What are the essential tools that every IT person should have in the modern IT world? That is the idea behind a new Kingston University module called IT Toolbox. Over a 12 week semester, first year students will be guided through a series of activities such as blogging, running a server, client and server side scripting, search, social networking and problem solving. Each of those activities will be published here and anyone is welcome to join in.
Very impressed that so many of you are keeping up with all of the activities so far and for those who have fallen a little behind, don’t worry, we will provide some additional help and time to allow you to catch up.
A few of you are clearly racing ahead and that is fine too. Don’t feel restricted by the activities. They are simply milestones that I would like you to show that you can complete. If you want to be running a fully ecommerce enabled, social network that is mashable, geocoded and has its own viral affiliate scheme then please go ahead.
In order to do this Activity 4 you must have successfully completed Activity 3 and have your own site/blog running successfully with WordPress and have access to your hosting space (preferably running cPanel).
In this activity we want you to enhance your site with new themes, images, embedded video and links to other interesting places on the web. But to do these tasks you will need to be able to upload files and move them around within your hosting space and this will be the focus of the first part.
Part 1
Your hosting space provides you with a filing system just like the one on your local computer. Unlike your local computer however moving files around is a little more complicated because usually you cannot just drag and drop files from one folder into another.
If you are using cPanel however you will be provided with a variety of tools for moving, uploading and even creating files within your hosting environment. These include File Manager, FTP and Web Disk; File Manager is particularly useful if you want to make small changes (one at a time), while learning about FTP will be the most useful in the long term.
If for any reason you are not using cPanel then FTP will almost certainly be useful in managing the files within your hosting space.
Tasks
Find some images and other documents that you can upload to your hosting space. You will need to store them on your local machine. Images may be taken with a camera (and uploaded) or downloaded from the web (but find images that are “copyright free” such as those on http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/ or http://www.freefoto.com/index.jsp)
Explore File Manager and Web Disk (students without cPanel will need to look at any other tools they have been given for uploading and manipulating files). Work out how to upload these images to your hosting space and how to delete them. You will incorporate them into your web pages in Part 2.
Explore FTP.
FTP or File Transfer Protocol is a bit more complicated but extremely useful and will allow you eventually to develop software, locally, on your own machine and then transfer all the necessary files to your hosting server. Here are a couple of tutorials that should help explain FTP:
To use FTP you will need an extra piece of software on your own local machine. This is an FTP client and there are lots of free versions out there as well as commercial versions. Have a look at some of these.
Before you can transfer files anywhere to and from your hosting server you will need to make sure that you have given yourself (and perhaps others) the correct permissions. Inside cPanel you will find an application called FTP Accounts and this will let you set up login and password details to give to your FTP client. There is probably a tutorial video with this application and you will probably also find that some default “users” have already been set up.
If you are not using cPanel then you will need to read your host’s FTP instructions to see how FTP accounts are configured.
You will also come across the concept of “anonymous FTP” which you should experiment with. Notice that when you set up an FTP account you always tell your hosting server which parts of your server can be accessed.
To understand FTP you should make sure that you have done the following:
Downloaded and configured an FTP client
Added an account to your hosting server
Connected your FTP client to your hosting server (using the new account)
Connected your FTP client to your hosting server (using anonymous FTP)
Transferred some images (or other documents) between your local computer and your hosting server (using FTP)
To complete this activity (which might take 1-2 hours) you should answer the following questions and then fill in the feedback survey (as usual):
1. I managed to transfer files using a. File Manager b. Web Disk c. FTP (anonymous) d. FTP (new user) e. Another tool (non cPanel)
2. Which FTP client did you choose? 3. Why do you think FTP is better than File Manager or Web Disk? 4. How would you explain FTP to a friend who did not know about it? 5. What problems did you have and how did you solve them? 6. What questions would you like us to answer?
In this activity I want you to experiment with WordPress themes and find out how to add images and YouTube video to your site together with editing the links in your blog roll.
You will need to dig around inside WordPress to make sure that you understand what is going on. Feel free to add some pages just to use for experimentation. Note that you will be exposed to some of the core ideas behind WordPress as part of this activity (including HTML, CSS). You may choose to explore these ideas yourself or simply follow the examples at this stage.
If things go horribly wrong you can normally just delete the page you are working on and start again.
