16. A School Intranet with iWeb - Wazza's Web Stuff

Wazza’s Snow Leopard Server QuickStart
16. A School Intranet with iWeb
About this Document
This document is the sixteenth in a series of documents describing the
process of installing and configuring a Mac OS X 10.6 Server in a school
environment.
Other documents in this series are available at:
servernotes.wazmac.com
This document briefly describes configuring Mac OS X Server’s Web
Service to provide a school Intranet, using iWeb to edit users’ individual
Intranet sites and a main school Intranet site.
These sites can be integrated with Mac OS X server’s Wikis and Blogs.
Background
Snow Leopard Server provides a range of dynamic web services,
including Blogs and Wikis.
This document describes the setup of a more traditional “static” web
service, where sites are edited using iWeb.
By default, the OS X Web service serves a web site that is stored in
Library > WebServer > Documents.
These notes suggest creating an Intranet user and housing the school’s
Intranet site within this user’s Home > Sites folder.
This circumvents the need for intranet administrators to logon as the
server admin user to edit the school’s intranet site, and bypasses the
direct access to the server’s “collaborative” services.
It also ensures that the school Intranet site is contained on the Data
drive, which is backed-up regularly.
However, this model can be integrated with the new Snow Leopard wikis
and blogs, and the built-in calendar service.
A more detailed explanation of the actual web-editing process, and the
associated development of a school intranet, is available in other
documents at:
http://intranet.wazmac.com
Wazza’s QuickStart - OSX Server 10.6 - 16: Configuring your Intranet 1

Other documents in this series
• Installing & setting up the Mac OS X Server Software
• Initial software Installation and config.
• Configuring DNS
• adjust the default setup, check zones, add machines.
• Setting up Services - 1
• Services overview
• Setting up Services - 2
• AFP, Web & SMB (Windows)
• Setting up Services - 3
• DHCP
• Setting up Services - 4
• Open Directory
• Setting up Sharepoints - 1
• Groups folder
• Home directories
• Setting up Users and Groups
• Setting up Sharepoints - 2
• Imaging folder
• Group folder permissions
• Client Imaging
- Creating a master image
- Creating a NetBoot image
- Configuring NetBoot
- Preparing the Server
- Deploying a master image
• Managing Preferences
• Connecting OS X Clients to Open Directory
• Connecting from Windows XP - WorkGroup
• Connecting from Windows XP - Domain
• Configuring your Intranet (This document)
• Blogs and Wikis
• Backing up your Server
Wazza’s QuickStart - OSX Server 10.6 - 16: Configuring your Intranet 2

1. Create an Intranet User
1.1. Open Workgroup Manager and create a new user called
Intranet, with a suitable User ID and password.
1.2. Under the Home tab, set a default location for the Intranet
user’s Home folder.
In a school environment it is suggested that the Intranet
user’s home folder be located in the Teachers home folder
sharepoint - though of course this location is not critical.
The Intranet user can also be a member of the Teachers
group.
1.3. Click on the Create Home Now button.
1.4. Click on the Save button.
Wazza’s QuickStart - OSX Server 10.6 - 16: Configuring your Intranet 3

2. Setup a School Intranet Site
The Intranet user has a Home folder similar to any other user.
Rather than starting your Intranet site from scratch you can download
a pre-prepared iWeb Domain (ie a template), suitable for school use,
from:
http://www.wazmac.com/teaching_learning/intranet/intranet_templates.htm
This Somewhere PS site provides a free framework which can be
modified for use in your school.
2.1. Log on to a workstation as the Intranet user.
2.2. If you are using the Somewhere PS template, download the
template above, follow the instructions in the downloaded
ReadMe to copy the Domain file to the Intranet user’s Home
> Application Support > iWeb folder.
2.3. Launch iWeb and modify the site name, etc, to suit your
school, then Publish the site to the Intranet user’s Sites
folder. (Full “how-to” docs on the actual publishing process
are available at intranet.wazmac.com).
2.4. If you are not using the Somewhere PS template, launch
iWeb, or another web editing application, and create a site.
Publish the site to the Intranet user’s Sites folder.
Wazza’s QuickStart - OSX Server 10.6 - 16: Configuring your Intranet 4

