URL scheme for SLAC WWW server

This brief memo defines a new (January 1995) URL scheme to be used for documents served from the central SLAC WWW server. This memo only addresses the URL naming scheme as seen by users of the web, it does not address where the documents are actually stored. The idea is to standardize the first few levels of the heirarchy, but to allow subgroups complete control over the heirarchy below the level described here.

Why do we need this?

Currently most of our pages have names of the form:
   /FIND/name.html
The present of the word FIND is purely a holdover from the fact that our VM server was originally based on the server being used at CERN for their FIND interface. The lack of any file hierarchy makes it very difficult to split the pages into manageable chunks, and as the number of pages we are serving grows ever larger this will become more and more critical.

In idea is to change the URL's of the files once, and then publicise the new URL scheme widely. For some time we will have to support both the old and new URL-naming scheme.

Approved URL's

/slac.html            - Home page
/                     - Synonym for home page
/slac/*               - Top level SLAC pages (many of those currently
                           maintained by Joan).

/spires/*             - Spires descriptions and database accesses
/spires/freehep/*     - Spires freehep database (eg)

/pubinfo/*            - Public information, eg description of SLAC, life at
                        SLAC etc, stuff maintained by publications.

/exp/sld/*            - SLAC experiments
    /bes/*
    /babar/*
    /e145/*      
    ...

/grp/scs/*            - SLAC groups other than experiments
    /bsd/*
    /esh/*
    /theory/*
    ...

Special cases/examples

/slac/disclaimer.html          (slac disclaimer)
/owner/tonyj_johnson           (example of signature at bottom file)
/slac/phonebook.html           (SLAC phonebook (form))
/suggestion/winters            (Suggestion box)
/glossary/term                 (SlacSpeak)

Extensions

The above list is not expected to be exhaustive. As new pages are created that do not fit into any obvious place in the above scheme, new top level names will be created. The following is a list of names that have been proposed and will be added to the official list after some further (hopefully brief) discussion.

/comp    - General computing documentation/tutorials
/meeting ??
/library ??
/physics ??



Other Considerations

The inclusion of /slaconly/ in any url restricts access to slac.stanford.edu nodes.