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Development of web content for the standard CUE Web Server systems is quite straightforward and very flexible. In general, for each group web server, the web content areas are available throughout CUE. Thus, web server content can be published to a group web server by simply copying the content files into the appropriate areas of the central filesystem. Access controls to these content areas are provided through Unix 'groups' implemented in CUE. Individual administrative groups can choose who is to be a member of each authoring group. For instance, the web server that is deployed for CLAS has a web area on the central filesystem under the /group/clas/www/clasweb directories (M:\clas\www\clasweb on Windows NT). The files in this area are readable by all, but are owned by group clasweb and writeable only by that group. Thus, individual system users can be granted web authoring privilege by simply becoming a member of the clasweb group.
Tools used to develop content are entirely up to the user, and may range from simple text editors to create hand-written html, to elaborate Cold Fusion applications developed in a MS-Windows based development environment. Many of these tools provide a mechanism for publishing content to an external web server. The details of this process vary, but ultimately, all can rely on the underlying CUE environment providing access to the content directories. Content directories and other parameters associated with each web can be found via the CUE Webs page.
MS FrontPage Express and Netscape Composer
A fairly simple mechanism is available from MS FrontPage Express and Netscape Composer. These tools have no notion of a web 'site', but provide simple page editors. In this model, individual content pages are developed and stored locally, but copied to the web server using some underlying method like ftp. Within CUE, however, these tools can simply do a file save directly into the content directory to publish content pages.
Office Applications
Office Applications from Microsoft and other vendors frequently have the ability to save files as html for web publishing. Tools of this type can simply save the generated html files directly into the web content directories.
MS FrontPage
MS FrontPage provides a web content publishing facility that allows a working copy of the web to be maintained on your local (NT) system, and "publish" documents to a "real" web server by copying the underlying files using a variety of protocols like http, ftp, file copies, etc. As the files are published, URL references are fixed-up to account for any logical changes in location on the destination web server. The web pages you are reading now were developed in this system and published as I am describing.
HotMetal / Pagemill, etc
A variety of other web authoring systems are in use within the lab. It is expected that publishing content from these systems should be similar to those described above. Additional details of the publishing process in these systems will be posted as it becomes available.
Development of CGI, embedded perl, SSI and other similar applications requires additional care on the part of the developer to ensure that secure and stable methods are employed. The ability to publish code to the CUE web servers is therefore limited to the group's web administrators. Thus, other users wishing to develop such applications will need to coordinate the installation of these components with their group's web administrators
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Copyright Jefferson Lab 2007