This document outlines the methods for accessing our file services, explains our project publishing and development practices, and gives you information on where to go for help.
Please take a few moments to familiarize yourself with this document, and keep it handy in case you are having trouble. If you have a question that isn't answered here, refer to the information at the bottom of this page about how to submit a trouble ticket via email.
We offer two different methods through which you can access our file services. The first (and most common method) is via the SMB protocol ('samba'--also known as Windows File Sharing).
This can be used by both Windows and Mac users from anywhere on UT's campus. The second method that we offer is through a protocol called SFTP. This is the only option available for folks who are off-campus (unless you are connected to the campus network via ITS' VPN Service).
Our file server can be found at file.laits.utexas.edu. The Volumes that are available are as follows:
Projects
This contains folders relating to projects in development, or new work for projects already published
WWW
The WWW volume contains live web content. It is recommended that before you make any changes here, you test them in your folder on the Projects volume
Users
Individual user's home directories are listed here. Your home directory is a place where you can store non-project related work materials, such as electronic copies of receipts or PDF versions of insurance forms.
Pub
Pub is a place for us to distribute files that multiple users may need access to, such as printer drivers.
STA
This is a separate container for storing the non-web related content produced by our STAs.
LAITS Admin, Development, Media Store
All three of these volumes are used for administrative purposes by LAITS.
SMB
- From the Start menu, select Run.
- In the dialog, enter \\file.laits.utexas.edu\. Optionally, you can include a volume name, such as \\file.laits.utexas.edu\Users. After you enter this string, press Return.
- When prompted, authenticate with your username and password. Make sure the workgroup is set to LAITS.
SFTP
- Launch SSH Secure Shell Secure File Transfer Client. SSH Secure Shell is available from Bevoware.
- Click File/Profiles/Add Profile
- Enter a profile name (ex: LAITS File server) and select Add to Profiles
- Click File/Profiles/Edit Profiles
- Enter the server details.
Host Name: file.laits.utexas.edu
User Name: <your username>
- Select the tab [Favorite Folders] and enter a preferred home folder.
Home folder: <path to your project folder>
- (see below for correct folder paths)
- click [OK]
- Click Edit/Settings
- Click the File Transfer|Advanced option on the left.
- Select Preserve original file name
- Select Preserve orignal destination permissions
- Configure the default permissions as follows:
Default File permissions: 664
Default Directory permissions: 775
- Select OK
- Click Profiles/LAITS File Server to connect.
SMB
- From the Finder, select Go and then Connect to Server...
- Enter the address smb://file.laits.utexas.edu. Optionally, you can include a volume name, such as smb://file.laits.utexas.edu/Users. After you enter this string, press Return.
- When prompted, authenticate with your username and password. Make sure the workgroup is set to LAITS.
SFTP
- Launch the Fetch application.
Fetch is available for download from the Bevoware site.
- Click File / New Connection
- Click on the blue arrow to the bottom left to expand the initial screen.
- Enter the following information:
Hostname: file.laits.utexas.edu
Username: <username>
Connect using: SFTP
Password: <password>
Initial folder: <path to your project folder>
- (see below for correct folder paths) - Select the heart shaped icon in the upper right to create a shortcut for this connection.
- Click Connect.
- You can now drag and drop files and folders to the file server.
| Projects |
/mnt/projects |
| WWW |
/mnt/www |
| Users |
/mnt/home |
| Pub |
/mnt/pub |
| STA |
/mnt/sta |
Whenever we host a new project, we create a single project directory (on the Projects volume) to hold all of the documentation (web-based and otherwise) for that project. This gives collaborators a single place to store their materials so that they are readily available to other (or future) team members. In addition to storing research data, design ideas, content, and other necessary materials, this is also where the development version of any websites associated with the project will be stored.
Each project folder has an htdocs folder inside of it. That folder is used to piece together the development web content into a full-blown website. Once you've placed content in this folder, it will be immediately viewable on the web. For instance, the American Politics site has an associated project folder called gov310. To view the development version of the American Politics site, you would go to http://dev.laits.utexas.edu/gov310.
