A Few Questions About Site Hosting

[Nathan]

Ok, so I used to own a website, but it was very... VERY basic. I pretty much inserted a few div tags, hosted some images and made a very basic stylesheet lol.

I recently transfered my domain to a new webhosting server and the possibilities are endless, and a bit overwhelming to this amateur.

So here are a few questions, and maybe someone can give me a few extra tips or suggestions.

1. What do I put in the cgi directory?

2. If I create an "About" directory and create an index.html file inside it, would that mean the url would be sitename.com/about ?

3. I used dreamweaver and it made all of my image links look like this:

<img height="18" width="58" src="images/home.png"

Can I keep the link location like this if I create an "images" directory to store the images in?

4. What are Apache Logs?

5. I am able to host a SQL database and am completely oblivious to how it works. What am I able to do with that database and are there and good links to learn?

6. Lastly, am I able to view a preview of the site before it is actually active by going to a special link or something?

I appreciate any help and thanks in advance!

[®i©hie]

Jun 21, 2012 7:31:19 GMT -8 Nathan said:

Ok, so I used to own a website, but it was very... VERY basic. I pretty much inserted a few div tags, hosted some images and made a very basic stylesheet lol.

I recently transfered my domain to a new webhosting server and the possibilities are endless, and a bit overwhelming to this amateur.

So here are a few questions, and maybe someone can give me a few extra tips or suggestions.

1. What do I put in the cgi directory?

2. If I create an "About" directory and create an index.html file inside it, would that mean the url would be sitename.com/about ?

3. I used dreamweaver and it made all of my image links look like this:

<img height="18" width="58" src="images/home.png"

Can I keep the link location like this if I create an "images" directory to store the images in?

4. What are Apache Logs?

5. I am able to host a SQL database and am completely oblivious to how it works. What am I able to do with that database and are there and good links to learn?

6. Lastly, am I able to view a preview of the site before it is actually active by going to a special link or something?

I appreciate any help and thanks in advance!

Hi,

1. What do I put in the cgi directory?
www.garshol.priv.no/download/text/http-tut.html

^ hopefully this helps.

2. If I create an "About" directory and create an index.html file inside it, would that mean the url would be sitename.com/about ?
Correct

3. I used dreamweaver and it made all of my image links look like this:

<img height="18" width="58" src="images/home.png" />

Can I keep the link location like this if I create an "images" directory to store the images in?

Yes Since the image comes from the "images" folder.

4. What are Apache Logs?
not sure, hopefully someone else can answer this.

5. I am able to host a SQL database and am completely oblivious to how it works. What am I able to do with that database and are there and good links to learn?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL
w3schools.com/sql/sql_intro.asp

6. Lastly, am I able to view a preview of the site before it is actually active by going to a special link or something?

Some web hosts, do allow you to see a preview of the page, but if your doesn't you might want to consider placing the page under a "test" folder (give it a random name, so no-one can possible guess it, and access the page without knowing the url)

hope i was able to help you on some of the questions.

[Nathan]

Thank you very much! I have alot to read for tonight, haha, but I see it is going to be very helpful

[coolcoolcool]

May be helpful:

httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/logs.html

[Charles Stover]

1. What do I put in the cgi directory?
I always just delete the cgi directory.

2. If I create an "About" directory and create an index.html file inside it, would that mean the url would be sitename.com/about ?
Yes. Though technically, sitename.com/about/
The server may automatically fix this for you and point /about to /about/, but not all servers will do this, so it's safer to use the correct /about/ path.
/about technically points to a file named about (with no extension). Some servers will change that to the directory if the file doesn't exist.

3. I used dreamweaver and it made all of my image links look like this: Can I keep the link location like this if I create an "images" directory to store the images in?
Yes. Why not?

4. What are Apache Logs?
You probably won't be needing them. They just store information.

5. I am able to host a SQL database and am completely oblivious to how it works. What am I able to do with that database and are there and good links to learn?
You store data in databases. Generally when you want data to be stored but not _manually_ -- you want your scripts to store it. Like page views, forum posts, etc. Tons of tutorials, but you'll want to learn PHP first, or a similar server-side language.

6. Lastly, am I able to view a preview of the site before it is actually active by going to a special link or something?
No. Install a localhost if you want to test changes before you upload them. But once they are uploaded, they are live for anyone to view.

[Nathan]

Haha thanks guys for your time. Alot of noob questions there

I figured all that out, and more and yes... I am understanding the value of PHP which I am learning now.

The site is running good,

Thanks!