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April 4, 2013
ASSIGNMENT: H2

What is a git, cvs, webdav and ftp?

GIT, CVS and WebDav are Version Control Systems (VCS) that allow multiple users to work on a project. An FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a program that allows data to be transfered between computers or networks.

How do GIT, CVS, WebDav interrelate?

They are all used version control programs that allow multple users to work on a project.

What is a local site root?

It is a folder where you store your website and related files.

What is a File Mapping?

File mapping is the association of a file's contents with a portion of the virtual address space of a process. The system creates a file mapping object (also known as a section object) to maintain this association. A file view is the portion of virtual address space that a process uses to access the file's contents. File mapping allows the process to use both random input and output (I/O) and sequential I/O. It also allows the process to work efficiently with a large data file, such as a database, without having to map the whole file into memory. Multiple processes can also use memory-mapped files to share data.

In navigating a file system what do ~, ., / and .. represent?

. the current directory
.. the parent directory
~ your own home directory
/ move forward

How does / and \ differ?

APIs that return paths use backslashes. The forwardslash usually represents the root directory. Forwardslash in PHP.

What is .htaccss?

.htaccess is a configuration file for use on web servers running the Apache Web Server software. When a .htaccess file is placed in a directory which is in turn 'loaded via the Apache Web Server', then the .htaccess file is detected and executed by the Apache Web Server software. These .htaccess files can be used to alter the configuration of the Apache Web Server software to enable/disable additional functionality and features that the Apache Web Server software has to offer. These facilities include basic redirect functionality, for instance if a 404 file not found error occurs, or for more advanced functions such as content password protection or image hot link prevention.

April 4, 2013
ASSIGNMENT: H2 CONTINUED

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
I plan on creating a website showing the work that I have done in various courses at Saddleback, to date, including Capstone assignments. Additionally, I will have links to current live websites that I have done. The theme of the website will be “Eyes on You”. I plan on incorporating examples of Flash, moving eyes in the header; JavaScript, a Wowslider on the home page to showcase examples of my completed projects; PHP, a working contact form with mail.php stored on my GoDaddy server; Photoshop, a gradient background that will work in all browsers; and CSS, to separate the content from the design.

April 18, 2013
ASSIGNMENT: H3

Explain the differences between HTML, XHTML and DHTML.

HTML is a Hyper Text Markup Language which is used to display the internet website contents on internet browsers.

DHTML is Dynamic HTML(DHTML) which will be used to display the dynamic web site pages. It is not a standard defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), it is a "marketing term" that was used by Netscape and Microsoft
to describe the new technologies the 4.x generation browsers would support. Dynamic HTML is a combination of technologies to make Web pages dynamic. To most people, Dynamic HTML means a combination of HTML 4.0, Style Sheets and JavaScript.

XHTML is similar to the HTML but follows the rules of XML. XHTML is used to be compatible with XML programming. Following the rules now would make it possible to include XML programming in the future. It is not difficult to change HTML pages to XHTML, but it can be time-consuming. Finding all line breaks and images to include closing tags, converting any uppercase to lowercase and any other incompatibility can be a nuisance. Using a find and replace program can allow you to edit your code faster, but you still have to reupload all those changes. It is recommended that programmers try to remember these rules to comply with W3C recommendations, so the web pages appear correctly in most browsers. The main differences between HTML and XHTML is the case-sensitivity, the need to use closing tags for all tags, the need to use quotes around all attribute values and that all attributes must be in lowercase as XML requires.

Explain the differences between the following doc type definitions: HTML4.0 Transitional, HTML4.01 Strict, and HTML4.01 Frameset.

DTD is the acronynm for DOCTYPE definitions.
HTML 4.01 Transitional - This DTD contains all HTML elements and attributes, including presentational and deprecated elements (like font). Framesets are not allowed.
HTML 4.01 Strict - This DTD contains all HTML elements and attributes, but does NOT include presentational or deprecated elements (like font). Framesets are not allowed.
HTML 4.01 Frameset - This DTD is equal to HTML 4.01 Transitional, but allows the use of frameset content.

What is the difference between the previous three DTDs and the corresponding XHTML versions (i.e., XHTML1.0 Transitional, etc.) 

XHTML 1.0 Strict - This DTD contains all HTML elements and attributes, but does NOT INCLUDE presentational or deprecated elements (like font). Framesets are not allowed. The markup must also be written as well-formed XML.
XHTML 1.0 Transitional - This DTD contains all HTML elements and attributes, INCLUDING presentational and deprecated elements (like font). Framesets are not allowed. The markup must also be written as well-formed XML.
XHTML 1.0 Frameset - This DTD is equal to XHTML 1.0 Transitional, but allows the use of frameset content.

What are Quirk Mode and XHTML mobile DTD?

Quirks Mode refers to a technique used by some web browsers for the sake of maintaining backward compatibility with pages designed for older browsers, instead of strictly complying with W3C and IETF standards in standards mode.

XHTML mobile DTD is a a DOCTYPE for movile devices.

