Web Publishing and Site Hosting on UCOP Web Server

General Web Guidelines
Our Web server is a Unix box and is therefore case-sensitive. We recommend that all filenames use only lower-case letters. Also, there should not be any spaces in filenames; use underscores if you feel the distinction is necessary. Some browsers do not recognize the spaces in filenames, which may result in broken links.

We do not support FrontPage extensions, ColdFusion, or Active Server Pages.

The server is backed up daily, but the purpose of this back-up is for catastrophic recovery of data (e.g., the hard disk on the server dies). All customers are responsible for maintaining their own site back-ups to recover inadvertently deleted and overwritten files.

Our default directory filenames, in order of priority, are:

• welcome.html
• welcome.htm
• index.html
• index.htm

We can assist with JavaScript code for:

• Encrypting e-mail addresses to prevent harvesting by spambots, and
• Displaying a web page’s “last modified” date

We recommend that all files published to the Web include "Title" information which accurately reflects the content of the document for increased accessibility and to provide meaningful links in the returned results of searches (e.g., the UCOP search engine, or Google).

• Word documents: Go to File/Properties/, under the Summary tab, enter the Title information
• PDF documents: Go to File/Properties/, under the Description tab, enter the Title information

Services Provided

• The Inktomi Search Engine software is supported on our server. Customers may elect to create a search page specific to their site, but must make sure they have organized their data on the server in a way which allows this (e.g., directory/folder structure must be considered when publishing files).
• Urchin Log Analysis Reports are also available to help determine how your site is being used. Customers must contact the Web Development Unit to have their log included in the analysis.
• Several types of restricted directory access are available when requested. Included are:
  • UC domain restriction
  • htaccess restriction (single userid / password is preferred for this type)
• Server-side redirects maybe implemented to automatically redirect one URL to another URL.

Database Development
Using PHP and MySQL, IR&C develops dynamic web pages and database-driven web sites to allow customers to access real-time data and information. Customized Web applications may include features such as database searches, document uploading, data import and monitoring, data entry screens, and various report formats. Due to security concerns, database development must be done by the Web Development Unit; we do not allow the implementation of external PHP scripts on our web server.