Details of Web Profiles

In response to a request for /profiles/spqr1/, the web server will serve the contents of ~web/htdocs/profiles/spqr1/index.html. It is not intended that this file ever be written directly, though there is nothing preventing this.

This spqr1/index.html file is generated when spqr1 runs the web_profile command, or anyone with suitable write permissions runs
web_profile -u spqr1

Source files

This index file contains data from ~admin/people/People.csv along with a collection of files provided for the specific user. These files (research.html etc.) are taken from the directory
~web/htdocs/profiles/spqr1/source

By default this source directory is a symbolic link to a directory in spqr1's home directory where he can freely create and edit files, and no-one else can:

pc23:/u/fs1/web/htdocs/profiles/spqr1$ ls -l
lrwxrwxrwx 1 mjr web 23 Jul  9 15:13 source -> /u/fs1/spqr1/web_profile

However, if spqr1 is not maintaining his own profile, it can point elsewhere

pc23:/u/fs1/web/htdocs/profiles/spqr1$ ls -l
lrwxrwxrwx 1 mjr web 28 Jul  9 15:14 source -> /u/fs1/admin/profiles/spqr1

Or it can simply be a directory

pc23:/u/fs1/web/htdocs/profiles/spqr1$ ls -l
drwxrwsr-x+ 2 mjr web 6 Jul  9 15:14 source

Personal Photo

The personal photo is taken from ~web/htdocs/profile/gallery/spqr1.jpg. The script which copies photographs into here checks its aspect ratio and size. This photo is also used by the directory pages.

Permissions

Files under ~web/htdocs are intended to be modifyable by anyone in the web group. Anyone in the web group can thus regenerate anyone's profile. This will fail if the corresponding source files are not world readable.

Missing documents

The web server will serve
~web/htdocs/profile/not_found/default.jpg
in response to a request for a document in ~web/htdocs/profile/gallery which is not present. This means that absent photos result in a placeholder for both directory and personal profile pages, and this placeholder disappears as soon as a real photograph is provided.

<Directory /new/profiles/gallery/>
FallbackResource /profiles/not_found/default.jpg
</Directory>

The web server will serve
~web/htdocs/profile/not_found/index.html
in response to a request for a profile which does not exist. This file is maintained by hand.

<Directory /new/profiles>
ErrorDocument 404 /profiles/not_found/index.html
Options -FollowSymLinks
</Directory>