How to Publish a Web Site

The web server architecture has incorporated into two environments, namely development (WWWDEV) and production platform.  The development platform allows you to make changes to your web content without affecting the LIVE data, and then publish it through our in house developed “Web Management Tool” to production platform when it is tested and ready to go live.

Available to:

Staff

Services Hours:

7x24 (except scheduled maintenance)

Procedure

Web Architecture:

A diagram showing the architecture of web servers in Lingnan University 

 

Important Note: WWWDEV can only be accessed within Lingnan network. If you are required to publish site from home, you will need to connect to VPN first.

Step 1: Edit your web pages

ITSC highly recommends that staff use Dreamweaver for producing web pages. The main advantage is that Dreamweaver provides flexibility in supporting uniform design across all web browsers such as Netscape, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Department needs to purchase their own Dreamweaver license.

Step 2: Connect to Development Server

1: Connect to the web development server through Secure SSH using FileZilla.

Note: If you do not have this program installed on your computer, please contact ITSC hotline on ext: 7995.

2: Click on Quick Connect to get a connection dialogue window.

3: Type "wwwdevdata.ln.edu.hk" as the host name and enter your user name in the User Name field. Make sure the Port Number is 22. Click on "Connect" to connect the file transfer application.

4: Type in your password and click "OK".

5: Now the panel on the right fills with icons showing the files in your web server home directory.

6: To copy files to or from the web server, simply hold down the left mouse button when the pointer is over a file and drag it to the other panel.

The transfer log at the bottom of the window lists the file name and shows you where it has been copied, indicating with an arrow whether it has been uploaded to the server for downloaded from it.

7: When you have finished, disconnect the file transfer application from the server by using the File pull-down menu. Click on "OK" if a confirmation dialogue appears.

Step 3: Test your site in Development Server

Now that you have uploaded your web content to the Development Server, It is important to test your web design in different browsers, since your site audience could be using a different browser. In Lingnan, we support Internet Explorer, Netscape and Firefox. You can check your site at:

https://wwwdev.ln.edu.hk/YOUR SITE/

For example:

Lingnan development site will be: https://wwwdev.ln.edu.hk/
ITSC development site will be https://wwwdev.ln.edu.hk/itsc/

With the new Development Server in place, you can now update your site, review the content as the WYSINWYG status and most importanly without affecting the Production data. Another advantage is that the publishing records are logged for audit history.

Step 4: Publish Your Site to Production Server with Web Management Tool (WMT)

Now that you have completed Step 1 to 3, the final step is to publish your site to the Production Server with the Web Management Tool (WMT). WMT is an application that allows you to publish your site from the Development platform (wwwdev.ln.edu.hk) to Production platform (wwwprod.ln.edu.hk).  Publishing records will be logged for audit history.

1: Login to WMT (https://www.ln.edu.hk/wmt) and click on Publish Now on the left menu.  Login with your Department account for Departmental web pages or email account for Personal web pages. 

2: Choose the site to publish. [Click on "Add New Site"to add a new site, if you cannot find your site from list]

3: Click on the "Go" button to the site you want to publish.  

The system will check for the differences between Development Server and Production Server. A summary will be provided outlining all the changes that will be applied to the Production Server. Uncheck any files that you do not want to publish to Production Server.  The checking time depends on the size of your site. To speed up the site checking process, you can create site within your Departmental site by "Add New site".

For example, ITSC can create more site apart from the default ITSC site by adding the additional path after the /itsc/.
/itsc/information/
/itsc/project/

4: Click on "Publish Now" button and it will update your file(s) accordingly.All changes will now apply to the Production Server, you can check your pages at: https://www.ln.edu.hk/YOUR SITE