3. Configure the Web Service
There are two adjustments that must be made to a Mac OS X server’s
default Web service settings for use as a school intranet server -
setting the default site, and enabling access to all users’ sites folders.
3.1. Setting the Default Intranet site.
3.1.1. Launch Server Admin.
3.1.2. Click on the Web service in the left pane.
3.1.3. Click on the Sites button at the top of the window.
You will see the default domain web site at the top of
the window. (This may be blank.)
3.1.4. Click on the site’s Domain name to select it. (Be
careful to not untick the Enable box, thus disabling
the site!)
3.1.5. Under the General tab, you will see the current
default Web folder location.
3.1.6. Click on the Choose.... button to select an alternate
site to be used as the default site.
Wazza’s QuickStart - OSX Server 10.6 - 16: Configuring your Intranet 5

3.1.7. Navigate to the Data HD, then to the Intranet user’s
Home folder, and select the Sites folder.
Click on the Choose button to close the dialogue
box.
3.1.8. Click on the Save button.
3.1.9. The Intranet user’s Sites folder will now be set as
the default location of the web site for your domain.
3.1.10. You can also choose to add additional default file
names, such as index.htm, if required.
3.1.11. Also note the location of the error.html file, which
will be shown when requested pages are not found.
(You can modify this file, if required).
3.1.12. Click on the Save button.
Wazza’s QuickStart - OSX Server 10.6 - 16: Configuring your Intranet 6

3.2. Enabling User’s Web Sites
Each user has their own web site, accessed at:
http://servername/~username
However, in Mac OS X Server 10.6 this feature is not enabled
by default.
3.2.1. In Server Admin, click on the Web service.
3.2.2. Click on the Settings icon at the top of the right pane.
3.2.3. Click on the Modules tab.
3.2.4. Scroll down to the apple_userdir_module, and tick
to enable the module.
3.3. Stop and restart the web service, by clicking on the Stop
Web / Start Web button at the bottom of the left pane.
Wazza’s QuickStart - OSX Server 10.6 - 16: Configuring your Intranet 7

4. Test your Intranet
Working at a network computer, open a web browser and enter the IP
address (eg 10.x.x.x) or the domain name of your school’s server (eg
server6.somewhereps.edu.au).
You should be able to see the web pages contained within the Intranet
user’s Home folder.
If you have created a user, enter the address of that user’s web site
(eg server6.somewhereps.edu.au/~testuser )
You should see the default OSX User’s home page.
When a student or teacher publishes a site from iWeb, the default site
will be overwritten with the new site.
Wazza’s QuickStart - OSX Server 10.6 - 16: Configuring your Intranet 8

5. Provide an Index page for Students and Teachers
While every user on your server has a web site accessible at the
address: http://servername/~username/, it is far more user-friendly to
provide an index page which has links to each user’s web site.
The SWIG utility (www.wazmac.com/teaching_learning/intranet/swig/)
provides a simple tool to create an index page from a spreadsheet list
of names.
If your school uses the OASIS database, the xSUIM utility provides a
more sophisticated option, to not only to import users from a school
OASIS server, or a spreadsheet, to WGM, but also a tool to generate
Intranet index pages with a link to each student and teacher in your
school.
xSUIM also includes links to each students‘ and teachers‘ OSX Server
blog pages.
The Somewhere PS Intranet template includes a link to an xsuim
folder containing an xweb folder, with links to example users in the
template.
Simply copy the xsuim folder to the Intranet user’s Sites folder, then
modify the link to this xsuim folder with the correct address within your
iWeb template.
xSUIM requires FileMaker Pro 7, and is
available from:
www.shoal.net.au/~dross/xsuim/xsuim.html
Wazza’s QuickStart - OSX Server 10.6 - 16: Configuring your Intranet 9

6. Integrate with Collaborative Services
Mac OS X Server 10.6 provides range of “Web 2.0” collaborative
services.
You school intranet can link to these services at the following
addresses (where 10.x.x.x is the IP address of your server):
My Page: 10.x.x.x/updates
Wikis: 10.x.x.x/groups
Blogs: 10.x.x.x/users
These notes will provide further information about the use of these
services when we have all had a bit more time to play with them in a
school environment. (Last updated Dec 2009).
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