OAL - Getting Started

Getting Started

Rules concerning people.tamu.edu

When posting content, be aware of Texas A&M University Regulations and Texas state laws governing objectionable and copyrighted material. Here are a few of the rules that apply to your site:

Computing resources may not be used for commercial or illegal activities.
Forms of expression that are not protected by the First Amendment, and therefore, may be subject to censorship by the University, include obscene material, child pornography or other violations of the law. Visit http://student-rules.tamu.edu for more information.
While the Open Access Labs provide the space for your personal webpage, the staff does not offer support in troubleshooting your HTML code. You will need to work with your professor, TA or departmental IT group to troubleshoot HTML code issues.

To get started on your people.tamu.edu website, work through the following pages:

Setting Up a TAMU Personal Website

Ensure you are connected to Texas A&M's network on campus, by using a VPN connection or by logging in to VOAL using voal.tamu.edu.
Log in to Manage OAL Account with your NetID and password.
Click Set up my web page on the left side of the page (if not already selected).
Click Enable. Please allow a couple of minutes for the changes to take place.
Once you see the word "Success," your account permissions have been set.
Be sure to log off and back on to get U: drive mapping.
You will put all of your files related to your personal website in your OAL account public_html folder. Your public_html folder is located in your U: drive.
Anything you put into the public_html folder becomes viewable from the Internet by going to your web address: http://people.tamu.edu/~Your_NetID/

A temporary web page will automatically be created for you when your account permissions are set.

Creating a Web Page

There are several ways to create a home page and several kinds of programs to aid you. To make a home page, you can create a HTML text file using a text editor program such as Notepad. You can also use a software package like Dreamweaver that generates the HTML code for you. Most word processing programs similar to Microsoft Word will save to HTML format as well.

Using the program of your choice, create a file with content you wish to appear on the page, and then save the file to your public_html folder as index.html. This becomes your home page. Your page is now accessible to anyone who visits your web address.
To work on your web page before going live, disable the web page and then enable it when you are ready to go live. To do this, see How do I disable my web page?.
To change your web page, simply edit the existing index.html file and save. You can also save a new file as index.html and it will replace the old file.

To put graphics on your web page, you must link to them. If you put a graphic in the public_html folder, you can link to the graphic as pic.jpg.

Posting Files to the Web

Using an Open Access Lab

Log in to an OAL Computer.
Using File Explorer, navigate to U: > Public_html folder.
Save or move files into the folder.

Using a Virtual Open Access Lab

Visit https://voal.tamu.edu.
Follow the instructions listed on the home page.
Wait for the VOAL to load.
Using File Explorer, navigate to U: > Public_html folder.
Save or move files into the folder.