Building a Course Site

What follows are the steps needed to build a course site with our current course building system.

• Each course contains a makefile in its main directory. This uses the make utility and a number of rules to build various targets. We will discuss possible two targets here: local and prod.
• Our static site courses use "ptml" files (pre-html) to include various common or script-generated components in target html files. Always edit a ptml file, not an html file. (This is a substitute for a server-side include utility like the one Django has.)
• After editing the ptml file, run 'make local' to build the html file. This will run an html-code checker first, and then run an AWK script that includes other content than the ptml file in the final product (the html file). If the code checker reports errors, the build will stop, and you will have to fix the errors before the html file will build.
• Once you get a good build, test your local version of the html file in a browser (by using 'file:///path-to-your-file') and see if it looks like you want it to. Check links, make sure images load, videos play, etc.
• Once you have verified your work is correct, you can re-build the online website by running 'make prod'.
• The final step is to check the online version and make sure it, too, works as you intended.