As part of this activity you need to add at least 2 new posts to your blog (one containing an image and one with an embedded YouTube video)
Here are the questions to answer at the end of this exercise
1. What did you manage to do? a. Changed the theme of my blog to one I wanted b. Added some images to my blog c. Embedded a YouTube video into my blog d. Changed the blogroll of links on my blog 2. Choose one of the above and describe what you did for ONE of these tasks step by step (at least 5 steps) 3. Please give the URL for your post that contains the image 4. Please give the URL for the post that contains the video 5. What problems did you have and how did you solve them? 6. What questions were raised by this activity that you would like us to answer?
The Question that says about uploading images, i dont really get it! 4. What is the URL for the post that contains the image Can you please tell me what kind of images? How many? What format? Is this fine or no? http://jagmit.com/2009/10/e-portfoilio/
Jonathan replies: I want you to learn how to add some pictures to a post - like I did to this one.
On October 20, 2009 at 8:15 PM, ko910709 wrote:
when i made my domain name, i related it to ict. however my topic doesn`t match my domain name. can you please advise me on whether i should just change my topic so that it matches my domain, even if its not that interestung for me?
Jonathan replies: Its up to you. Carry on and decide later what name/content you want. Content is more important to start with.
On October 20, 2009 at 11:28 PM, PJ Magee wrote:
Just advertising my site on yours, mwuahaha - if you dont mind!
Will allow others to come up with some creative ideas aswell. - I hope.
http://fireupthetools.com
Jonathan replies: Thats fine! Hope you get some traffic at least from the spiders.
On October 20, 2009 at 11:53 PM, Lawrence Damiete Onyema wrote:
Sir my cpanel doesnt come up on my computer again what should i do
Jonathan replies: Your site seems to be working to me. What happens when you type http://loxxy.co.uk/cpanel?
On October 21, 2009 at 2:14 AM, Matt wrote:
In the lecture today you said something about if we give a link to you, we automatically get one back to our site from you? How does that work exactly? What do we need to do in order to get that link from you?
Jonathan replies: Its not automatic but if you comment (as you just did) you will get a link from my site and should be visited by Google and added to its index (in time).
On October 21, 2009 at 2:39 PM, suj wrote:
HI Jonathan
Me and my friend wants to cancel 600host UK which bought, so if we buy a new hosting package can we re submit activity 2-4. Can you give a small estimate of how much web space do we require for alteast 3 people.
Jonathan replies: Its up to you and depends on what you do but most of the activities require only a small amount of space. I would suggest 200M each.
On October 21, 2009 at 9:03 PM, Rahim wrote:
I can't access my control panel
Jonathan replies: Get in touch with your hosting company.
On October 22, 2009 at 6:27 PM, Z wrote:
Hi Jonathan I was wondering whether you'd be able to help me. The website I have created works perfectly when I use the Firefox browser, however when I try to access my website from any other browser it does not show correctly.
Anything I can do to fix this issue?
Jonathan replies: He he - the old cross browser compatibility problem. You will need to look at how other browsers render things differently. Are you using CSS or a theme with CSS? If you are than you need to understand the ways in which margins and padding are used differently by the main browsers.
It is normally fixable but can be time consuming.
On October 23, 2009 at 7:15 PM, James Sammut wrote:
Hi jonathan I am looking for a cms but i have been through pretty much every one on fantastico and all are either too difficult to use and come with no guidance or do not have a very good layout, any ideas on this thought. thanks, james
Jonathan replies: Joomla and Drupal are both popular as are Zope and Plone. I think you will trade simplicity against flexibility. What do you want that WordPress cannot provide?
On October 25, 2009 at 11:01 AM, James Sammut wrote:
Hi Jonathan, I just wanted to make sure that WordPress is simply just a blogging application, as I have got to grips now with joomla and just wondering if i am doing the right thing or just making it far too complicated for myself
Jonathan replies: WordPress gets used as the starting point for all sorts of projects. It is a powerful CMS in its own right. Take a look at all the extensions available.
On October 25, 2009 at 11:05 PM, Govin wrote:
Hi Jonathan,
600 host has finally got back to me on the pending domain name. They are now activating it i hope. I just wanted to know as they have taken so long i have not been able to reach the deadlines. Will this affect my marks?
Thank You
Jonathan replies: No it will not affect your marks - thanks for keeping me informed and good luck catching up.
