Faculty & Research
Advice for Lab Websites
This page contains some notes and recommendations for faculty and graduate students just starting to put together a lab website. If you have questions, contact the Biology Webmaster. Other useful resources are:
- ITT Steps and Prosteps workshops: http://ittraining.iu.edu
- IU Webmaster Home: http://www.indiana.edu/~wmhome/
- Accessibility Checker: http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp
Accounts | Templates | Programs | Keep in Mind
Accounts (top)
Recommended option:
- Request a lab account on the User volume of Mendel's Mac by emailing the Biology Webmaster. With rare exceptions, the account will be of the formula "lastnamelab" (e.g. stromelab, palmerlab, etc.)
Alternatives:
Considerations:
- Mendel provides easy access to a mac system over the local network. Also, if you're on campus and using Dreamweaver, you can transfer files from within the program, rather than using a third-party client. Addresses will take the form: http://sites.bio.indiana.edu/~account.
- Webserve is run by the IU Webmasters, rather than the department. It is UNIX-based. There is very good documentation available online for webserve accounts, as well as good support from the IU Webmasters by email. Addresses will take the form: http://www.indiana.edu/~account.
Templates (top)
Template files are included in your directory when you request a lab web account on the Biology server. Templates are provided as a resource--you don't have to use them if you don't want to. They can be modified to meet the needs of specific labs. This is primarily the responsibility of individual labs, although the webmaster is happy to provide pointers or help create templates with other formats by request.
Programs for Making a Website (top)
- We favor Adobe Dreamweaver, which is available as a free download from IUware Online s as part of the Adobe CS4 package. This program allows you to compose visually using menus, and also with actual html code. It will keep track of all the links and pages in your site, and can update, for example, all links to a page when you change the page's file name, and then post the changes directly to your web account from a local file you've been editing. Also, there are several helpful Dreamweaver workshops offered at the Union by the UITS IT education program (free to students, small fee for faculty and staff, sign up at: http://ittraining.iu.edu/iub.
- Mac computers now come standard with iWeb, which is a farily intuitive, easy to use program. It allows you to choose among preset templates, and will automatically keep track of adding links as you add pages.
- For die-hards, and those who are really interested in learning the nitty-gritty of html, TextWrangler (previously BBEdit Lite) allows you to compose pages entirely in html, and access files on the server via sftp. It is available online as a free download from BareBones.
Things to keep in mind (top)
- The webmaster does not maintain lab websites; someone in your lab needs to be assigned this responsibility. However, the webmaster is available as a resource if you run into problems or questions.
- If someone other than the faculty member is actually creating and maintaining the lab website, be sure that you have a record of the username and password used for access to the lab account, so that when the student leaves, someone else can easily take over.
- Don't forget to let the webmaster know that you have a lab website, so that it can be linked to your faculty research page.