virtual Web Host

• http://www.groupname.stuorg.iastate.edu/
• http://www.housename.greek.iastate.edu/

If you are using a virtual web host, the instructions below DO NOT APPLY TO YOU. To view instructions on using your space, add "/cgi-bin/readme" to the end of your website name. For example: http://www.sample.stuorg.iastate.edu/cgi-bin/readme

Ownership

All material in the student organization web space (StuOrg) is considered to be the property of GSB. Material, which is offensive or found to be in violation of the Code of Computer Ethics and Acceptable Use Policy, will be removed without notice. The StuOrg web space is NOT to be used as personal storage space or for personal web material. Though the contents of the locker are not actively policed, any material of this nature will be removed without notice. (Yes, we intentionally repeated that information.)

Support & Training

FTP, HTML, and general how-to support is not provided, you should attempt to find a member of your organization who is familiar with creating and maintaining web material.

There are many, good, free, online tutorials on how to develop web pages. One such source is W3Schools. There are also a variety of free short-courses available to students through the ITS Training. Although these courses are not directly related to managing material on the StuOrg server, they are general enough to be very useful.

General computer assistance is provided by the ITS Solutions Center. Questions regarding policy, procedure, and access can be answered by the Student Activities Center. Technical problems and error reporting should be directed to ITS Web Development Services.

Starting Web Page

Your group's starting page must have the filename of "homepage.html" or "homepage.php", all lowercase letters. If you do not use this as a starting page, we will not link your material. Some html editors will default to other common starting names such as index.html or homepage.htm which are not supported.

Linking Your Organization

Creating space neither automatically links your material to the student organization index, nor does it include the web address in your organization's information. This is by design to prevent linking to blank or unused directories. When you feel your material is ready, you can enter your web address in your organization's information. This field can be found by selecting "Edit StuOrg Information" in the "Manage Organizations" interface.

FTP Access Details

In order to FTP your material, you must use a SECURE FTP client. (FileZilla, Fetch 4, or through a secure FTP proxy such as KFTPD.) General FTP clients such as WS_FTP, GoLive, Dreamweaver, Frontpage, etc. will NOT work without a secure FTP Proxy. Information on secure FTP software and configuring secure FTP clients can be found by searching for "Kerberos FTP" on the IT website's Frequently Asked Question database. For more assistance with secure FTP, contact the ITS Solutions Center.

The username and password that you will use is your own Net-ID and password. Your Net-ID is the first portion of your Iowa State email address (netid@iastate.edu). But you must first be on the list of authorized users as described in Step 4 of the "Getting Started" guide.

The server (host) that you connect to can be any Project Vincent machine of your choice. You may also use any of the five general access machine:

The directory (path) that you will use depends upon the directory name you selected:

PHP / MySQL / Virtual Web Hosting

PHP is enabled on the StuOrg server. (For more information on PHP, visit www.php.net.) Because each organization does not have its own host (each group's "website" is simply a directory on one host), there is no way to prevent any group's script from viewing material/scripts in any another group's directory. The server does not have write permissions to the file space, so groups cannot use scripts to change anyone's material.

The Register Globals setting is turned OFF as is the default for all versions of PHP 4.2.0 and later. It is a security risk as users can add in random variables into your script without you knowledge. This feature is what causes passed variables to AUTOMATICALLY become real variables. With register globals off, you must specifically abstract them.

$foobar = $_REQUEST["foobar"];

MySQL is available only through a separate virtual web host. MySQL accounts cannot be used on the general StuOrg server without compromising access to the database. (MySQL access requires a username and password to be readable by the script accessing the database, and because any script can read any other script, those other scripts would then have the potential to accidentally or intentionally manipulate the database.)

ITS Web Development Services can provide student organizations with separate virtual web hosts for those organizations needing more enhanced web features such as MySQL access. A virtual web host includes a web address with and/or without a www prefix in either the greek or stuorg sub-domains. The fourth level sub-domain name reflects the name of the group. For example, suitable addresses would be: www.snipe.stuorg.iastate.edu and www.alphaalpha.greek.iastate.edu.

The standard virtual web hosting package for student organizations also includes a 250MB disk quota, full PHP access, daily backups, hit statistics, a search mechanism, and a MySQL account. The cost for this service is $5/month. This service is $25/month for departments on campus, but GSB provides the equipment and covers most of the costs for student organizations.

For more information, contact ITS Web Development Services.

ASP / FrontPage Extensions

Neither ASP nor Microsoft FrontPage Extensions are enable on the server.