Website Development (A to Z for Beginners) [SAMPLE] by Edward B. Toupin - HTML preview

WEBSITEDEVELOPMENT

A-TO-Z FORBEGINNERS

Version 3.01.01.08.27

 

Edward B. Toupin

 

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Copyright © 2001, Edward B. Toupin. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America.

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Table of Contents
List of Figures................................................................................................................x
List of Listings .............................................................................................................xii
List of Tables ..............................................................................................................xiv List of Examples .........................................................................................................xvi
About The Author .....................................................................................................xviii
Acknowledgements.....................................................................................................xx
Preface........................................................................................................................xxii 1. Introduction ..............................................................................................................1
2. Web Site Overview ...................................................................................................3

2.1 What is the Web?............................................................................................................3
2.2 How does it work?...........................................................................................................3
Presentation Layer ..........................................................................................................4
Application Layer.............................................................................................................5
Comm Layer ...................................................................................................................5
2.3 Web Site Software ..........................................................................................................6
The Web Server ..............................................................................................................6
The Web Client ...............................................................................................................7
2.4 Obtaining a Web Site ......................................................................................................8
Virtual Hosting.................................................................................................................8
Dedicated Server ..........................................................................................................10
Sub-Domains ................................................................................................................11
Free Space ...................................................................................................................11

3. Basic HTML.............................................................................................................13

3.1 What is HTML? .............................................................................................................13
Hypertext and Markups .................................................................................................13
Tag, You're It!................................................................................................................13
Tag Pairs.......................................................................................................................14
Attributes.......................................................................................................................14
Things to Note...............................................................................................................14
3.2 What does a basic page look like? ................................................................................14
3.3 What are the different parts of HTML? ..........................................................................15
Additional HEAD Tags...................................................................................................16
Body Attributes..............................................................................................................16
Content Tags ................................................................................................................17
Image Tags ...................................................................................................................17
Hypertext Link Tags ......................................................................................................18
3.4 Building a Page.............................................................................................................19

4. Advanced HTML .....................................................................................................21

4.1 Graphic Links and Image Maps.....................................................................................21
Adding Images ..............................................................................................................21
Adding Imagemaps .......................................................................................................21
Things to Consider ........................................................................................................22
4.2 Animated Graphics........................................................................................................23
Animated GIFs ..............................................................................................................23
Transparent GIFs ..........................................................................................................23
4.3 Using Frames................................................................................................................24
Framesets and Frames .................................................................................................24
Frameset Example ........................................................................................................26
Targeting Links..............................................................................................................27
Screen Layout...............................................................................................................27
Some Things to Consider..............................................................................................28
4.4 Forms............................................................................................................................28
The Form Tag ...............................................................................................................29
Input Type.....................................................................................................................29
Password ......................................................................................................................30
Checkbox ......................................................................................................................30
Radio ............................................................................................................................31
Hidden ..........................................................................................................................32
Submit and Reset..........................................................................................................32
TextArea Input ..............................................................................................................33
Drop-Down Menus ........................................................................................................33
4.5 Managing Form Input ....................................................................................................34
E-Mail............................................................................................................................34
JavaScript .....................................................................................................................35
PERL/CGI .....................................................................................................................35
4.6 Building a Form .............................................................................................................35
The Frameset Page (main.htm).....................................................................................35
The Navigation Page (nav.htm).....................................................................................36
Form 1 Page (form1.htm) ..............................................................................................36
Form 2 Page (form2.htm) ..............................................................................................37
How does it work?.........................................................................................................38
4.7 Browser Compatibility Issues ........................................................................................38
Problems for Web page Display and Performance ........................................................38
Resolving Issues ...........................................................................................................40

5. JavaScript ...............................................................................................................43

5.1 What is JavaScript? ......................................................................................................43
What is Object Oriented Programming? ........................................................................43
Objects and Properties..................................................................................................44
Methods ........................................................................................................................44
Functions ......................................................................................................................44
Events...........................................................................................................................45
5.2 Adding JavaScript to Web Pages ..................................................................................45
5.3 Compatibility Across Browsers ......................................................................................46
5.4 Writing JavaScript .........................................................................................................46
Methods and Properties ................................................................................................46
Events...........................................................................................................................47
Writing Your First Script ................................................................................................48
5.5 Other Applications.........................................................................................................49
Dynamically Change a Document's Background Color..................................................49
Status Bar Messages ....................................................................................................49
Dynamic Text Manipulation ...........................................................................................50
JavaScript Dialog Boxes ...............................................................................................50
Image Submit Button.....................................................................................................51
Displaying a Random Message.....................................................................................51
Live JavaScript Clock....................................................................................................52
Image Flip .....................................................................................................................53
Drop-Down Menu Box ...................................................................................................53
Other Places to Look.....................................................................................................54