Briefly define the following tags:

April 30, 2013
ASSIGNMENT: H4

My XML Site Map: sitemap.xml

What is XML Site Map? Wat do these sites do: xmlSite?

An XML Sitemap is a structured format that a user doesn't need to see, but it tells the search engine about the pages in your site, their relative importance to each other, and how often they are updated. xmlSite is a program that generates a site map for you.

What are google analytic adwords, and Web Master Tools?

Google Analytics is a tool that keeps track of all the traffic that comes to a website. It can tell you how many people visit your site, how many pages they view, how long they stay, and even what series of pages they saw. This valuable information can shed light on how much of your website traffic or sales is driven by AdWords. It can also tell you where people decide to leave your website, and what parts of your website are most attractive to your potential customers.

Web Master Tools allows webmasters to check indexing status and optimize visibility of their websites. It has tools that let the webmasters:

  • Submit and check a sitemap
  • Check and set the crawl rate, and view statistics about how Googlebot accesses a particular site
  • Generate and check a robots.txt file. It also helps to discover pages that are blocked in robots.txt by chance.
  • List internal and external pages that link to the site
  • Get a list of broken links for the site
  • See what keyword searches on Google led to the site being listed in the SERPs, and the click through rates of such listings
  • View statistics about how Google indexes the site, and if it found any errors while doing it
  • Set a preferred domain (e.g. prefer example.com over www.example.com or vice versa), which determines how the site URL is displayed in SERPs

What are Apache redirect?

The Redirect directive maps an old URL into a new one by asking the client to refetch the resource at the new location.

Alias?

The Alias directive allows documents to be stored in the local filesystem other than under the DocumentRoot.

What is .htaccess?

The .htaccess file usually lives it the root directory of a site and allows each site to uniquely configure how Apache delivers its content. Its directives apply to the entire site, but subdirectories can contain their own .htaccess and it applies to this sub and all of its subs and so on, down thru all of your sub sub sub sub subdirectories... You could have a different .htaccess in every sudirectory and make each sub behave a little differently. You get the idea.

Can a spider/robot use a redirect?

Notice the cim site map, how did it fix this problem?

Should you submit your sitemap through robots.txt?

Robots.txt is a text file that tells search engine spiders (what are search engine spiders?), also known as search engine robots, which parts of your website they can enter and which parts they can’t. Yes.

Will bad robots obey robots.txt?

No. In short, if a robot wants to ignore your robots.txt guidelines, they can.

Make a comment on CNET SEO tool review.

Rapid SEO Tool provides an easy, effective means to improve your website's search engine results. It checks your website for shortcomings that could adversely affect how search engine's determine its ranking. It rates the quality of your keywords. It has many other features for tuning up your website. The program is easy to learn and use, even for complete novices. The price is much less expensive than other SEO software or services. The Help system is outstanding. Rapid SEO Tool is not intended to serve as your primary SEO tool. I feel this software is a more like a diagnostic tool for existing websites. That is, Rapid points out problems with your existing website's SEO and provides 'fixes'.

May 9, 2013
ASSIGNMENT: H5

What are two basic categories for image viewers.

Slider and Image Gallery

Sliders - Show one image after another
Image Gallery - allows user to browse for a specific image

What is a Web Service?

A Web Service is software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network. It has an interface described in a machine-processable format (specifically WSDL). Other systems interact with the Web service in a manner prescribed by its description using SOAP messages, typically conveyed using HTTP with an XML serialization in conjunction with other Web-related standards.

Does flick provide an API and Web Service?

Yes. Flickr is a photo-sharing community that enables users to upload, tag and comment on their photos and other users photos. The Flickr API provides the ability to view, manipulate, and search photo tags, display photos from a specific user or group, retrieve tags to construct URLs to particular photos or photo group. Flickr also provides an Authentication API for applications that need to perform restricted actions.

What is...XSD?

XSD (XML Schema Definition), specifies how to formally describe the elements in an Extensible Markup Language document. This description can be used to verify that each item of content in a document adheres to the description of the element in which the content is to be placed. XSD has several advantages over earlier XML schema languages, such as document type definition (DTD) or Simple Object XML (SOX). For example, it's more direct: XSD, in contrast to the earlier languages, is written in XML, which means that it doesn't require intermediary processing by a parser. Other benefits include self-documentation, automatic schema creation, and the ability to be queried through XML Transformations (XSLT). Despite the advantages of XSD, it has some detractors who claim, for example, that the language is unnecessarily complex.

What is...XML?

XML stands for EXtensible Markup Languag. It is a markup language much like HTML, but was designed to carry data, not to display data like HTML.

What is...XSL?

XSL (Extensible Stylesheet Language), formerly called Extensible Style Language, is a language for creating a style sheet that describes how data sent over the Web using the Extensible Markup Language (XML) is to be presented to the user. For example, in an XML page that describes the characteristics of one or more automobiles for an insurance company, a set of open and close tags might contain the name of an auto manufacturer. Using XSL, you could tell the Web browser that the auto manufacturer name should be displayed, where to display it on a page, and that it should be displayed in a bold font.

