CS-081 Assignment 1

Your first assignment is to make sure your account in the TREE domain in the Computer Science Department is set up correctly and to be sure you are able to edit and deploy web pages based on a standard template.

• Log into any of the tree-named computers in A-205 with a username and password both consisting of the first letter of your first name and your lastname. This initial password must be all lowercase. You will be prompted to change your password to something secure. Do so.
• Be sure you can run the Firefox browser. If (when, actually) the browser locks up with a green circled arrow next to the location bar, double-click the green circle and let the browser update whatever extensions it asks for. Now try exiting the browser and starting over. If you see my homepage, you're all set. More likely, it will lock up again, and you'll have to exit the browser again and start it with the command "C:\Program Files\Mozilla\Firefox\firefox.exe -ProfileManager", which you may either type at a command prompt (Type Ctrl-X to get a window where you can type in this command prompt; type "exit" when you are finished with this window.) or you can modify the Firefox shortcut on your desktop: right-click on the icon, select Properties, and add -ProfileManager to the end of the command line in the Target text field, click Apply, start firefox, and remove the -ProfileManager string when you finish this step.
  When you run firefox now, the profile manager will ask you what profile to use: click “Create Profile...” and create a new profile. You can use the name Default User. Highlight the new profile name (i.e., be sure it is dark blue, not just gray), be sure “Don't ask at startup” is checked, and click “Start Firefox”. Assuming you see my home page as expected (if not, get help from me), you can make a couple of standard customizations now: Use the View→Toolbars→Customize menu sequence to bring up a customization panel. While it is showing, drag the Google search bar from the second row of the firefox toolbars to the top row (don't worry exactly where you drag it). You can also get rid of the Go button by dragging it off the second toolbar row. Dismiss the customization panel, and your version of firefox should be good to go. Exit firefox, make sure the shortcut to it doesn't say -ProfileManager any more, and be sure you can run it okay now. (Sorry about all that hassle.)
• Now install the Firefox HTML Validator extension. From Firefox, use File→Open File, and browse to C:\Downloads\Mozilla\Extensions, and click on the one named html validator. Click the install button on the dialog box that comes up, then exit Firefox and restart it. You can install other extensions if you want to, but this one is required for the course. When you restart firefox, you will see a disk in the lower right corner of the browser window. It should be greeen with a checkmark in it as you view my home page. Right click on it, select Options, and change the accessability level from none to normal.
• Now you are ready to create your first web page for the course. In this case, it is to be the template.php file I handed out; if you don't have a copy, get one from me. First create a directory inside your roaming profile for your web pages. I suggest a subdirectory of My Documents named htdocs, www, or My Web Pages. The name is not critical, but you need to create it. We'll call this your development site directory. Use Vim to type in template.php and save it in the directory you just created. There is a tiny Vim tutorial you can use to help you get started with this editor. Do not use Notepad to edit code for this course!
• Now copy (not move) your file from your development site directory to C:\htdocs. Somebody else's template.php might already be there, but it's okay just to replace it with your own. Use firefox to open the url, http://localhost/template.php. Verify that (1) the page displays correctly, and (2) you get a green checkmark from the HTML validator. Whether you do get the green checkmark or not, click on the XHTML link at the bottom of the page and see what the w3c validator says about your page. Use vim to fix any errors or warnings. Note: If the w3c validator says the page is good but the tidy validator still shows warnings, it is most likely an accessibiltiy problem with the page. In this case, you have no choice but to select "copy errors to clipboard" option you will get by right-clicking on the tidy validator's yellow warning triangle. Then start a new copy of vim, and paste the clipboard into a new document so you can see what the error message is. You can close this copy of vim without saving the file.
• When you log out of the workstation, your roaming profile will be saved on the lab's file server, maple, and you will be able to access it from any computer in the lab that you log into.

To submit this assignment, send an email message to vickery _at_ babbage.cs.qc.edu by midnight, September 20.

1. Be sure the Subject of you email message is “CS-081 Assignment 1”
2. Be sure to put your name and 4-digit ID in the body of your message.
3. Tell me the name of the directory under My Documents where you put your web pages; I will check your template.php file using the copy of it on maple that I can read by using Administrator privileges.