HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
Plan
Ahead
Project Planning Guidelines
As you create Web pages, such as the project shown in Figure 3-1 on the previous page, you
should follow these general guidelines:
1.
Plan the Web site
. Before developing a multiple-page Web site, you must plan the
purpose of the site. Refer to Table 1-4 on page HTML 15 for information on the planning
phase of the Web Development Life Cycle. In this phase, you determine the purpose of
the Web site, identify the users of the site and their computing environments, and decide
who owns the information on the Web page.
2.
Analyze the need
. In the analysis phase of the Web Development Life Cycle, you analyze
what content to include in the Web page. The Web development project in Chapter 3 is
different than the one completed in Chapter 2 because it contains two Web pages that
will be linked together. Part of the analysis phase then includes determining how the
multiple Web pages work together to form a Web site.
3.
Design the Web site.
Once the analysis is complete, you design the Web site. In this phase,
you determine the content of the site, both text and graphics. Design steps specific to this
chapter also include determining links within the site and to external Web sites.
a.
Choose the content for the Web pages
. This part of the life cycle also differs from the
previous chapter's project because all of the content does not have to appear on one Web
page, as it did in Chapter 2. With a multiple-page Web site, you can distribute the content
as needed throughout the Web site. Because of the nature of this Web site, pictures are a
large part of the content. The Web site owner wants to show a sample of her company's
work. Pictures help to highlight what sea creatures might be seen on a tour.
b.
Determine the types of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) that you will use
. You already
learned how to use inline styles to best support the design and purpose of the Web site.
In this chapter, you utilize both inline and embedded (internal) style sheets to alter the
appearance (or style) of various Web page elements. You also incorporate classes with
your embedded style sheets to further control the style of elements on the Web page.
You need to consider which of these options is best suited for the styles of your Web site.
c.
Determine how the pages will link to one another
. This Web site consists of a
home
page
(the first page in a Web site) and a secondary Web page to which you will link.
You need to determine how to link (e.g., with text or a graphic) from the home page
to the secondary page and how to link back to the home page.
d.
Establish what other links are necessary
. In addition to links between the home page
and secondary Web page, you need an e-mail link. It is standard for Web developers
to provide an e-mail link on the home page of a Web site for visitor comments or
questions. Additionally, the secondary Web page (samplephotos.html) is a long
page that requires visitors to scroll down for navigation. Because of its length, it is
important to provide easy and quick ways to navigate the Web page. You do this using
links within the Web page.
4.
Develop the Web page(s) and insert all links
. Once the analysis and design is complete,
the Web developer creates the Web page(s) using HTML and CSS. Good Web development
standard practices should be followed in this step. Examples of good practices include
utilizing the proper initial HTML tags, as shown in the previous chapter, and always
identifying alt text with images.
5.
Test all Web pages within the Web site
. An important part of Web development is
testing to assure that you are following the standards outlined in the previous chapter.
For the projects in this topic, you will use the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
validator that allows you to test your Web pages and clearly explains any errors it finds.
When testing, you should check all content for accuracy. Also, all links (external, internal,
and page to page within the same Web site) should be tested.
When necessary, more specific details concerning the above guidelines are presented at
appropriate points in the chapter. The chapter will also identify the actions performed and
decisions made regarding these guidelines during the creation of the Web page shown in
Figure 3-1.
