The Basic Web Page

Your Badger Page Directory and Page File

Note: All files or directory names and characters you type into the computer are in courier font.

  1. Log on to Badger.
  2. At the prompt, type: 
    3. pubweb

    This command runs a utility called pubweb, which does the initial set-up and maintenance of your Web directory and files. It creates a subdirectory in your home directory called public_html, which is where your web page will be created. To see this for yourself, list your directories by typing the command: 

    ls
  3. Change to the public_html subdirectory by entering the following command: 
    4. cd public_html
  4. Create a file named index.html and open the text editor called pico by typing: 
    5. pico index.html

    This command opens the pico text editor with your filename at the top of the window. This is where you will type in the HTML code for your page.


The Basic Elements of a Page

Your page will contain a number of elements, such as headings, paragraphs and links. HTML tags are used to mark these elements for your browser, and a tag consists of a left angle bracket (<), a tag name, and a right angle bracket (>). Tags are usually used in pairs, at the beginning and end of an element. Note the start and end tags in the following example heading, and that the end tag is preceded by a backslash (/).

<H1>This element is a heading</H1>

Now that you know what these tags are for, let's carry on with your page file in the pico editor.


Head and Body

  1. Type:
    2. <HTML>

    This tag tells the browser that this is an HTML file. (You will add the end tag </HTML> at the end of your file).

  2. Type:
    3.  <HEAD><TITLE>Put your title here</TITLE></HEAD>

    The <TITLE> tag identifies your page for search engine purposes, but will not be displayed on the page. <HEAD> identifies this element as the head of the page.

  3. Type: 
    4. <BODY>

    This denotes the beginning of the body, containing the actual text for each element.

  4. Type: 
    5. <H1>Put the heading of your page here</H1>

    This is the visible heading of your page.The size of the font is determined by the number within the tag, <H1> being the largest and <H6> being the smallest.

  5. Type:

    6. <BR>
    <BR>
    <BR>

    This tag inserts a line break into the text. No end tag is needed.

  6. Type:

    7. </BODY>
    </HTML>

    Typing these end tags for the body and the HTML file now will allow you to view what you have done so far.

  7. At the bottom of the pico editor screen you will see various commands preceded by the ^ symbol. This symbol represents the control (Ctrl) key. To save your text file, press the Ctrl key and the letter X simultaneously. You will see a message asking you if you want to save the file to the modified buffer. Type Y, then hit the Enter key to save it under the filename you are shown (which should be index.html). This exits the editor, leaving you at the Badger prompt.
  8. Run the pubweb utility again to update the permissions on this page file. In future, you only need to run pubweb when you create new page files.
  9. Minimize the Badger screen, or hide it, depending on which computer you are using.
  10. Open the Netscape web browser.
  11. In the Location window, type the URL of your page (with your user id following the ~ symbol): 
    12. http://badger.ac.brocku.ca/~xx97xx

    Your new Web page should be displayed, as it is so far. It should resemble the following screen:

(Note: Check the Troubleshooting section if your page is very different from the above page.)


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URL this document: http://memebers.tripod.com/~ll94ac/TheBasicWebPage.html
Last revised: March 6, 1998 by D. Beens