Dispatch Support: Print Friendly Version (appendices)

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Additional Resources
Last Modified: 9/25/2000

The following links will take you to various resource sites throughout the web. We've categorized them into design resources, webmaster resources, software resources and miscellaneous resources for your convenience. If you know of any sites that you feel should be on this page, please let us know by posting a suggestion to the Dispatch Technical Forum.

D E S I G N R E S O U R C E S

Webmonkey's Graphic Design - Columns discussing Photoshop 101, Gif vs. Jpg, and other valuable design resources.
Adobe Tips & Tutorials
Web Graphics 101 - You can find all the basics right here, including everything from dithering to scaling.
C|Net's Spotlight on Graphics - Special C|Net section covering tips, tools, and buzzes.
C|Net's Web Graphics & Design - C|Net's web graphics features and reviews.
Web Design & Graphics - Snap's web design and graphics section: tips, layout, navigation, and more.
Dmitry's Design Lab - Webreference.com's spotlight on design.

W E B M A S T E R R E S O U R C E S

C|Net's Builder.com - C|net's webmaster, designer, programmer, system administration, web professional, etc. portal.
HTML for Beginners - Quick basic HTML overview from C|Net.
Index Dot HTML: The Advanced HTML Reference - Detailed HTML reference guide.
Webmonkey's HTML Basics
AOL Guide for Webmasters - Focused on dealing with the dreaded AOL browser detection and cacheing.
Internet World Tips & Techniques - Tips, labs, workshops, toolboxes, and more.
WebReference.com - Put simply: an amazing site. Check it out.
HTML with Style - WebReference.com's HTML and CSS tip site.
Doc JavaScript - Possibly the best instructional JavaScript resource site on the web.
Snap's Web Building - Resources for webmasters, designers and programmers.
Netscape's DevEdge Online - Packed with some of the best JavaScript, HTML and DHTML reference guides on the web, and much, much more.
Relative Addresses - Tutorial about relative addressing from WebTeacher.org.
Netcraft's What's That Site Running? - Queries web servers to tell you what OS and web server they are using, plus surveys, reports, and graphs of top web servers on the net.
Search Engine Watch - An excellent resource for tips on raising your site's ranking on external search engines.

S O F T W A R E R E S O U R C E S

Web Browsers: Netscape Communicator, Microsoft Internet Explorer
FTP Clients: Fetch (Macintosh), WS_FTP (Windows)
Text Editors: BBEdit (Macintosh), HomeSite (Windows)

M I S C E L L A N E O U S R E S O U R C E S

FTP tutorial - WebTeacher.org tutorial and overview.
Fetch FTP tutorial - Specifically for Fetch.
GVU Center's WWW User Surveys - Lots of stats: demographics, browser types, age. resolution, monitors, and more.
Deja News - Read, search, participate in and subscribe to more than 80,000 discussion forums. A required bookmark on all browsers.

Configuring FTP Clients - Macintosh
Last Modified: 3/27/2000

Because most FTP clients will not automatically recognize the QuarkXPress xtg file format (.xtg) as ASCII text files, they must be configured to do so. Incorrect configuration will result in the files being transferred as binary, which cannot be read by Dispatch. Instructions are provided here for proper configuration of Fetch for the Macintosh.

F E T C H C O N F I G U R A T I O N

1. From the main menu bar click on "Customize" and choose "Preferences..." to display the preference settings. In the Preferences dialog, select the Upload tab. Set the Default text format to Text and the Default non-text format to Raw Data. Uncheck the remaining options. Ignore the Word wrap margin. Press OK to save these settings.

2. From the main menu bar click on "Customize" and choose "Suffix Mapping..." to display the suffix listings. You should see a dialog window similar to the one on the right. Click on "Add".

3. In the Suffix Mapping Editor enter the suffix as .xtg (including the leading period). Select "Text" as the "Transfer as" format. Fill in the remaining boxes as illustrated in the accompanying screen capture. When finished, click on the OK button, and the new suffix mapping will appear in the list, as highlighted in the illustration above.

