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Shared websites for static content

(The content on this page is summarized under Making static content available on our shared websites on our CSAIL Web server architecture page.)

people.csail.mit.edu

AFS directory: your_home_directorypublic_html
Corresponding URL: https://people.csail.mit.edu/your_username

With an active CSAIL account, you get a public_html directory in your AFS home directory. Any static content (HTML files, images, CSS stylesheets, downloadable zip archives, etc.) will automatically be served from https://people.csail.mit.edu/yourusername. For instance, if your username is hypatia, then a file ~/public_html/index.html would be served to the world at https://people.csail.mit.edu/hypatia/, a file ~/public_html/about_me.html would be served at https://people.csail.mit.edu/about_me.html, and if you create a subdirectory downloads in ~/public_html, then the file ~/public_html/downloads/photos.tgz would be served at https://people.csail.mit.edu/hypatia/photos.tgz.

(As mentioned on CSAIL Web server architecture, you’ll need to request a custom domain if you want to serve dynamic content. See “Custom domains for websites” on that page for that.)

Note: Your personal web directory under ~/public_html is a good place for content that is specific to you, like a CV, family photos, or the like. It’s not a good place for collaboration that others at CSAIL are also involved in or anything that might need to be updated by others after you leave. The reasons are

When you leave CSAIL and your account expires, you’ll lose the ability to make changes. (In an emergency, TIG can redirect your entire personal website someplace else, but we can’t update content for you.)
The URL to your personal web pages has your username in it, which is going to be confusing if other people are actively updating the content, or if people are searching for information about a particular research project rather than information about you, and
It’s tricky to set AFS permissions up so that other people can manage shared content under your home directory. Shared research-group directories are a simpler and more appropriate place for that — see below!

AFS permissions on your ~/public_html directory

Most people won’t need to make any changes to their ~/public_html directory, but if yours is missing, you’ve accidentally changed the permissions on it (e.g. by deleting and recreating it), or you have content under your ~/public_html directory that you want to password-protect with an .htaccess file, you can see:

Creating and setting AFS permissions on your public_html directory

Listing your web page in the CSAIL personnel directory

To make the personnel directory on CSAIL’s public website link to your personal web page, you can add an “External link” on your CSAIL profile page. (“External” is a bit of a misnomer here; it just means a fully qualified link starting with https://.) To get to your profile page, click the “Login” link in the upper-right-hand corner. at https://www.csail.mit.edu/ . You’ll be viewing your profile. Click “Edit” in the lower right and (on the “Main” tab which should be displayed) scroll down to “External links”. After adding your link, scroll down to the bottom and click “Save”. Your new link will show up under “Related links” on the right.

You can add more than one link this way, and they don’t have to be to (or under) your web pages on https://people.csail.mit.edu/. (You could, for instance, link to your GitHub profile.)

For questions about displaying links on your profile in the personnel directory, contact webmaster@csail.mit.edu.

groups.csail.mit.edu

AFS directory: /afs/csail.mit.edu/group/groupname/www/data
Corresponding URL: https://groups.csail.mit.edu/groupname

The https://groups.csail.mit.edu/ domain serves static content for research groups at CSAIL. Every research group should have a directory in AFS at /afs/csail.mit.edu/group/GROUPNAME (where GROUPNAME is a short identifier like tig or sls). Underneath that is a www subdirectory, with a data subdirectory out of which static web content can be served. For instance, if you’re in the Robotic Therapy Group, eliza, which has an AFS directory at /afs/csail.mit.edu/group/eliza, and you put an index.html file in /afs/csail.mit.edu/group/eliza/www/data/index.html, that will be served at https://groups.csail.mit.edu/eliza/.

(As mentioned on CSAIL Web server architecture, you’ll need to request a custom domain if you want to serve dynamic content. See “Custom domains for websites” on that page for that.)

Group directories and the groups.csail.mit.edu web domain are a good place for research content, since those directories normally already have appropriate permissions for everybody in your research group to edit them as needed, and your colleagues will be able to keep them up to date after you leave.

(If you find you don’t have privileges you think you ought to to edit or create web content under a group directory, send mail to help@csail.mit.edu letting us know exactly where – the full path starting /afs/csail.mit.edu/group/... – you want to create or edit content and what your CSAIL username is. TIG doesn’t normally manage group permissions for research groups, but we can figure out what AFS “protection group” or groups has permissions, and point you at who within your research group can add you.)

Note: In addition to web pages, CSAIL research groups often want to host large datasets. Those are typically already on NFS, and we have dedicated infrastrcuture for that, described under Distributing data sets from NFS.

projects.csail.mit.edu

AFS directory: /afs/csail.mit.edu/proj/project/www/data
Corresponding URL: https://projects.csail.mit.edu/project

The https://projects.csail.mit.edu/ domain is similar to groups, above, but intended for work that spans multiple research groups or otherwise doesn’t map cleanly to a single research group. For instance, pages about a conference or special event involving multiple CSAIL research groups might go there, or pages about CSAIL-wide celebration or a CSAIL-wide collaboration with another research institution might go there.

If you need a new project directory created for web content, you can send mail to help@csail.mit.edu and let us know what your website is for and who needs acceess to edit it we can set things up for you. This will involve creating a project directory and an AFS “protection group” for the project, and giving whoever you designate privileges to add people to the protection group.

(As mentioned on CSAIL Web server architecture, you’ll need to request a custom domain if you want to serve dynamic content. See “Custom domains for websites” on that page for that.)

courses.csail.mit.edu

AFS directory: /afs/csail.mit.edu/proj/courses/coursenum/www/data
Corresponding URL: https://courses.csail.mit.edu/coursenum

The https://courses.csail.mit.edu/ is a place to store course material. (In addition to web content, some instructors use the top-level directory, outside of the .../www/data part, for material that is not served on the web. For instance, TAs might create directories there to use for grading.)

This domain is not much used any more, since IS&T provides access to MIT-wide facilities for course materials and coursework. If you need a new course directory, though, or need access to an existing one you’re teaching this semester, send mail to help@csail.mit.edu.

(As mentioned on CSAIL Web server architecture, you’ll need to request a custom domain if you want to serve dynamic content. See “Custom domains for websites” on that page for that.)