If a project is going to spawn multiple websites, please let us know and we can either provide you with assistance in organizing the multiple sites within a single htdocs folder, or we can make special arrangements to accomodate your needs.
After a website is finished and is ready to be published to the world, it needs to be copied out of it's Project folder and into a folder on the WWW volume. When you reach this point in the development process, simply contact us via the trouble ticket system outlined below, and we will create a folder with a name similar to your Project folder for you to copy your site into. When you're copying your website files to the WWW volume be sure to only copy the files that are in the htdocs folder of your Project folder. After the contents are copied across, your site will immediately be available online. To re-use our example from above, the production version of the American Politics site is viewable at http://www.laits.utexas.edu/gov310.
When placing your files on our servers, we ask that you adhere to a simple set of guidelines in terms of naming files. Following these guidelines will insure interoperability between Windows and Macintosh users. It will also allow us to guarantee that our server backup software will be able to properly backup and restore your files in the event of an emergency. The naming rules are as follows:
- The only acceptable characters for file names are A thru Z, a thru z, 0 thru 9, dashes, underscores, and periods.
- Accented or otherwise modified versions of the characters above are *not* permissible.
- Please use file extensions when naming your files. While you may be a Macintosh only person at your desktop, our servers run a variety of operating systems and they don't all play nicely with the Macintosh Resource Fork data. Using file extensions will ensure that your files will behave as you expect them to, and that they'll be available to individuals using other operating systems.
- In addition to the Projects and WWW volumes mentioned above, you will be provided with a folder on the Users volume. This will be your home folder (for SFTP users, by default, this is the folder you see when you first connect). This folder can be used to store documents on the server that either aren't affiliated with a particular project, or for which you don't have a Project folder. This folder is not intended to be a general dumping ground for all of your data. Storage of non-project related multimedia files (mp3s, quicktime movies, etc) is not permitted.
We handle the majority of our servers support issues via our trouble ticket system. As server admins, each of us handles a variety of tasks, and those tasks change on a regular basis. By giving users a single point of contact, we can quickly route support requests to the appropriate person for the problem. To submit a trouble ticket, all you have to do is send an email to support@mail.laits.utexas.edu. Please include as much specific information about your problem as possible. Some examples:
- If you need help because you can't write to a file or folder you feel you should have access to, let us know the full path to that folder, such as Projects/gov310/htdocs/index.html. Some files (like the index.html mentioned here) use the same names, and without the path we won't know which one you're having trouble with.
- If you're asking us to create an account for a new user, or add someone to a mailing list, send us their full name and their email address. While it's not currently used, we often ask for the EID at this point as well. If this is a student employee, or some other sort of temporary staff member, we also ask that you include an approximate date at which we can deactivate the account. This deactivation is not a permanent removal, and we can easily extend the date as needed.
- When requesting the creation of a new Project folder, please include the full name of the project (like American Politics), as well as an acceptable short name (like gov310). The short names are governed by the file naming conventions listed above, and often times we don't have enough knowledge of the project or it's context to create an appropriate shortname based on the full project title.
The only means of creating dynamic site content that we currently support is PHP. If you're going to build any functionality using PHP, we ask that you follow a few rules. These guidelines have been designed to allow application developers as much flexibility as possible, while allowing us to maintain enough structure so that we can assist in making any minute changes that may be necessary due to modifications of the server environment.
- Your application directory will contain an .htaccess file that points your app to a particular version of the PEAR libraries installed on our server. The various versions are found in /usr/local/lib/php, with the higher numbers being the most recent.
- A README_LAITS.txt file should be present at the base level of your application. This file will list which version of the PEAR libraries you're using as well as any deviations from the other guidelines listed on this page.
- If you're connecting to a database, there should be a directory called inc at the base level of your application. Your database connection information should be stored in a PHP file inside this folder.
- If your application is talking to a database, we ask that you use the PEAR database abstraction library. This is the one that we have installed and keep current. If for some reason you need to use a different library, you will be responsible for installing it within your application directory and it will need to be documented in your README_LAITS.txt file.
- If your application has the need to write data back to files on the server (file uploads, etc), please let us know and we will set up an appropriate location for you to do so. By default this is not allowed.
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