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Additional Resources

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Configuring FTP Clients - Windows

Configuring FTP Clients - Windows
Last Modified: 3/27/2000

W S - F T P C O N F I G U R A T I O N

1. From the main WS_FTP window, select the Options button. In the Properties dialog, select the Extensions tab, type in .xtg (including the leading period) in the upper box, then click on "Add".

2. With the Properties dialog still open, go to the Session (cont'd) tab and select Auto Detect as the Startup Transfer Mode. Make sure that none of the File Names checkboxes above are selected.

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Additional Resources

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Configuring FTP Clients - Macintosh

Dispatch's Directory Structure
Last Modified: 3/27/2000

Dispatch manages certain directories (folders) within your web site, specifically the dated issue folders and the "current" folder.

Each dated folder contains a unique issue and all of its files (stories and images). The "current" folder always contains a copy of the latest issue in your publication.

A typical directory tree created by Dispatch looks like this:

/2000-02-01/
/2000-02-08/
/2000-02-15/
/2000-02-22/
/2000-03-01/
/current/

All of the dated folders have the format of yyyy-mm-dd, which is year-month-date. "2000-02-01" contains all of the files for the issue of February 1, 2000. "2000-02-08" contains the files for the issue of February 8, 2000, and so on.

The "current" folder always contains a copy of the latest issue in your publication. In this case, the "current" folder contains a copy of the "2000-03-01" folder, which is the latest issue in this example.

This is a common directory structure for online publications and hopefully one you are already familiar with.

C R E A T I N G F O L D E R S

Dispatch manages all of the folders we have discussed so far. Beyond that, you are free to create whatever additional folders you would like. For example, you will probably create a folder named "images" that will house all of the common images throughout your site, and maybe another for includes or style sheets. Something like this:

/2000-02-01/
/2000-02-08/
/2000-02-15/
/2000-02-22/
/2000-03-01/
/current/
/images/
/includes/
/styles/

File Naming Conventions - Basic
Last Modified: 3/27/2000

Dispatch uses a file-naming convention to help import stories and images into the database. This naming convention is based upon the column each story or image belongs to.

S T O R Y N A M E S

Typical naming conventions look like this:

music_feature1.xtg music_feature2.xtg music_feature3.xtg record_reviews1.xtg

The basic format is:

column_base_nameN.xtg

Note: You may name files any way you want. If Dispatch doesn't recognize a file name, you will be prompted to identify it during the importing phase.

I M A G E N A M E S

Images also use a naming convention which is defined as follows:

column_base_nameN-N.gif or column_base_nameN-N.jpg

Using the file set from above, notice how the images are named to lock to the correct files (stories):

music_feature1.xtg music_feature1-1.gif music_feature1-2.gif music_feature1-3.gif music_feature2.xtg music_feature2-1.jpg music_feature3.xtg music_feature3-1.jpg music_feature3-2.gif record_reviews1.xtg record_reviews1-1.gif record_reviews1-2.gif record_reviews1-3.gif record_reviews1-4.gif

This format allows for perfect file locking. Dispatch will prompt you if an image is named incorrectly and ask what column or story to lock it to.

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Dispatch's Directory Structure

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File Naming Conventions - Basic

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File Naming Conventions - Extended

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Saving as QuarkXPress Tags

File Naming Conventions - Extended
Last Modified: 9/15/2000

Dispatch file import includes a feature which allows multiple QuarkXPress Xtg files to be merged together to create one master document for a story. This is useful in circumstances where elements of a story are in separate, unlinked text boxes.