6. CGI Programming...................................................................................................55

6.1 What is CGI Programming?...........................................................................................55
Reading the User's Form Input......................................................................................55
Sending the Response Back to the User.......................................................................55
6.2 Adding CGI to a Web Page ...........................................................................................56
Links .............................................................................................................................56
Server-Side Includes.....................................................................................................56
Form Actions.................................................................................................................57
6.3 Locating CGI Scripts .....................................................................................................58
6.4 Installing CGI on a Web Server .....................................................................................58
First Stop - Your Host....................................................................................................59
Modifying Your PERL File .............................................................................................59
Understanding File Permissions....................................................................................60
Uploading And Setting Permissions ..............................................................................60
6.5 Writing a CGI Script ......................................................................................................61
The Program .................................................................................................................61
The Web Page ..............................................................................................................61
6.6 Integrating a Database..................................................................................................62
Database Server ...........................................................................................................62
Flat File .........................................................................................................................63
Other Mechanisms ........................................................................................................63
6.7 Other Applications.........................................................................................................63
Cross Browser Compatibility .........................................................................................64

7. ASP Programming..................................................................................................65

7.1 What is ASP Programming?..........................................................................................65
ASP Pages....................................................................................................................65
7.2 ActiveX Controls............................................................................................................66
Objects..........................................................................................................................66
Interfaces ......................................................................................................................67
Using ActiveX Controls..................................................................................................67
7.3 Adding ASP to a Web Page ..........................................................................................68
7.4 Locating ASP Scripts.....................................................................................................69
7.5 Installing ASP on a Web Server ....................................................................................69
Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack........................................................................................69
Windows 98 Install Disk ................................................................................................69
ASP for Other Servers...................................................................................................70

7.6 Writing ASP Scripts.......................................................................................................70
Detecting a Browser......................................................................................................70
Another Example...........................................................................................................71
7.7 Integrating a Database..................................................................................................72
Another Example...........................................................................................................72
7.8 Other Applications.........................................................................................................73

8. Java Applets ...........................................................................................................75

8.1 What is Java? ...............................................................................................................75
8.2 What are Java Applets? ................................................................................................75
8.3 Adding a Java Applet to a Web Page ............................................................................75
Installing an Applet........................................................................................................76
Troubleshooting Your Applet.........................................................................................76
8.4 Locating Java Applets ...................................................................................................77
8.5 Other Applications.........................................................................................................77

9. Advanced Programming........................................................................................79

9.1 Cold Fusion...................................................................................................................79
Application Server .........................................................................................................79
What do I need?............................................................................................................79
Selecting Data and Generating Output..........................................................................80
What's Next?.................................................................................................................81
9.2 Dynamic HTML .............................................................................................................81
Document Object Model (DOM) ....................................................................................82
Cascading Style Sheets ................................................................................................82
Scripting........................................................................................................................83
What next?....................................................................................................................83
9.3 Java Server Pages........................................................................................................83
9.4 PERL Hypertext Pages (PHP).......................................................................................84
A PHP Page..................................................................................................................84
Dealing with Forms .......................................................................................................85
What's next? .................................................................................................................85

10.Remotely Hosted Applications .............................................................................87

10.1 What are Remotely Hosted Applications?..................................................................87
10.2 Adding Remotely Hosted Applications to a Web Page ..............................................87
10.3 Locating Remotely Hosted Applications ....................................................................87
10.4 Other Applications .....................................................................................................87

11.Putting It All Together............................................................................................89

11.1 Putting a Web Site on the Internet.............................................................................89
Verify Paths...................................................................................................................89
Copying the Files ..........................................................................................................89
CGI Scripts....................................................................................................................89
Java ..............................................................................................................................90
Setting Up Databases ...................................................................................................90
Application Servers .......................................................................................................90
File Permissions............................................................................................................90
11.2 Obtaining a Domain Name ........................................................................................90
Choosing a Domain Name ............................................................................................91
Dot Com?......................................................................................................................91
Registering a Domain Name .........................................................................................91

A1. General Links.......................................................................................................95
A2. Research Links ....................................................................................................97
A3. Tools and Software .............................................................................................99
A4. Web Site Marketing Plan...................................................................................101
Index ..........................................................................................................................103
List of Figures

Figure 1: The World Wide Web .......................................................................................3
Figure 2: Web Communications ......................................................................................4
Figure 3: Internet Server Ports ........................................................................................6
Figure 4: Web Server ......................................................................................................7
Figure 5: Web Client........................................................................................................8
Figure 6: Virtual Hosting ..................................................................................................9
Figure 7: My First Page .................................................................................................20
Figure 8: Standard Frames............................................................................................26
Figure 9: Nested Frames ...............................................................................................28
Figure 10: My Form Frames ..........................................................................................38
Figure 11: CGI Call........................................................................................................55
Figure 12: SSI Call ........................................................................................................56
Figure 13: Integrating a Database .................................................................................62
Figure 14: Using a Flat File............................................................................................63
Figure 15: Interfaces......................................................................................................67
Figure 16: ODBC Data Sources ....................................................................................80
Figure 17: DHTML Hierarchy.....................................................................................