This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website

Build your own FOTW copy or mirror

Last modified: 2007-12-29 by rob raeside
Keywords: fotw | mirror | ftp |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors


Warning: Before building a local copy or a mirror of FOTW website, read carefully our copyright rules
See also:

Building your own local copy of FOTW website

To build your own copy of the FOTW website:

  1. Click here to enter the directory /mirrors/monthlys/ on the download site
  2. Download all the files allimag1.zip, allimag2.zip etc. and unzip them into the directory /fotw/images (or c:\fotw\images) on your local hard disk.
  3. Download all the files allflag1.zip, allflag2.zip etc. and unzip them into the directory /fotw/flags (or c:\fotw\flags) on your local hard disk.
  4. Download all the files allmisc1.zip, allmisc2.zip etc. and unzip them into the directory /fotw/misc (or c:\fotw\misc) on your local hard disk.
Note that these zipped files are more than 1.44 MB in size. If you want to transport them by diskette to a non-networked pc (e.g. to your home pc), you will have to split the files yourself.

To look at your local copy of FOTW, open the file /flags/index.html (or c:\fotw\flags\index.html)

Keeping your copy up to date

FOTW contents change every week. To update your copy monthly you should download the monthly updating files:

  1. Click here to enter the directory /mirrors/monthlys/ on the download site
  2. Check the file read_me.txt for the extact period of time covered by the monthly update, the name of latest delete file, and other information.
  3. Download the delete file named in read_me.txt, probably named 'del-xxmn.txt', where 'mn' stands for the month-number of the month you try to update over (01= Jan, 02=Feb ...), and delete the obsolete files named in it.
  4. Download the file mn-image.zip (or the files mn-imag1.zip, mn-imag2.zip etc. if they exist) and unzip into the directory /fotw/images (or c:\fotw\images) on your local hard disk.
  5. Download the file mn-flags.zip (or the files mn-flag1.zip, mn-flag2.zip etc. if they exist) and unzip into the directory /fotw/flags (or c:\fotw\flags) on your local hard disk.
  6. Download the file mn-misc.zip (or the files mn-misc1.zip, mn-misc2.zip etc. if they exist) and unzip into the directory /fotw/misc (or c:\fotw\misc) on your local hard disk.
Note that these update files are no more than 1.44 MB in size. If you keep your mirror on a non-networked pc, the updates can be transported on standard 3.5" HD diskettes.

Building a mirror site of FOTW

Once you have an up to date local copy of FOTW website, you may make it available to the Internet community as a mirror site of FOTW.

You can put your banner (or the banner of the organization that hosts the site) on all the FOTW pages as follows:

  1. Prepare your banner as a gif file.
  2. Name it linea2.gif.
  3. Put the file in the /images directory.
  4. Change the text of host.html file so that it tells the visitor about your site and includes a link to your homepage.

You can not

  • modify the contents of FOTW pages and images;
  • put third-party advertisement on FOTW pages (e.g. you cannot put third-party logos and advertisement in linea2.gif file);
  • sell the access to FOTW pages and images.

Making your mirror an official one

After your mirror site is set up and freely visitable, you might like to have it added to the list of FOTW official mirror sites: Send a message to the FOTW Director and you will receive monthly updates of pages and images through e-mail. Your only duty will be to keep the mirror up to date.