Recent Changes in MyDrive and Student Websites

MyDrive and Student Websites Bill Pegram 2/1/23

MyDrive Intro Although MyDrive for NVCC has been in existence since 2018, there have been important changes in the last few months https://www.nvcc.edu/ithd/students/mydrive.html provides a introduction to MyDrive https://www.nvcc.edu/ithd/_docs/mydrive-documentation.pdf this 17 page document, January 2023, provides more detail https://www.billpegram.com/MyDrive%20Instructions%20Spring%20 2023.docx This three page document prepared by Professor Laura McCullough last week provides a shorter guide to how to use MyDrive as your student webspace for this course

Sharing Files and MyDrive Sharing Files Pages 9-16 of the 17 page document show how to share files with others do NOT use this capability to submit homework for this course. Homework submitted this way will not be accepted Instead, you will use MyDrive as a student website such as described in the 3 page document MyDrive Instructions 2023 There are two ways to upload your files to your student webspace, either is fine for this course Using the MyDrive interface as described in the 2023 Instructions Using a FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program such as CoreFTP (Windows only), FileZilla or Cyberduck (Windows, Linux, Mac), etc.

Recent changes in MyDrive Change in Folder structure Previously, one had to put everything inside of a home and public folder in order for it to be visible on the web and the public folder was part of the URL Now, there is no need for a home or public folder The elimination of these requirement eliminates a common problem that students had in the past Change in URL previously the url was http://mydrive.nvcc.edu/username/public/ where username was the student s myNOVA username Now, as shown in the January 2023 instructions, the url for students is https://student.nvcc.edu/username where username is again the student s myNOVA username and https://faculty.nvcc.edu/username for faculty

Recent changes in MyDrive (cont.) Change in visibility Previously to view a student s webpage, the viewer had to enter their (not the student s) myNOVA username and password Now, anyone can view the webpage as long as they have the URL Duration of Availability Previously, how long content was available on a student s site wasn t clear Now, content in a student web folder is automatically deleted after 1 year and on faculty sites after 3 years, as stated on page 8 of the 17 page document Faculty sites on myDrive Previously, faculty would use a myDrive site the same way a student would Now, faculty have different folders and different URLs than students do

Recent changes in MyDrive (cont.) Validation on NVCC Student Website Previously, validators didn t work on student myDrive websites this probably resulted from the fact that one had to enter a myNOVA username and password to see the site Now because the content is available to everyone, validators work (at least on faculty MyDrive sites, and I expect on the student sites as well) Directory Browsing No Longer Enabled If a URL ends in a folder, rather than a filename, if that folder contains a file named index.html or the like, that file will be displayed. If the folder doesn t contain such a file If directory browsing is enabled, the list of files in that folder is displayed If directory browsing is not enabled, a 403 message saying that Access is denied will be displayed Previously, directory browsing was enabled on student myDrive websites; now it is not on the faculty myDrive site and I suspect not on the student myDrive site as well. On myDrive currently, a URL that ends with a filename works. If it ends in a folder, the folder must contain a file named index.html, index.htm, or index.asp. This change is important for initial assignments in the past, one could have initial assignments where an index page was not used.

Recent changes in MyDrive (cont.) Previously, in the MyDrive interface, one could not delete a folder on MyDrive if there were files inside the folder; one first had to delete the files before one could delete the folder; now one can delete the folder (and its contents) just by selecting the folder and clicking Delete at the top. This change makes the deletion process work the same way as it does with FTP programs. The MyDrive interface now allow one to upload a folder (and its contents) just by uploading the folder. I believe the previous version of MyDrive didn t permit this, so one would zip the files (e.g. by using MyDrive), upload the zipped file, and then unzip it using myDrive. As before, the MyDrive unzip capability can be used to unzip a file if you don t have unzipping software on your computer.

Two Ways to Put and Remove Content from Your Student Website Use the MyDrive interface described in the 3 page document prepared by Professor McCullough Use an FTP program the settings are Hostname: mydrive.nvcc.edu Username: your myNOVA username Password: your myNOVA password If you purchase web hosting services from a company, you will often upload your content through an FTP program and thus using a FTP program will generally eliminate the need for using any particular upload interface (such as myDrive) that they provide.

Free FTP Programs CoreFTP (Windows only) at least in the past, this was installed on lab computers at the Annandale campus; not currently installed at the Alexandria campus except in the Cyber Lab FileZilla FTP Client all platforms, various versions There are lots of others