What we provide for all members of the HGSE community

• Space on the GSEWEB (administrators) or GSEACADEMIC (faculty/students) servers
• Web server software and related utilities on the Sun Solaris platform
• UNIX accounts for posting Web pages using FTP software
• Standard web address: http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~accountname or http://gseacademic.harvard.edu/~accountname
• User authentication methods for Web pages using htaccess
• Access to mySQL and PHP utilities for database development

• Limited choice in determining web addresses for official departmental websites
• Dreamweaver Templates for faculty websites (contact the helpdesk to receive templates)
• Training for website creation/maintenance at various levels of skill
• Assistance in developing a procedure of maintaining websites over time
• Consulting for design and editing of websites
• Access to a list of consultants for design and editing of faculty websites or websites outside the scope of www.gse.harvard.edu
• Assistance in analyzing and defining Web projects that may require more complex processes such as data collection or database access
• Access to FormMail CGI script (please e-mail the Web Editor for details)
• Please e-mail the Web Editor with questions about any of the above services
• HGSE also offers database-related project programming for the web. Decisions about prioritization and about which projects our staff are involved in are made on a case-by-case basis by the Learning Technologies Center. Please make requests to have such projects considered to dbteam-list@gse.harvard.edu

• Tools, templates, and training for faculty and their TFs and other assistants to create course websites
• Consulting on course-specific website creation
• Technical support to assist with the maintenance of ongoing course websites
• Assistance with new and experimental technology in the area of teaching and learning
• Please e-mail the helpdesk with questions about any of these services

• Writing/design of complete departmental or course websites
• Routine maintenance of departmental or course websites
• Writing/design/maintenance of individual faculty websites
• Troubleshooting CGI code / programs and Java/JavaScript
• Support for the operation of non-HGSE Web servers

• Computer connected to the Internet
• Netscape (Version 4.x or better) or Microsoft Explorer (Version 5 or better)
• Ability to FTP (using Dreamweaver, WS_FTP, etc.)
• Basic understanding of HTML
• Active HGSE Web account (either on GSEWEB or GSEACADEMIC)

• Policy Requirements
  • All programmers must have access to a valid user account on the GSEWEB/GSEACADEMIC server.
  • SSIs will only be allowed with the NOEXEC option enabled.
  • CGI programs must be written in Perl.
  • All scripts are to be executed within CGI wrappers.
  • Scripts should be written to provide meaningful error messages to the user (see "Using Perl" below). E-mail sent to webeditor@gse.harvard.edu indicating that an "Internal Server Error" was encountered will be forwarded to the owner of the script only if it is readily apparent who the owner is; otherwise, the message will be discarded.
  • Please review the list of Web services for other policies relevant to Web services provided by the Learning Technologies Center and the Web Editor. In particular, please note that HGSE staff cannot troubleshoot or debug CGI programs for users.
  • The Learning Technologies Center reserves the right to disable any CGI program or process and/or disable CGI access for any user in order to protect system security and performance.

• Technical Requirements:
  • Perl programs should have the following as the first line: #!/usr/local/bin/perl -wT
  • Filename must have a .cgi extension (e.g., my_program.cgi).
  • The program must be within the user's "Web" space (i.e. within the public_html folder).
  • CGI program cannot be setuid or setgid.
  • The CGIs must have the same owner and group id as the directory in which they reside. They should not be writable by anyone other than the owner and the execute permission should be set for both world and group. Permissions may be set or viewed via an FTP client. The appropriate permissions for a script should look like this: -rwxr-xr-x.

The Web server software on the HGSE Web servers is Stronghold (based upon Apache) with the suEXEC module installed. The suEXEC module allows CGI programs to execute under the UID of the owner of the CGI program.

Users should be aware that having CGI programs executing under their UID increases security risks to their account, including the potential for data and files to be compromised or damaged.

Users should not write or place CGI programs in their account unless they understand these risks and methods of mitigating them.

As a first step, the Learning Technologies Center at HGSE recommends that users read The World Wide Web Security FAQ, with careful attention given to the chapters that cover CGI (Server) Scripts and Safe Scripting in Perl. For more information see the following resources:

• The World Wide Web Security FAQ
  • CGI (Server) Scripts
  • Safe Scripting in Perl
• Perl Security Documentation

• Online Documentation
  Perl documentation is available via the Web.

• Classes, Seminars, Workshops
  The Learning Technologies Center at HGSE does not offer courses or classes in Perl.
  Harvard's Division of Continuing Education does offer Perl/CGI classes as part of its curriculum. In addition, the Harvard Computer Society periodically offers Perl/CGI seminars at no cost as a service to members of the Harvard community.

• Recommended Books. Interested users are encouraged to consult the Perl books published by O'Reilly:
  • Learning Perl, 3rd Edition
  • Programming Perl, 3rd Edition