A Webmaster's Guidelines for DBAI

This is a draft of guidlines for our internal as well as our production web server http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at, which mirrors the internal one. As far as access privileges for documents are concerned, these refer to our internal server only.

General Guidelines

Use relative links:

All links that refer to our site itself should be relative, i.e. instead of linking to http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/SomeEntity/ThePages/ one should link to /SomeEntity/ThePages/.

Only link to directories:

The only links to our general webspace that are guaranteed to remain valid over extended periods of time are those not containing filenames, but only directories, e.g. /staff/ as opposed to /staff/index.html.

Coordinate new projects with the (lead) webmaster:

All new projects on our servers, especially those undertaken by users without previous experience with those systems, should be coordinated with the (lead) webmaster. (Our experience has shown that this usually saves both parties a significant amount of work later on.)

Usage of cgi-bin, server-side Java and the like...

...has to be coordinated with the (lead) webmaster. Deployment of such executables on the production server will be limited to thouroughly tested components, while the internal server can be used for development purposes.

Put large collections of documents into separate directories and inform the webmasters:

These collections have to be excluded from the site index so that more usable results for site searches can be obtained.

You can easily edit your web directories and pages on the internal server as /web/htdocs/MyPages/ and access them with a browser at http://starweb.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/MyPages/.

In addition to /web/htdocs/, a couple of ``shortcuts'' have been defined, that point to subdirectories of the tree rooted at htdocs, specifically /web/education/, /web/local/, /web/proj/, /web/staff/, and /web/user/.

Every day, eight minutes after every even hour (i.e. 0:08, 2:08, ..., 22:08), the contents of the internal and external servers are synchronized such that the external becomes an exact mirror of the internal one. I.e., new files are transferred, modified files are updated and files that have been deleted on the internal server are deleted at the external server as well.

Instant Mirroring

By sending e-mail to webmast@www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at with a

Subject: mirror: /index.html

Subject: mirror: /proj/Jade/publications.html

Please note that this feature does not work ...

• from outside DBAI
• for password protected pages
• files whose name starts with a dot
• php files

Staff Listing

/staff/ contains a list of current staff members, including e-mail address, office hours, phone extension and a link to a personal page (optional). Please inform the webmasters about any new or leaving staff members as well as any other changes of information listed there.

Personal Webspace for Staff

Each staff member can have a directory tree of her own under /staff/. Normally the name of this directory will match the user name, i.e. the pages of enen will be reachable as /staff/enen/. The user herself is the owner (in the UNIX sense) of that directory and is entirely responsible for its contents. All of her data, including images, should be stored there exclusively.

Simply drop admin@dbai.tuwien.ac.at a note to have such a directory set up for you; please Cc: webmaster@dbai.tuwien.ac.at on that message.

Transition note: Eventually all personal images should move from /images to this personal webspace.

Projects

/proj/ contains a list of projects, both past ones (in case those have been listed previously) and all current ones.

Furthermore, each project has a directory of its own under /proj/, e.g. /proj/PisNP/, which is referenced from the general project page and contains more detailed information. Usually a member of the project team is be the owner (in the UNIX sense) of that directory, but upon request there is also the possibility to assign this directory to some special, project specific group. In any case, the owner of that directory serves as the main contact and is entirely responsible for its contents.

/education/ contains a list of all our courses of the current and the previous semester. For each course, a page with more detailed information should be provided, either in the personal webspace of the staff member that is responsible for that course (preferred) or as /education/SomeCourse.html resp. /education/SomeCourse/.

A few weeks before the start of a new semester the webmasters will ask for updates and additions to this list, which should be completed before the semester actually starts.

/event/ is intended for conference pages, events organized by our group, and similiar.

In general, please do not hesitate to contact us!