Procedure indicates a systematic sequence of events needed to carry out a task. It may be a formal procedure that is officially recognized at FAO.

2.3c Clearance of Web sites by OCP

Step 1	For clearance of a Web site (new or redesigned), an e-mail must be sent to OCP (Web-Clearance@fao.org) from the officer responsible for the programme/project, requesting that the Web site be published on the Internet. The test URL must be included in this e-mail. It is also advisable that all the necessary technical officers, chiefs etc. are sent a copy of this e-mail. Non-staff employees or external companies delivering a Web site or information system should also provide, in writing, confirmation that the site or system complies with the FAO Web Quality Assurance Checklist.
Step 2	OCP reviews the Web site at the test URL and compares it with the FAO Web Quality Assurance Checklist.
Step 3	If necessary, OCP sends its comments and observations to the requesting technical officer so that the Web site can be amended accordingly. Department/Division amends.
Step 4	OCP gives approval. Web site published on the Internet.

2.4b The fao.org domain, subdomains and root directories

Please see the document Internet domain name selection, registration and organization: policies and procedures [internal].

3.2 Define the Web site subject scope

At the planning phase of a new or (to be) redesigned Web site, write a description of its subject area/scope.

6.1a How to use the FTP server

FTP had been used in the past for distribution of large binary files to help avoid tying up resources on our main HTTP servers. There was a risk that this could happen for transfers lasting a long time - and so prejudicing the quality of the service offered. Nowadays, the HTTP servers are more powerful and due to the increase in bandwidths available to many users, even for large downloads, this is no longer an issue. Therefore much of the incentive for using FTP has been removed. In addition to this, particular problems have been identified which can sometimes hinder publishing of information by FTP instead of HTTP. These include:

• FTP can sometimes be blocked by a faulty firewall or proxy configuration, either on the end users computer, or at the ISP
• There is no possibility of an HTTP redirect (301 Redirect or similar) with FTP, therefore moving documents to different URLs can be problematic
• There is no referrer information collected by the FTP protocol. Therefore its not possible to use web traffic analysis to see how people found your document, either with a search engine (and what terms they might have used), or from an inbound link from another site.
• There is no 'User Agent' information collected by the protocol used by FTP. The 'User Agent' information provides a good indication of whether the document is being accessed by a user with a browser, or by a search engine to build its indexes.
• There is some evidence that FTP is not so well represented in Search Engine Results Pages in some search engines.

6.9 Providing access to search

To help you determine which search engine is the most appropriate for your Web site, you can contact OCP or CIO. In consultation, OCP and CIO will evaluate your needs and where costs are involved; provide an estimate and a timeline. Support at any stage is always available from OCP and CIO.

7.2 How to use the test environment

The tool you have used to construct your Web site will determine how you access the test environment.

Placing files in the one of the test servers, enables a user to see how the Web site will perform once copied live. For example, the URL for Web site files placed on the faoint0b server begins with "http://www-data".

The Information Technology Division (CIO) manages and monitors FAO test environments.

9.2 Update procedures for Web sites

Once a Web site is published, pages will inevitably need to be updated as time progresses. To have updated static pages from the test server (Faoint0b) published live, write to Web-Intranet-Updates@fao.org specifying the name of the Web site and the server, the name of the files etc.