The following guideline is for naming extended Xtg files prior to uploading to the Dispatch server:

example1.xtg -- Original story
example1+jump1.xtg -- Jump section of original story
example1+hed1.xtg -- Headline associated with the story (if in a separate Quark text box)
example1+byline1.xtg -- Byline associated with the story (if in a separate Quark text box)
example1+cutline1.xtg -- The cutline associated with the first photo/illustration (if not included in original Xtag file)
example1+cutline2.xtg -- The cutline associated with the second photo/illustration (if not included in original Xtag file)
example1+credit1.xtg -- The photo credit associated with the first photo/illustration (if not included in original Xtag file)

The secondary name slot -- the part after the plus sign (+) -- can be comprised of any word characters (0-9, A-Z, a-z and underscore), but there must be a number to end the file name.

Files with extended names will be appended to the end of the original story in alphanumeric order. The combination of files happens during the import into Dispatch, so you will not see the extra files listed on the "Files Found" page. You will, however, see the original file name, example1.xtg, for instance.

W H Y E X T E N D E D F I L E N A M E S ?

Extended file naming should only be used in cases where elements of a story -- such as the headline, byline, subhead, or description -- are in text boxes that are not linked to the story body itself within QuarkXPress (not really recommended in desktop publishing). It can also be used if the jumped portion of a story has been laid out using separate, unlinked text boxes. Uploading these elements with extended file names will allow the information to be properly converted to HTML (especially important with special characters). It also gets all data in one place, which is, in most cases, easier to manage.

NOTE: Simply using extended file names will not fill your Dispatch database. Quark styles must still be used for automatic importing into Dispatch data fields. Information that is appended to the original story without proper styles will appear as part of the story and will have to be cut from the story field and pasted into the correct data fields. Unless Quark styles are being used consistently throughout your publication, it is not advisable to append additional files in this manner.

CAUTION: Cutting and pasting information from another text source into the Dispatch interface may result in the inclusion of some characters which are not fully supported by HTML. Such characters may include, but are not limited to, "smart" quotes, accented and other foreign characters, and copyright and trademark symbols.

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Dispatch's Directory Structure

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File Naming Conventions - Basic

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File Naming Conventions - Extended

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Saving as QuarkXPress Tags

Installing FreeBSD
Last Modified: 5/18/2000

Step by Step FreeBSD Installation

The following directions outline how to prep a Dispatch server for installation of the full OS--FreeBSD--and Dispatch Automated Publishing Solutions software. Once the following steps are completed, DesertNet will access the machine and take over the installation.

This installation requires that the you have an IP address to use for this machine, and have the computer connected to the Internet. This install will download needed components--totaling about 30 MB--via ftp from a remote server, so you'll want to have high bandwidth available.

If you have questions at any point in this process, please email us at support@desert.net.

Your first step will entail procuring FreeBSD installation disks. The following links will initiate downloads of the files you need to create these disks.

Once downloaded, put the three files in a directory labeled "FreeBSD." [BTW, this process should be taking place on a Windows or DOS based Intel machine of some sort.]

You'll need two formated 3.5" 1.44MB floppy disks.

Access a DOS prompt either within Windows, by exiting Windows to the prompt, or by working from your standard command line if you are a DOS user.

From the DOS command line, change directories to the location you've stored the three downloaded files in.

Label one of the disks "Kernel" and place the floppy in the "a" drive (assuming the 3.5" drive is your "a" drive--alter instructions accordingly if it has a different drive letter).

Enter the following command:

fdimage kern.flp a:

When that disk is done and you are again at the DOS command line, label the second disk "MFS Root" and place the floppy in the drive. Enter this command:

fdimage mfsroot.flp a:

This is a screenshot example of the above two steps:

Congratulations. You now have the disks to boot the machine into a FreeBSD install.

Boot from the Kernel floppy by placing the first disk you made--labeled "Kernel"--into the "a" drive of the computer and starting/restarting the machine. By the way, you may want to make sure the computer's bios is setup to check the "a" drive for bootable media and set that drive first in the search chain of bootable devices. Insert the MFS Root floppy when the install routine asks for it. You'll want to bypass the "Kernel Configuration Menu" by hitting enter.

Move the cursor down to Express and use the space bar to activate it.

We're going to reformat the disk using FDISK. The first screen shows a typical Windows disk partition. You want to delete all the partitions and create new ones for FreeBSD.

