Explore File Manager and public_html

Log into your Reclaim Hosting account click on cPanel. This is the overview page where you can manage a bunch of different aspects of your server account with Reclaim Hosting (such as URL domain names, setting up an email account based on your domain, etc.). Find File Managerand open this in a new browser tab, which will bring you to an interface showing you some folders. Much like your physical computer, your server space at Reclaim Hosting is organized into a collection of folders containing files, scripts, folders, etc. Don’t worry about what all of them mean. For now, navigate to public_html. This is where you can add files, webpages, etc. that you want to be accessible by other people through an internet browser.

Make a Sandbox Directory

Your first step is to make a “sandbox” folder in your public_html directory that is going to be your space to install and learn new tools. This is where you can mess around and try things out without worrying about anything breaking. The sandbox folder is going to be set up so that it can be accessed in the following way: https://yourdomainnameurl/sandbox/. When you start adding sub-folders or material within your sandbox folder they will be just be appended to that URL (ex. https://yourdomainnameurl/sandbox/photo-of-my-adorable-cat.jpg).

To create your sandbox:

• Make sure you are in File Manager (cPanel -> File Manager)
• Navigate to the public_html folder and make sure you are inside the folder
• Add a new folder within your public_html folder called sandbox (make sure it says public_html under “New folder will be created in:”)
• Navigate to the folder. It should be empty. :)

Add a file to your sandbox

Now let’s try adding a file into your sandbox folder. While still in File Manager, click +File in the upper left, then name it hello.html. The .html ending tells File Manager what kind of file it is (in this case, an HTML webpage). Make sure it is created inside your sandbox folder, then click Create New File. You should see a new file inside your directory. Select it by clicking once, then click on HTML Editor towards the top of File Manager. Click the Edit button that appears in a pop-up, and you should be seeing a blank screen with some buttons at the top. Try writing a short message in the document, then click the Save button.

In a new browser tab, navigate to: https://yourdomainnameurl/sandbox/hello.html and you should see your message. Congratulations!

If you get done with this step and your classmates are still working, go back to editing the hello.html file in the HTML Editor and try to make the ugliest webpage you possibly can (you can change the appearance of text using various buttons along the top row - ex. color, bold, etc.). Send your ugly webpage contestant to the #in-class Slack channel.