http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/users/

We have a number of World Wide Web clients installed; NCSA Mosaic and Netscape (run Mosaic, or netscape) are available for use under X and on Macintoshes (See Mosaic for Macs). Lynx (run lynx), an ascii-based client designed for use with dumb terminals is also available. From within your web client, you can follow links displayed on the main screen, or you can select URLs to go to using 'hot keys' or the menu interface.

Below, you will find topics of interest related to getting started writing HTML including help on The HTML language, Fill Out Forms, and The Common Gateway Interface (CGI).

HTML

Probably the best way to get started writing your own HTML files is to view the sources of other pages on the World Wide Web. Most browsers have a menu option or hotkey which will allow you to look at the source of the currently displayed document. Below, you will find primers and references to help you get started writing HTML.

A Beginner's Guide to HTML

This is a primer for producing documents in HTML, the markup language used by the World Wide Web. It is frequently referred to as the definitive guide to HTML.

HTML Quick Reference

Quick Reference guide to the HTML language.

HTML Overview

An overview of HTML by the folks at GNN. It includes sections on Autoflowing and Autowrapping, HTML Tag Syntax, Document Construction Guidelines, Sample HTML Document, Hyperlinks, Linking to Points Within Documents, URLs, Lists, Graphics, Server-Side Includes and other information.

CERN's style guide for online hypertext

This is a style guide written up by the folks at CERN (it now resides at the WWW Consortium) which explains Web Etiquette and HTML document organization.

Composing Good HTML

This document is a set of suggested guidelines to follow while writing your HTML documents.

Guides to Writing HTML Documents

A good hotlist of HTML resources around the Web. It includes Examples, style guides, Netiquette, and more.

Fill-out forms allow users to return information to the World Wide Web server for processing. You usually use the FORM tag to pass user entered data to a CGI script. See the following pointers for information on getting started with FORMS.

NCSA's fill-out-form guide

Here are details about what has been implemented for fill-out forms.

HTML Form - Testing Home Page

A test suite developed by Digital Equipment Corporation for testing HTML Forms. The test suite is not intended to be exhaustive, but was devised based upon problems encountered with various browsers.

Carlos' FORMS Tutorial 1

A tutorial to get you started writing forms. Set up by Carlos A. Pero of The University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign.

The Common Gateway Interface, or CGI, is a standard for external gateway programs to interface with information servers such as HTTP servers.

If you wish to run a program through the web, check with us. We need to work with you to minimize the risk to our network since anyone on the internet can run your program. You should keep in mind that the server which spawns your program is running as nobody, therefore your program will be running as nobody and you will need to set permissions accordingly. You should also note that since your CGI scripts are accessible to anybody on the internet, there may be several copies running at the same time so you need to make sure any data files you use can not be corrupted by this occurence.

The Common Gateway Interface

From the folks at NCSA. The Common Gateway Interface, or CGI, is a standard for external gateway programs to interface with information servers such as HTTP servers. The current version is CGI/1.1.

CGI Security

This document is a gathering of resources related to writing secure CGI scripts for WWW servers.

NCSA's Imagemap Tutorial

This document is a step-by-step tutorial for designing and serving graphical maps of information resources through the use of the imagemap program. Through such a map, users can be provided with a graphical overview of any set of information resources; by clicking on different parts of the overview image, they can transparently access any of the information resources (possibly spread out all across the Internet).

Web Developer's Virtual Library: CGI

These pages are intended to collect information useful to Common Gateway Interface (CGI) programmers.

Take a look at some example CGI Script Environment Variables.