Website setup

Cumulus allows you to create web pages which can either be viewed only on your computer or made available to all via the internet.

To put them on the internet,

• you must have web space on the internet which allows standard FTP access.
• you will require an FTP tool (not essential if you are using your own computer to both run cumulus and to act as web server as in that case you can copy files between locations at setup and turn off FTP on Cumulus).

webspace

Webspace is available commercially (paid) or free from a variety of sources. Your internet service provider (ISP) may provide you with some space.

It is worth checking that any free provider allow FTP -- example, Google does not allow FTP as part of it’s Sites package so you can not use this with Cumulus. If you are not sure, ask your webspace provider or check the email they sent you when setting up your webspace. They will mention the FTP server in the email or support website.

Many of the ‘free’ offerings will also want to automatically insert adverts on your page, and may have other restrictions.

FTP tool

This is a tool which transfers files from your computer onto your webspace. As a minimum you will need this tool to transfer some files as a one-off at setup. There are a huge array of FTP tools, both commercial and free.

If you can get your FTP tool to work, then the host, username, password and (optional) directory it uses to transfer the initial files are exactly the ones you will need to enter into the Cumulus Internet Configuration screen. See cumulus help for more information. It is worth noting that although the FTP host is usually expressed as a FTP address (e.g. 'ftp://' might be the initial part of an internet based address), it can be expressed as a numerical location (e.g. 127.0.0.1 might be the location of a web server based on your computer, xxx.yyy.u.vvv is a mask denoting a general internet based address) both in your FTP tool and in cumulus.

Implementation Alternatives

• Simple Website setup -- this is the easiest way using the pages, scripts, and images provided in the cumulus package, it requires minimal setup from you and gets your data online in minutes. It is ideal for those who are not familiar with writing web pages.
• Customised templates -- one step on from the above method, this article tells you how to adapt the default pages Cumulus will produce with some minor changes.
• Use designs from other providers -- some people have designed implementations that are intended to present Cumulus data in a more sophisticated manner, these may require additional tools (e.g. the server based language PHP) to be provided with your webspace in order to create web pages from a number of sources
• Write your own -- for more advanced users who understand HTML (the language of web pages on the internet), and the supporting styles and scripts, this allows you to group data from Cumulus in any way you like.