On October 26, 2009 at 1:58 AM, P wrote:
having problems with the hosting compan, messaged them buthis may cause delay on submitting your work - is it possible to hand this in later?? when the site is up and running??
Jonathan replies: Yes - as you will see from my other comments, I will allow you to submit a bit late.
On October 26, 2009 at 12:28 PM, shah wrote:
im having troubles with the FTP hosting thingy...i can't establish any connection with my website and it keeps coming up with error messages...what do i do!?
Jonathan replies: You need to look for some help online - it is likely to be a permissions/accounts problem.
Jonathan replies: Of course! Its better however to use the natural behaviour of google and get listed by adding a link to a site that is already in the index - like this one.
On October 26, 2009 at 10:43 PM, Ali Nobari wrote:
Hi I wanted to add to my web a feed burner however i don't know how to do it and can't fing my url for the feed burner. what should i do to be able to get feed burner
Jonathan replies: You will need to find some help online. It's a good idea by the way.
On October 27, 2009 at 12:12 AM, Prab wrote:
I didn't reveive a reciept for activity 4.1, I may have mispelled my e-mail but not entirely sure. Should I resubmit or should it be fine.
Jonathan replies: You are welcome to resubmit but it should be fine. I get quite a lot with the wrong email.
On October 27, 2009 at 12:45 AM, Andy wrote:
Dear Sir
I have throughly messed up my word press, I accidently merged two URL's together of my blog and my main page. Wordpress would not let me log into either of the admins, so I tried reinstalling the whole wordpress program. However that did not help it won't let me change themes and won't let me add a picture without entering a password. It has mixed my old installation and new installation together so it does not do much other then allow posts, the only way I could upload pictures was through my browser rather than through wordpress.
Do you have any suggestions? and can i reset the whole wordpress?
Thanks
Jonathan replies: I might be tempted at this early stage to delete Wordpress and its directory and start again.
On November 1, 2009 at 8:50 PM, yama haqi wrote:
Hi
I was just going through my e-mails, and i found out that on activity 1 which i completed a number of weeks ago, i have missed a question, the question is "what 3 questions i would ask Google" shall i complete the activity again or is it ok.
On November 5, 2009 at 6:26 PM, Faisal Fakhradin wrote:
Hi Jonathan
Firstly I love your way of teaching. Apart from that I need advice on how to make my "target group" comment on my blogs. The problem is; those who visit my site, they all give me compliments and nice feedback on msn even though I didn't ask them to visit the site. Yet, only FEW of leave comments. What is lacking?
Jonathan replies: Once comments get going then people will add more so the secret is to start them off - this is a common feature of all digital.
Try and write posts that demand answers - list 10 things, and ask for more.
Experiment.
On November 5, 2009 at 7:27 PM, Ben wrote:
Im having alot of problems with using FTP, I've downloaded the different types of software and tried for several hours now and still can't get to grips with it. Im getting numerous errors to do with ports, and even after following the help I can't seem to figure it out. What should I do?
Jonathan replies: Are you in Halls? Where are you trying from? It could be that the ports are blocked by Kingston's sysadmin. Thanks for trying. You can do Activity 5 without completing Activity 4.
On November 12, 2009 at 7:45 PM, Rema wrote:
Hello Jonathan;
I have a quite complicated problem, After submitting my website and Activity 4.2, my website keeps disappearing, like the posts are automatically deleted, so everytime I have to recreate my website from the scratch.
But the problem is, as a consequence for that ,I keep resubmitting Activity 4.2, ecaue the links for the different posts that contain videos and pictures keep changing, so is it fine for me if I resubmitted Activity 4.2 for 3/4 times. Will it affect my performance, although it's not my fault?!
Jonathan replies: Hmm - how odd? Are you sharing your server space with someone else? You will not be penalised as long as your answers pass our quality threshold. But it would be worth trying to get to the bottom of the mystery. Let me know what you find out.
Sound installation at Vauxhall Ragged School as part of London Open House [Sep 20, 2009]
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About this site
This site is an educational resource, a research project and a publication channel written by Jonathan Briggs, Professor of eCommerce at Kingston University. As well as being Professor at Kingston, Jonathan...
On October 19, 2009 at 6:43 PM, nikunj wrote:
questions 4 and 5 of part 2 activity are the same. typo or..?
What is the URL for the post that contains the image
Jonathan replies: fixed! thanks