Move the cursor down to the "fat" partition and press "D" until there is a single unused "partition" on the disk as shown in this screen.

Hit "A" to use the entire disk and answer the resulting dialog box in the affirmative (the default).

Now the screen should look something like this. Hit "Q" to quit FDISK and continue with the installation.

You want the machine to boot directly into FreeBSD; move the cursor down to the line for the standard MBR and the space bar to select it. Hit enter to continue.

Now you need to define subsections within the FreeBSD partition using the FreeBSD Disklabel Editor. Hit "A" to use the default slice settings for your disk and memory configuration.

The defaults it gives you should be fine. Hit "Q" to quit out of the Disklabel editor and continue with the installation.

You will be installing only a small portion of FreeBSD at this time. Scroll down to the "Minimal" distribution and use the space bar to put an X next to it. Then hit enter to continue to the next screen.

Scroll down to "Install from an FTP server" and hit the space bar.

In addition to the primary site there are six US mirrors near the bottom of the list. You can use traceroute or ping from another computer to determine which one will be the fastest.

Use the arrow keys and space bar to choose the one which looks most like an ethernet adapter. If two or more ethernet cards appear in the list, you will have to figure out which one is plugged in.

You want to answer "No" here. DHCP is really neat, but you probably don't have it set up to always use a static IP address for this computer.

Put the relevant values into the fields. Use tab to cycle through the fields and buttons. The host and domain names are not as important as the other values. You won't need to give any extra options for ifconfig.

The download is about 30 megabytes. If it goes too slowly, you can abort the process by any means necessary and use a faster FTP server the next time around.

Hurray, the download is finished and there are only two more things left to do! Hit enter to continue.

Move the cursor down to the Root Password line and use the space bar to choose the menu item.

An ideal password is a random collection of letters, numbers and punctuation. Be sure to remember it! The password won't appear when you type it. Repeat this process if you mistype the password the second time.

Next you need to make a user account for the dispatch user. Scroll down and select the menu item with the space bar.

Fill in the values as needed. It's important to make the dispatch user a member of the "wheel" group, and to set the home directory to "/home/dispatch".

Congratulations! You are done!

Use the "Exit" menu item and then the "Exit Install" button to exit completely out of the installation program. The system will reboot and should boot cleanly into FreeBSD, with the process ending at a FreeBSD login prompt.

After you restart the machine, contact Dispatch Support (support@desert.net) and let them know the machine is setup and ready for us to install Dispatch. We will also need to know the root password and dispatch user's password so we can access the machine and finish the installation.

Saving as QuarkXPress Tags
Last Modified: 3/27/2000

One of the import formats Dispatch supports is the QuarkXPress tag format. XPress tags contain stylesheet and formatting information that Dispatch can use to pre-fill out database fields, saving you time.

Due to the way QuarkXPress handles text boxes, stories need to be individually extracted as XPress tags. This is the only way to separate stories from ads or miscellaneous text boxes within your QuarkXPress documents.

To save your stories in the XPress tags format:

1. Open an issue of your publication in QuarkXPress

2. Select the text of the first story in the document. To do this, click in the text box area of the story and then choose Edit and Select All from the menu (or command + a). This should highlight the whole story, including the headline and byline if your document is like most we've seen so far.

3. Save the story in XPress tags format. - Choose File and Save Text from the menu (or option + command + e, this may vary on Quark versions)

Once the save text dialog appears (see above right), give the file a distinctive name with the extension ".xtg" (ie: film.xtg, film2.xtg).

Change the format to "XPress Tags" (you'll only have to do this on the first story you save; Quark should remember this setting).

Press save to save the story.

4. Continue this process with each story in the issue, until you have saved each individual story in the XPress tags format.

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Dispatch's Directory Structure

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File Naming Conventions - Basic

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File Naming Conventions - Extended

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Saving as QuarkXPress Tags

Home: Support: Print Friendly Version (appendices)
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