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

Build your own FOTW copy or mirror

Last modified: 2013-04-28 by peter hans van den muijzenberg
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. Make a directory fotw on your computer.
  2. Click here to enter the directory /mirrors/monthlys/ on the download site.
  3. Download all the files allimg1.zip, allimg2.zip etc. and unzip them into your local directory fotw.
    A subdirectory images will be created if necessary.
  4. Download all the files allflg1.zip, allflg2.zip etc. and unzip them into your local directory fotw.
    A subdirectory flags will be created if necessary.
  5. Download all the file allmisc.zip, or possibly the files allmisc1.zip, allmisc2.zip etc., and unzip them into your local directory fotw.
    A subdirectory misc will be created if necessary.

Note that these zipped files are several MB in size each, with a total size of approximately 1 GB. Should you want to move them between non-networked pc-s, or pc-s on a relatively slow network, you're advised to copy the zipped files to a memory stick to move them. To make a permanent back-up, you might burn the zipped files onto a DVD-ROM; their total size is above the storage size of a normal CD-ROM.

To look at your local copy of FOTW, open the file index.html in the flags subdirectory.

Keeping your copy up to date

FOTW contents change almost 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 'xx' stands for the year number and '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.
    More detailed instructions are available for Unix and for Windows.
  4. Download the file xxmn-image.zip and unzip it into your local directory fotw (the files will be placed in the images subdirectory).
  5. Download the file xxmn-flags.zip and unzip it into your local directory fotw (the files will be placed in the flags subdirectory).
  6. Download the file xxmn-misc.zip, if it exists for this month, and unzip it into your local directory fotw (the files will be placed in the misc subdirectory).

Note that these zipped files have a combined size of several MB. Should you want to move them between non-networked pc-s, or pc-s on a relatively slow network, you're advised to copy the zipped files to a memory stick to move them.

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 subdirectory.
  4. Change the text of the page host.html, in the flags subdirectory ,so that it tells the visitor about your site and it 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 about your mirror of FotW. Your mirror will then be added to the list, and you'll receive monthly e-mails announcing updates to the FotW files. Your only duty will be to follow up on those announcements as described above, to keep your mirror up to date.