FAQ on Web Page Authoring                     Show all answers         Hide all answers

If you have Chinese Windows, you can use the Chinese Editor in your PC.
Get into the editing mode, press 'Ctrl' + 'Shift' keys, and it will toggle between English and Chinese input.

If you have English Windows Vista, you can install Chinese input module to input Chinese characters. (Click Windows Start => Control Panel => Regional and Language Options => Keyboards and Languages tab => click Change Keyboards button => click General tab => Under Installed services, click Add => click the language and select the text services you want to add, and then click OK).

If you have English Windows XP, you can install Chinese input module to input Chinese characters. (Click Windows Start => Settings => Control Panel => Regional and Language Options => Languages tab => Details button).

As a last resort, you can use a scanner to scan in the Chinese as images.

Visit the following links:
http://www.hku.hk/local/cc/course/cgi/cgi.html
http://www.hku.hk/local/cc/training/imap_cgi_frame/

Where can I find some sample cgi programs to run on web.hku.hk for testing?
Sample cgi programs can be found at http://www.hku.hk/local/cc/training/imap_cgi_frame/
Just follow the exercises and place the cgi programs in /public_html/cgi-bin
Run your cgi program at http://www.hku.hk/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/<username>/program-name.cgi

Where do I place the cgi programs?
For the web.hku.hk server, place them in the directory ~/public_html/cgi-bin
For the www.hku.hk server, place them in the directory /web/docs/cgi-bin/username 

How can I make a cgi program secure (not readable by others)?
You can declare a group called "nobody", and set the file mode of this cgi file to be readable by group.

What is Server Side Includes (SSI)?
A server-side include is a variable value (for example, a file "Last modified" date) that a server can include in an HTML file before it sends it to the requestor.
Visit the following links:
http://www2.umdnj.edu/ic/randline.html

For Frame, see http://www.hku.hk/local/cc/training/imap_cgi_frame/frame.html/ 

For Image map, see http://www.hku.hk/local/cc/training/imap_cgi_frame/imap.html/ 

Please read the page at http://www.webdeveloper.com/javascript

Please read the page at http://www.hku.hk/local/cc/course/forms/forms.html

Refer to http://www.itservices.hku.hk/faq/www/ssh-index.htm

Visit http://www.itservices.hku.hk/news/ccnews65/news65p1.htm#t10
or
Insert the following line in the bottom of your html file before the lines </BODY> and </HTML>

<CENTER><P>
You are the <img src="http://web.hku.hk/cgi-bin/Count.cgi?df=UserName-FileName|dd=B|ft=2" align="absbottom"> visitor of this page since DATE<br>
</p></CENTER>

For personal webpages on the web.hku.hk server:
Substitute 'UserName' with your username on web.hku.hk, 'FileName' with any filename and 'DATE' with today's date.

For departmental webpages on the www.hku.hk server:
You must request the Computer Centre to create your access counter on the www.hku.hk server by sending an email to ithelp@hku.hk specifying your directory path and the desired counter name. Then follow the steps described above to insert the counter in your html file.

1. Create a file called "access_count" in the Unix account in the directory where your html file resides (using an editor)
2. Set the access priviledges of this file with the Unix command: "chmod 777 access_count" at the Unix prompt.
3. In your html file, put the following line at the very bottom of your file after the  </html> tag:

        <!--#exec cmd="/web/docs/cgi-bin/cc/ncounter.cgi"-->

4. This counter cannot be seen by visitors.  Authors can see the recorded count of each webpage by typing the following Unix command:
         more access_count

Note: you can add the cgi program line in the bottom of many html files.

See procedures at http://www.itservices.hku.hk/faq/www/htaccess.htm

For the web.hku.hk server, the default disk quota is 300MB.
For the www.hku.hk webpage server, the default disk quota is 100MB.
You can apply for additional disk quota by filling out the eletronic form CF101 at http://www.itservices.hku.hk/home/services/forms.htm, or return the completed form to the Computer Centre General Office in Room 223, Run Run Shaw Building

Please refer to http://www.hku.hk/uid/ for details.

To get a departmental domain name under hku.hk, do the following:

1. If your department does not have its own domain name server, you need to apply for a domain name host with the Computer Centre. Fill out the Domain Name Registration Form (CF-60) at http://www.itservices.hku.hk/home/services/forms.htm eletronically, or return the completed form to the Computer Centre General Office at Room 223, Run Run Shaw Building.

2. If your domain name is not within the HKU domain, then register your domain name with the Hong Kong Domain Name Registration Company at www.hkirc.net.com

In general, the following are good hints:

A => use the ALT tag with graphics files
B => simple clean html is beautiful
C => color contrast between background and text is important for the visually handicapped
D => people want to see good data and information and not necessarily a web page with fancy graphics that do not relate to the information provided

The following should not be abused:

• Pop-up windows - studies show that over 90% of web surfers close the pop-up windows without looking at the contents
• Auto-refresh of flashing, flickering text and animated messages - it is annoying for repeated visitors

To design barrier-free webpages, follow guidelines at:

• Tips for making your web pages more accessible - from the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, HKSAR Goverment
• http://www.itservices.hku.hk/news/ccnews106/barrier-free-websites.htm
• http://www.itservices.hku.hk/news/ccnews98/helpdesk.htm

Create an index.html file with the following line in it:
<meta http-equiv="REFRESH" content="0; URL=http://the-new-url">

To check your disk quota, ssh to your host server using Putty. See
http://www.itservices.hku.hk/faq/www/ssh.htm

In the command prompt, type
quota -v



In the above example, the disk usage is 63.416 MB (as the usage is 63416KB. 1MB=1000KB). The quota is 300MB.

One of the way to improve web accessibility is to create "Alternative Text" for images in the webpage. You can follow the procedure to create the "Alternative Text" using Microsoft Expression Web. The procedure for other web editing softwares are similar.

1. Place the cursor where you would like the image to appear.
2. From the menu, click Insert => Picture => From File...
   
3. The Insert Image Window should now appear:
   
4. Browse and select the image you would like to insert into your webpage.
5. When you are finished, click the Open button.
6. You will be prompted to enter Alternate text for the image. The alt attribute tells the reader what he or she is missing on a page if the browser can't load images. The browser will then display the alternate text instead of the image. It is a good practice to include the alt attribute for each image on a page, to improve the display and usefulness of your document for people who have text-only browsers or people with visual impairment.