How to publish your QMS on your Intranet
	types of network

chapter contents list

• general
• using your file system
• using an intranet Web server
• using Microsoft Windows
• using Linux or other variants of Unix
• using a Mac
• using a Web server with a database

general

If you are to hold your QMS on your intranet, you will need to store the page files somewhere on the intranet, and provide a means of making the files available. In the introduction to the Internet we discussed the various types of communication protocol which can be used. For our purposes, there are, basically, two: http: and file:.

If you use the http protocol, you need to keep your page files on a "Web server". That is a server (a piece of software) which will serve page files to you when you (or your Web browser, actually) asks for them.

If you use the file protocol, you need to keep your page files on a "file server". That is a more familiar thing; it is simply a computer's file system. In this case, you arrange your files in directories (or folders) as you would normally.

If you use a Web server, then there are extra features that you can use (see below).

using your file system

If you simply use the file system for storing and serving pages, then you need to use the file protocol to access them. You can't use the http protocol.

You can use either your own pc, or use a shared pc (also known as a file server).

It is, generally, a good idea to have a fairly flat file structure. That is to say, don't have a folder structure in which there are folders which contain folders, which contain folders, and so on. Do so if you must; but have a good reason for doing so. Try and keep everything in one folder if you can. And why? To keep things simple.

If you have a large or complex organisation, there might be a need to have a folder structure in which different departments (or authors) have their own folders. In that case, there would be a good reason.

Don't include the version number in the filename. If you do this, you will have to change all the hyperlink references to that filename in all the places that there are such references.

If you want to keep previous versions of files (for reference purposes) then:

• Name files so that their names are unique without the file extension.
  So, for example, don't have a fileA.htm and a fileA.gif.
• Save the previous versions by using the file extension as a version number.
  So, for example, if you have fileA.htm, save its first version as fileA.001, its second version as fileA.002, and so on.
• You can save these previous versions either in a special archive folder, or you can keep them together with fileA.htm (which is simplest).
• If you need to make previous versions available online, then the whole problem gets more complicated.
  One possibility is for fileA.htm to be the latest version, and for fileA.htm to have an extra section (possibly in its header information) in which the previous versions are listed and can be hyperlinked to. This may be a workable solution.
  In the extreme case, you may need to keep separate versions of the QMS, and then you have everything at the same version level - but, it would be rare to need to do this.

Generally, when creating a hyperlink use its relative form. That means you don't need to spell out the whole url each time. The full url for this page (on my pc) is

file:///C:/Data/GKL/WWW/PAPERS/publishQMS/networktypes.htm

networktypes.htm

using an intranet Web server

If you wish to use the sort of facilities provided by a Web server, then you need to use a Web server. What you might use depends on what operating system you are using.

• using Microsoft Windows
• using Linux or other variants of Unix
• using a Mac

The benefits of using a Web server over a file server are:

• you get access to the "server-side" features of a Web server (for example, use of a database management system) if you need them;
• users can't over-write the files on a Web server (that is to say, it is easier to set up file protection if you use a Web server).

using Microsoft Windows

If you use Windows, your simplest approach is, probably, to use IIS (or Internet Information Services). This is a part of Windows 2000, Windows NT4, and Windows XP Pro. If it is not already installed on your machine, then you will need to install it. See the Microsoft documentation for how to do this.

If you have a Windows 98 machine, you can use the Personal Web Server which is part of the operating system. It needs to be installed, so if it's not installed on your machine, see the Microsoft documentation on how to install it and set it up.

In general, if you run Windows (from 95 onwards) you can use the Apache HTTP Server.

using Linux or other variants of Unix

There are options available to you if your run Unix, but the commonest server is the Apache HTTP Server. This is Open Source software and is available here. This is the Web server which serves most of the Web.

using a Mac

Here again, you can use the Apache HTTP Server.

using a Web server with a database

If you wish to use a database with your Web server, you will need to provide a data base management system (or dbms) to handle the data. The Web server will access the dbms by means of a server-side language (such as PHP), but if you use an appropriate Web tool (Dreamweaver, for example), this side of things should be handled for you.

If you need to acquire a dbms, you will probably need to talk to your IT people; you may already have a dbms on a suitable system. If not, you can use a free dbms called MySQL.