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Website Building for Beginners. Robert A. Pickering Jr. Contents. Background on the web & HTML URLs and the HTTP Protocol Working with HTML HTML Editors How to Host your Site CGIs, Search Engines, and Statistics References. What is HTML?. The Hyper-Text Markup Language
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Website Building for Beginners Robert A. Pickering Jr.
Contents • Background on the web & HTML • URLs and the HTTP Protocol • Working with HTML • HTML Editors • How to Host your Site • CGIs, Search Engines, and Statistics • References
What is HTML? • The Hyper-Text Markup Language • A Document built using tags for formatting instructions • The basis of the World Wide Web
HTML Background • "Information Processing - Text and Office Systems - Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML)”, published by ISO in 1986 (ISO 8879) • Tim Berners-Lee, (CERN) near Geneva, Switzerland, writes proposal in 1989 for a hypertext document system (which was labeled "The World-Wide Web" in October of 1990). • Dan Connolly (CERN) writes specifications for HTML in 1990. • January of 1992, CERN releases first “Web Browser”. But text only. • Marc Andreessen's Mosaic for X, was released by NCSA in February of 1993 • Current release of HTML is Version 4.0
World Wide Web Background • Developed at CERN on a NeXT Cube by Tim Berners-Lee, serves text documents • Several Papers delivered to technical committees and organizations • January, 1993 … only 50 known web servers worldwide • April 30, 1993, CERN releases HTML and http to public domain with no license restrictions • October, 1993 … 200 known web servers worldwide • March, 1994, Mark Andreessen leaves NCSA to form Mosaic (later Netscape) • June, 1994 … 1500 known web servers worldwide • Today … over 1 million web servers known worldwide
URL Definition • Uniform Resource Locator • Syntax defined in RFC 1738 as subset of Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) • Syntax:<scheme>:<scheme specific part> • Valid <scheme>’s:ftp, gopher, http, mailto, news, nntp, telnet, wais, file, prospero • Syntax for <scheme specific part>://<user>:<password>@<host>:<port>/<url-path> • <user> & <password> are optional, and followed by @ if present • <url-path> syntax varies according to scheme
Basic Architecture of an HTML Document • Tags (<open_tag>text</close_tag>) • The HTML Document <HTML></HTML>) • The Document Head (<Head></Head>) • The Document Title (<Title></Title> • The Document Body (<body></body>)
The HTML Document • Can only contain <HEAD> and <BODY> elements. • Formally optional element of document. • Good idea in case of new document types developing.
Document Head • Contains general information about document. • <Title> is the most common element found. • Others include: ISINDEX, BASE, LINK, META, and NEXTID • META being used more for including search keywords for search engines.
Document Body • Why a Head and a Body? • HTML is designed to logically separate information about the document from the document information. • HEAD elements can also be used to describe relationships of this document to others. • <Body> contains bulk of document. Most HTML tags will be found in the <body> • Also supports attributes on the <Body> element tag • BACKGROUND, BGCOLOR, TEST, LINK, VLINK
How to Hyperlink Documents • Hyperlinking to a document is performed using a Hypertext Anchor • <A HREF=“URL”>text to display</A>
How to Add Graphics • Graphics are added to documents using IMG SRC elements. • <IMG SRC=“URL”> • Can be imbedded inside of other TAGs
Tables & Frames, and Why? • Tables provide a way of laying out a document in a structured fashion. • Spaces are ignored in a HTML document. • Frames provide a higher degree of continuity in a website.
Editors • WYSIWYG: What you see is what you getMicrosoft Frontpage • Text EditorsAllaire Homesite • Hybrid EditorsAdobe Pagemill
Hosting my Website • Domains and subdirectories • http://www.mydomain.com/ or • http://www.theirdomain.com/~mysite
Moving Files • FTP, HTTP, and SAMBA • File Transfer Protocol • Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol • SAMBA (Windows NT “mounting” via SMB)
CGI Programs • Email form • Guestbook • Counter • Imagemap
Search Engines • Do I want to be on a search engine? • How do I get on a search engine? • META Tags • Submit IT • Search Engines • http://www.altavista.com/ • http://www.yahoo.com/ • http://www.excite.com/
Statistics • Do I want statistics on my site? • Free Tools • Analog • WUsage • Commercial Tools • Web Trends
New Technologies • Macromedia Flash • Dynamic HTML • VRML • XML
Website References • Building a Websitehttp://www.fau.edu/divdept/exsci/seacsm/webpage.htm • HTML Tutorial Websitehttp://www-pcd.stanford.edu/mogens/intro/tutorial.html • Website Teacherhttp://www.webteacher.org/ • Builder.com (by C|Net)http://www.builder.com/ • Web Monkeyhttp://www.hotwired.com/webmonkey/