The File Manager is a cpanel tool not all that different from the desktop file management system on your computer. Your web site is organized in a series of directories that correspond to each site you create; exploring the structure with the File Manager is one way to get a better understanding where stuff is.... Read more »
When I reload my site in a web browser, I should now see my new image in the background: ❧
Many of the sites we create in our cpanel are installed via a cpanel tool because they have complex file structures and often require database set ups. But there are quite a few web site themes that are all self contained HTML/CSS/Javsscript files that we can upload directly to our domain with the File Manager.
This activity walks you through the steps to put a self-contained web site within a directory of your site.
While I occasionally do some small uploading tweaks like this, it seems like ages since I created webpages like this outside of more elaborate content management systems. Hooray for raw HTML and CSS! It’s also a bit refreshing to do it all manually in an interface instead of via FTP or other means.
Responsive HTML5 and CSS3 site templates designed by @ajlkn and released under the Creative Commons license.
Say hello to cpanel, the cockpit of your domain. Don’t worry about all the knobs and dials. Most of them you will never use, but the sheer number of them hopefully indicates the amount of power you have.
A Domain of your Own gives you more than one web site you can put there, think of it as a plot of land with many different structures.
It’s useful to have an entrance gate or a simple “calling card” for the main URL of you domain (e.g. like extendlabs.ca). Later we will show you how to install blogs and other applications at different locations within.
Your web hosting cpanel includes an easy to use tool that will let you create your first web site just by filling out a few items in a form. These are simple, and probably in no time you will find them limiting. But for now, in a few minutes you can create something with information you choose to replace the temporary screen a new Reclaim Hosting domain provides you. Consider it as a placeholder for a fancier front entrance.
My favorite was the Pravatar tool hiding in the lesson. I can think of lots of fun uses for a tool like this.
My placeholder “site” lives at https://sp.chrisaldrich.net/.
CC0 Avatar placeholders
Just to try it out, I’m using it for Simon’s avatar on this page, so refreshing the page should automatically change it.
Khürt Williams (Extend Activity Bank)Although I don’t write much about the topic on my website, I love science fiction, especially cyber-punk and Japanese anime and superhero graphic novels. One of my favourite cyberpunk novels in the early 1990s was a novel, Islands in the Net, written in 1988 by science fiction author, Bruce Sterling.
Islands in the Net is a story of “…data pirates, mercenaries, nanotechnology, weaponry, and post-millennial voodoo”. It represents a future where people can use the Internet to topple governments, change lives and make history. That novel was prescient in many ways.
In 2001 I ventured out on my own as an independent consultant, working on web development and system integration etc. It was also the same year that I started blogging. In 2003, I made a pivoted my skill set to cyber-security. With my keen interest in vulnerability assessment and finding and exploiting the weakness in information systems (aka penetration testing), my blog content changed. I started thinking and writing more about what I was learning, and I felt like I was living in that world described in the novel, Islands in the Net. It was also the same year that I decided that I wanted a domain name for my website.
My new career in cyber-security and my search for a domain name got me thinking about how I felt about my writing at the time. My blog was/is like a small island in the vast ocean of the Internet, where I shared my thoughts about anything and everything hacking related. Once I had the word island on my mind, I started thinking about the actual island in the West Indies where I was born and spent my pre-adult years. The West Indies is famous for its era of piracy which lasted from circa 1650 until the mid-1720s. Suddenly with my mind swirling with thoughts of the Internet, islands, and hacking, I remembered the Bruce Sterling novel.
The name of the blog, Island in the Net came to mind, and I went looking for a domain name. The domain, islandinthe.net was taken (and still is). I settled on islandinthenet.com.
Eleanor K Cass (Extend Activity Bank)I’ve been enjoying the stories of how people chose their domain names.
I got my first domain less than a week ago but I agonized over the name for ages. In the end, I was influenced by the idea that your domain is a bit like your email address or home address (I was introduced to domains by the friendly IndieWeb community) so I went with something that was close to my own name.
I often go by the nickname “Nell”. I’m Eleanor Katharine and my middle name comes from my Granny Kit who died when I was 3 and who I have always wished I could have known. Plus, well, Kat = critters. Critters are fun and it all rolled off the tongue…
Lisa Koster (Extend Activity Bank)I completed Domain Camp last year and I found it quite rewarding. I am still agonizing over the right “home address”. I chose the name learn4growth because I believe when we learn new things, we grow as a person, both personally and professionally.
Last year we made all kinds of cool subdomains and pages. So my work from last year is a bit of a mess.
My goal this year is to start to develop a long term plan for my site. I am thinking I will start by putting all my work in a subdomain: camp2019.learn4growth.com
Nothing is there at the moment, but I look forward to populating it!
Looking forward to sharing!
Lisa
Tricia Bonner (Extend Activity Bank)Wow, some great stories for your names. Thanks for sharing.
Similar to Nell I could not come up with something unique. This is a very very new venture for me and right now it is really about the learning so I simply went with TriciaB – it is how I am known through my circle of friends as there are two Tricia’s. I am hoping maybe it will catch on like Mel B did for the Spice Girls. I wish I could some up with something a bit more interesting but for now that is it.
Kim Carter (Extend Activity Bank)cupofTEAching.ca is what I have decided to use for my domain name. I struggled to decide because I wondered if something with my name was more appropriate. The truth is I have no pre-conceived ideas about what a domain is and how I will eventually use it. The name cupofTEAching was something my “kids” (adult millennials) helped me come up with; a mash up of two of my favourite things teaching and tea. I think it works because a cup of tea can be so satisfying and a pot of tea too filling. Similar to teaching and subsequently learning (in measurable doses) can be so satisfying and too much a little overwhelming. I look forward to learning about constructing a domain, its uses, and how (one cup at a time) it will enhance my teaching and learning.
jesslyndw (Extend Activity Bank)There is no fancy story for my domain TBH! Tech For Teaching is the way I brand the tech-related coaching I offer faculty here at the school (ed tech is confusing here – do you mean the AV dept? or our LMS? or something entirely different??) So I just want a flexible way to post new information to support faculty, and want to stretch my skills a bit to try something new.
I’m working with a bit of a static web page, or a yucky non-blog tool, and needed a more flexible solution for my own work. I was pretty sure I could figure out this whole domain thing, if I tried! And I’m lucky that I’m on my way – thanks to Alan for making this happen at the perfect time for us all
The first week of Domain Camp includes sharing domain name stories, meeting cpanel, creating a simple landing page with Site Builder, and using the File Manager to upload and modify content in your domain.
The first week of Domain Camp 2019!
