Enhancing your Web site

Submitted on Tuesday, August 22, 2006 - 19:23.

Password Protection for Faculty Web sites

  • Each Web site on the BSS server may have one password protected folder, to be located at the root directory, given the standardized name "passprotect".
  • This protected directory is to have a unique login/password, set at the user's discretion. (BSS Computing recommends following the strictures set for secure passwords, as described here.)
  • If requested, BSS Computing will support up to 3 separate password protected folders per Web site (but, if possible, we recommend using only one password for all protected resources).
  • Passwords may be changed once every semester, at faculty's request.
  • No password changes during the semester unless for security reasons.
  • To request a password protected folder on your Web site, contact Web Support .
  • Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer users: To protect documents, open Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer and drag (or import) said documents into the appropriate "passprotect" folder. Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer should automatically update any links to those files. Visitors to your web site will be prompted to enter login/pass when they click on the links to those documents, like so:
    Example of Login Prompt

Current examples of Web sites using password protection:

Note: Electronic Reserves (ERES) at the J. Paul Leonard Library is a another option for posting materials that are password-protected.

setting up donations links on your Web site

  • Utilize the Office of University Development's "Send A Gift to SFSU" Web site that allows donations to be made online with a credit card and directed to a specific department:http://www.sfsu.edu/~develop/givingform.htm
  • It is likely some preliminary page should be created by each department more or less making a pitch to alumni or other visitors as to how their donations would help the department and providing clear directions as to how to direct it to the department using this page. I would like each of you to consider the wording for such a page, perhaps in conjunction with your faculty.
  • An example of a department that has already done this is Economics. You can note how this was setup on their home page.
  • BSS Computing will work with department staff to help setup the links and provide suggestions or tips as to how to make such a link appropriate but visible on your home pages. Please contact Andrew Roderick if you have questions about this or have the information together and would like to begin immediately.

Installing a redirect page on the SFSU server

  1. The URLs on SFSU directory pages (see example) are automatically generated based on your SFSU e-mail account name. If your Web site is hosted on the BSS server instead of the SFSU server, you must upload a web page on the SFSU server which will redirect visitors to the correct location of your Web site.
  2. To create this web page, paste the following text into a new Notepad file and change the URL (green) to the URL of your Web site on the BSS server. Save the file on your hard drive as "index.htm":
    <html><head><meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="0; URL=http://bss.sfsu.edu/kassiola"><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"><meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer"><title>Redirect page </title></head><body></body></html>
  3. To upload this web page onto the SFSU server, follow these instructions to "publish" a web page, from DoIT:
    http://www.sfsu.edu/training/publish1.htm
  4. If you have an old index.htm or default.htm file already present in your SFSU web directory, delete it first or make sure to overwrite it.
  5. Call 405-2195 or email Web Support for any assistance.