Know how - Updating the site :
Comrades, this is Conor, with a little bit on how to update the site. This page has 4 main sections:
1) Setting up your PC to update the site.
2) Templates.
3) Updating the site.
4) Troubleshooting.
The first thing any member will need to know before updating the site, is our password. This can be obtained by emailing the secretary or myself.
1) Getting Set-Up:
Two free programs are available, which you should download and install on your PC. The first is FileZilla:
Filezilla download The one you want is: "FileZilla_2_2_30a_setup.exe"
Notepad 2 Direct download link
Create a folder somehwere on your computer, and call it "Site".
Open Filezilla. While in Filezilla, go to: File > Site Manager > New Site (call it "irishsocialist.net") > then fill in the boxes in the form according to this graphic. You'll need the password - as I said, if you don't have it, email or call the secretary.
[Once Filezilla is setup like this, all you need do to connect at any future date is go to : File > Reconnect]
Take a look at this graphic which explains the layout of FileZilla. Everything inside the blue boxes at the top and bottom are an indicator of progress in the time taken to upload or download a particular file. The Red Box on the left hand side is your computer. You will need to find the folder you created earlier called "Site" in this area. The Green Box on the right hand side is the server that holds our site 24/7 and makes it available on the internet. Filezilla is an FTP client. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. Basically, it moves files from your computer to the internet (uploading), and from the internet to your computer (downloading, much like you download any page you view on the internet).
You should be used to finding stuff on your own PC, and therefore, the left hand box is pretty self-explanatory. All you need to know about the right hand side, is that all our files are in one folder. That folder is called "public.html". Here it is marked inside the green box. Double click it to see this, the way filezilla should look before you update the site.
If Filezilla is properly setup, and everything looks like the last graphic, exchanging files between your PC and the Server (internet) is easy. To move any file from your PC to the site (upload), simply drag it from the folder on the left hand side of the screen, to the one on the right hand side (red box -> green box). To download a particular page from the site, click and drag it from the right hand side to the left hand side (green box -> red box).
Start by downloading the entire site. That means selecting everything on the right hand side, and dragging it over to the left hand side. This should take a few minutes. Look at the blue sections that I marked in Filezilla. Whenever they stop moving, the download is complete.
Now, to edit and play with a page. That's easy, assuming you have downloaded notepad2 and have it on your desktop.
2)Templates:
Here are some templates. You'll already have downloaded them with the rest of the site
3) Updating the Site:
With all the hard work of setting up over, every time you have something to put on the site, jump straight in here.
Before updating the site, it's important to know that the files you are about to edit, are themselves the latest online. To ensure this: Filezilla > Site Manager > Reconnect.
For example, if you're going to publish a new article to the "Publications" section, and want to do a blurb about it on the front page, you'll be updating 3 files:
-index (the homepage: "index.html")
-publications (the publications and articles section: "publications.html")
-and you'll be filling in a publications template with your own material (the article)
In Filezilla, download the index and the publications and articles (from the server to your "Site" file - i.e. right hand side to left hand side) by dragging the (2) relavent articles above from the server into your PC.
Now, "start at the back end". Make the article first. Do this by going to your "Site" folder and opening the template that is relavent for publications called "template_publications". Right-click the file, and open it with notepad2, or if that option isn't available, plain notepad will do (that's what I'll be using to generate the graphics below)
Once opened in Notepad (2), IMMEDIATELY change the file name. Do this by going to: File > Save As > (See nomenclature below)
File Nomenclature:
-Everything ends in ".html"
-If it's a publication on Rosa Luxemburg, save as: "publications_rosa_luxemburg.html"
-Everything is saved in the "Site" folder
Now, we are ready to edit. Scroll down the document, until you come to here. All you need edit, is between "Site Starts" and "Site Ends" - marked within the green bracket in the image from my screen above.
Between <h3> and </h3> goes the headline.
<p> Starts a paragraph.
</p> Ends a paragraph.
To make an internal (somewhere on irishsocialist.net) link, is easy. For example, to link to the homepage (always called the index, and with a filename "index.html" in the "site" file) the following string will do the job:
<a href="index.html"> What goes in here is the description of the link, that shows up in blue </a>
To link to an external site, do the exact same, but include the FULL address - i.e. a link to indymedia would be: "http://indymedia.ie/whatever.html" - it's best practice to go to the site, and copy whatever is in the address bar on the page you want to link to.
And so on. You'll get a hang of it by copying and pasting your text into the template. Always open the page with your browser (internet explorer or firefox) when you've finished making the page and see everything is a:ok.
Similarly, open the "publications.html" file from your "Site" folder in Notepad (or Notepad2), look for where you want to put the link by reading the page in your browser (internet explorer, or better still, the free firefox browser), then simultaneously looking through the code in your text editor (Notepad or Notepad2) to copy and paste in the link and the blurb as I described above:
<a href="publications_rosa_luxemburg.htmll"> What goes in here is the description of the link, that shows up in blue </a>
Save the file when you're finished and happy it's right.
Then, go to the homepage (called: "index.html") and open it in a browser and a text editor. Write a little blurb, and link to the article directly:
<a href="publications_rosa_luxemburg.html"> What goes in here is the description of the link, that shows up in blue, But REMEMBER: you can make this as long as you want, and put a couple of paragraphs or an extract from the article in here </a>.
Save it all as html files, and TEST IT. Do this by opening any HTML file in the "site" folder, and browsing around the site - from index to publications, to your fantastic new article.
Now, open Filezilla, reconnect, and drag the 3 files (your article "publications_rosa_luxemburg.html", the "publications.html" page and the "index.html" one too) from your computer (left hand side) to the server (right hand side.)
You have now updated the site.
It's actually quite easy and quick once you do it a dozen times - so try it a dozen times. Don't be afraid to mess it up a couple of times. I'll always have an uncorrupted copy of the site on my hard-disk, ready to go back up.
The above example is extensable for any section of the site. Whatever the section, the same rules apply.
4) Troubleshooting:
If you have a problem with your filezilla, open it up, click the [Print Screen] button, which is
situated on the top right hand side of most keyboards. (usually aroundthe [F12] button), then open up Microsoft Paint by hitting: [Start] > [Programs] >[Accessories] > [Paint]. When in MS Paint, holding down the [Ctrl] button and hitting the [V] key.
At this stage an image of the mess that Filezilla is making on your computer should be pasted
into Paint. Saveit [File] > [Save As] and send it on to me as an attachment in an email and I'll get back to you with what I think has gone wrong. In the meantime, close Filezilla, and take a headache tablet.
As for HTML editing, my friend Ross has a site all about HTML, called yourhtmlsource which I found really useful when building the site (Ross also did the bulk of the work on the site this was based on). Check it out if you want to learn a little more - or are a little confused about anything. If you're having serious problems with it, feel free to drop me a mail.
Finally, here is a little video about digital text, and html. Youtube is a resourse we haven't used to date, but video content is on the up and can't be ignored. If you see something relavent on youtube, you can insert it into any page on the site. Like everything else here, it's just a matter of knowing where to copy and paste. Remember, Youtube hold the video on their servers free of charge, so it won't cost us anything.