Overview

webdev.cs.uiowa.edu is a web server that can run and serve perl scripts, php scripts, and python scripts in addition to standard html. In this tutorial, we'll create a simple html file as well as simple perl, php, and python files. We'll then link them into the simple html file.

Mysql/psql username/password: A separate username/password has been randomly created for your mysql/psql database. DO NOT change your randomly generated password to your HawkID password. Keep them separate as this is a web development/learning platform and your development password may be exposed over the network in clear text without encryption. You will find your passwords in the following file:  /webdev/prod/working/<hawkid>/README

Get an ssh client and log in

First, to log in to a managed linux workstation. There are many options to do this; you can sit at a Linux computer in one of the labs, log in via ssh, or access via FastX.

Go to your web development directory and look around

After you've successfully logged in to a linux workstation, you can open a terminal or the file browser to get to the directory /webdev/prod/web/<courseID>/<hawkid>.

To use the file browser to access this directory go to Places > Computer, select File System on the left, scroll down and double-click on "webdev," then "prod", then "web", and then your course ID. Finally, find your username in the user directory and double-click on that.

Alternatively, In a terminal, type:

cd /webdev/prod/web/<course_id>/<hawkid>

There are some example scripts in /webdev/prod/web/webdev_examples/.  To see these directories, type the ls command in the command window:

cd /webdev/prod/web/webdev_examples/

ls

The output of the ls command should look like:

[username@l-lnx101 webdev_examples]$ ls
databaseClass.pl  index.html             sample_mysql.php   sample_psql.php   temp.txt
data.db           sample_mysql_new.wsgi  sample_mysql.wsgi  sample_psql.wsgi
 

Examples Using Various Languages

HTML Example
Perl Example
PHP Example
Python Example

FAQs

I was working on my files on a computer that isn't managed by the CLAS Linux Group team. How do I copy them so the webdev.cs.uiowa.edu server can see them?

You can use any program that can use SCP/SFTP/SSH2 to transfer files. Log in to a managed linux workstation and browse to /webdev/prod/web/<courseid>/<hawkid>.

From on campus, you can use your SCP/SFTP client to log in directly to a linux workstation and then change to the /webdev/prod/web/<courseid>/<hawkid> directory and then transfer your files.

If you are off campus, you'll need to use your SCP/SFTP client to log in to linux.divms.uiowa.edu, change to /webdev/prod/web/<courseid>/<hawkid> and then transfer your files.