Instructions on how to do Web Development on Campus Webservers

The Center for Information Technology Services provides and maintains the campus webservers that are used by staff, developers, and representatives from departments, schools, and organizations on campus.

In order to develop and maintain the websites for the University of Maryland Baltimore (for more information see web standards), please use the instructions below:

1. If you do not currently have an account or need to change your existing access/permissions on http://www.umaryland.edu/ please contact the Web Development Department staff
   
2. Once you have a valid account, you will need to setup your web development software to connect to the webservers (see Dreamweaver instructions.)
   
3. After your software is setup, you can begin making changes to your website.
   
4. After you have tested/reviewed your changes, you can move the files from the dEvelopment server to the Production webserver by using webFTP.  Note:  You will need to have an account and access setup by the Web Development Department before you can use webFTP.

Advantages to using the University of Maryland Baltimore webservers:

• Low Maintenance - the UMB webservers are maintained and serviced by the Center for Information Technology staff.
  
• Security - the UMB webservers are secure and require authentication (maintainted by CITS) in order to ensure that only authorized personnel have access to make website changes.
  
• Support - the CITS Web Development Department, along with other CITS staff provide support and assistance to developers on the webserver.

On March 4, 2005, the amount of webservers was doubled from 2 to 4 so that websites in the CMS are located on a separate webserver than the custom CF applications or non-CMS websites.  In addition, we moved from an Apache/Solaris environment to a Windows OS.  These recent changes provide users and developers with the following advantages: 

• As a developer, you can make your changes to the development webserver (instead of your local PC) which will enable you to make your changes from any computer that is connected to the campus network.
  
• Since the Development server will contain the same websites, files, and images as the Production server (unless someone is in the midst of changing/updating them on development), you can make your website changes to the files on Development and instantly see the results without impacting what the public will see.
  
• In addition since the Development server contains the same folders and files as the production server, developers who are trying to changes files that include references to other websites, images, templates, or stylesheets will now be able to see all of those references working as if they were on the production server. This will greatly improve the ability for developers to make and test their changes.
  
• The Development server can be used to test and review changes prior to putting them on the Production server. This will enable developers/staff to share their changes and work with other developers simultaneously, so that changes can be made quicker and with less errors.
  
• In the event, a change made to a file on the Development server doesn't work correctly or the file needs to be reset back to the previous version of the file, a developer can now copy down the existing Production version of the file (from the Production server) on their own without having to call anyone or wait.
  
• Also, if one developer begins making changes to a file on the development server and then has to work on something else or at a different location; another developer can still get to the changes on the development server and finish making the changes (since the files are not on the original developer's personal computer). The original developer can also work from various computer's in order to continue making changes on the development server.
  
• Now that the non-CMS websites and CF applications are located on a separate webserver than the Content Management System websites (CMS), it will be easier for updates/changes to be made separately to each type of application and thus reducing the impact to other websites.  This separation also enables us to troubleshoot, upgrade, and maintain applications, security, and files.
  
• Important Note:  Unless a websites has a separate DNS (ie. http://www.hr.umaryland.edu/, then only those websites in the CMS will have a http://www.umaryland.edu/ prefix.  All other websites will be on the CF webservers and thus have a http://cf.umaryland.edu/ prefix.