Internet Technology

Transferring Files to the Web Server

There are two ways to connect and transfer Web pages to the University Web server; one is using an FTP client software and the other is drive mounting.  Both methods require you to have the following:

1. A valid NIS account.
2. The destination path for the Web directory the files will be transferred to.
3. Access permissions to transfer files to the destination Web directory on the server. Users who get a "permission denied" error while attempting to transfer files do not have adequate access permissions to the destination directory and should contact the CSULA Web Administrator.

If you submitted a request for a Web directory, but don't know the destination path, contact the CSULA Web Administrator with the Web site name, your name, and the type of Web site it is (i.e. faculty page, department page, club page, etc.).  Learn more about requesting a Web site.

Mapping a Web Directory (Faculty Only)

Drive mapping allows the users to map the Web server as one of the drives on their computer (i.e., F:\ drive) so that they can save files directly to the server without having to use a FTP application.  This gives users the ability to view, organize, and manipulate the contents of their Web directory using Windows Explorer.  Faculty that have an on-campus computer connected to the academic (non-cslanet) network with the Desktop Services Software installed have this option.  Other on-campus or any remote users will need to use a FTP client to transfer files.

Information Technology Services (ITS) has instructional documents available to assist both PC and MAC users with map a drive.

Creating a Web Folder for Instructional1 (Faculty & Staff)

Faculty can connect to their Web Directory on Instructional1 by creating a Web Folder connection.  Web folders allow you to modify the content on a server as if it were right on your own computer.

Visit the following pages for instructions: Web Folder for XP | Web Folder for MAC

Note: This page contains a file that requires Adobe Acrobat to view. If you need an Adobe viewer, you can Download Adobe Reader for free.

FTP (for Everyone)

Another method for transferring files to the Web server is to use a FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client software.  To transfer files using this method, you must have a FTP client installed on your computer.  WS_FTP, SSH Secure FTP, and Fetch are FTP clients that have been included in the Desktop Services Software. Learn more about SSH Secure FTP, and Fetch.

The procedure will vary according to the particular FTP client being used, but the following steps outline the basic procedure for transferring files:

1. Launch the FTP application.
2. Type in the name of your NIS home server as the host name (e.g., mars.calstatela.edu, sol.calstatela.edu, etc.)
3. Type in your NIS userid and password in the appropriate blanks
4. Make sure that the Transfer Protocol is set to Auto-detect or Binary
5. Connect to the server by clicking on the OK, Connect, or Run button
6. Once you are logged onto the server, the FTP interface will show one panel that displays the directory structure of the remote server (the web server) and another panel that displays the directory structure of your local hard drive (i.e., C:\ drive)
7. Change the remote directory to that of your web directory path (i.e., /www/www/faculty/userid) as provided to you by the web administrator.
8. Using the panel that shows your local hard drive, browse/locate the web files that you would like to upload to the server
9. Once you have selected the files on your local drive, transfer the files to the remote directory by dragging and dropping those files to the remote server directory, or by clicking on the Upload or Copy button

How Directory Paths Relate to a Site's URL

When you are provided with the path to a web directory by the web administrator, the path will look similar to the following:
/www/www/faculty/jdoe

/www/www/ is the web directory root that corresponds to the URL: http://www.calstatela.edu. Thus, the path in the example above would correspond to the following URL:
http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/jdoe

If you place 3 HTML pages with the names of index.htm, first.htm, and second.htm in the /www/www/faculty/jdoe directory, you can reference them through the web using the following URL's respectively:

http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/jdoe
http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/jdoe/first.htm
http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/jdoe/second.htm

Please note that although the first URL example above does not explicitly reference the filename index.htm, anyone who types in that URL will get the correct web page (http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/jdoe/index.htm). This is due to the fact that whenever a user calls a URL that terminates with a directory name, the server automatically displays the index.htm or index.html file by default.