What is...XPATH?

XPath is a language that describes a way to locate and process items in Extensible Markup Language (XML) documents by using an addressing syntax based on a path through the document's logical structure or hierarchy.

Contrast XHTML and XML, hint also define DTD?

XML is a syntax: it defines how you write data, but not what data you can write. For example: <something otherthing="stuff">content</something>

HTML is a vocabulary: it defines what kinds of elements you can write (e.g. BODY, P, LI, etc.) but isn't very strict about how you write it (see "Tag soup");

XHTML is (approximately) the HTML vocabulary except written using the (much stricter) XML syntax. It's therefore (because the syntax is stricter) easier for software to parse, but it's harder for non-programmers to write correctly. It isn't very popular, because Internet Explorer doesn't support it properly.

HTML5 is the next-generation version of HTML (the current version of HTML 4), still in draft, not a standard yet, partially supported by some browsers (and so, experimental). HTML5 will explicitly support being served either using the XML syntax or as tag soup.

The <!DOCTYPE> declaration is not an HTML tag; it is an instruction to the web browser about what version of HTML the page is written in.

Optional Web Page assignment: consider adding a image gallery/viewer to your portfolio.

WoWslider used on Home Page at cim.saddleback.edu/~djacob9/

April 13, 2013
ASSIGNMENT: H6

 

May 13, 2013
ASSIGNMENT: H7

Compare/Contrast drupal and WordPress.

WordPress has the easiest interface (as compared to most other CMSs). Furthermore, it also has many plugins and themes that can help you customise your website even if you are not comfortable with code and Web development. In fact, WordPress has the shallowest learning curve of all the three CMSs under review. Plus, the official documentation is so well supplemented by several community blogs all across the Internet that if you ever run into any trouble, you can be sure that help is at hand.

WordPress is in active development, and fixes/patches are released frequently. On the downside, these patches seem even more necessary for WordPress because it appears to be more vulnerable in matters of security compared to Drupal or Joomla! — over 50,000 WP websites are infected with spam. However, this number can also be attributed to the fact that WordPress is the most popular CMS out there, and thus, is more prone to such attacks.

Drupal, too, is as user-friendly as a CMS can be. Modules such as Panels, Webform and Views make website creation very simple for the end user, and such features are expected to progress even further in upcoming releases.

On the downside, Drupal can’t beat WordPress when it comes to user-friendliness, and this is one of the main reasons why WP is winning converts. Unlike WP (which is run mostly by a small group of developers), Drupal is more of a framework CMS nurtured by a large community of developers. Therefore, Drupal grows as developers fix/create things that matter most to them.

Find a few impressive Web Site template sites and briefly discuss them. In general, CMS is being way over used and templates are being under ultilized. If all you need is a generic Web site then a template is the correct approach. If you need to keep track or users, blogs, or survey then you need a heavyweight CMS system.

Briefly review site builders rankings.

Comment on...

IPage - Best for:Small business owners and bloggers looking for a low-priced, feature-rich service to get their sites up quickly and affordably.

intuit E-Commerce - Website hosting with a shopping cart.

Wappalyzer - Wappalyzer is a browser extension that uncovers the technologies used on websites. It detects content management systems, web shops, web servers, JavaScript frameworks, analytics tools and many more.

Comment on top useage areas: Apache, Google Analytics, jQuery and Word Press (can click to see breakdown aka analytics).

Optional: Consider using a Flash, Dreamweaver or other template for your portfolio.

I used a flash graphic on each page in the header. It is very suttle. For the first 10 seconds, nothing moves. They an eye blinks. Ten seconds later the eyes start to very slowly move to give the impression that the visitor is being "watched". Here is the flash file eyes.swf. I also used JavaScript and PHP on my Portfolio Website.

 

May 13, 2013
ASSIGNMENT: H8

Optional:

  • Blooms Template assignment has been completed Blooms.

 

May 13, 2013
ASSIGNMENT: H9

Create a favicon icon - DONE: favicon.ico

May 13, 2013
ASSIGNMENT: P1

My Portfolio: My current Home Page is my Portfolio of work done while at Saddleback. In addition, I have included links to some of the websites that I have created outside of Saddleback. The website that I have created for the CIM298 Capstone class incorporates many of the skills that I have developed during my tenure while pursuing a Web Designer Certificate. You will note examples of Flash, CSS, JavaScript (which I havent taken yet), and on the functional Contact Page the PHP mailer file work! The website was assembled primarily using Dreamweaver; however, you will note the use of HTML5 attributes, which are not available in CS5.

 

May 13, 2013
ASSIGNMENT: P2

Hard Copy Sketch of HLD - Click image for larger view.

HLD Sketch

May 13, 2013
ASSIGNMENT: P3

Site Top Level Design and Theme - Click image for larger view.

Top Level Design

May 13, 2013
ASSIGNMENT: P4

Colors and Font Family: The website is done on a Black Weave background and the three main colors were selected from the image below. Lines and links are in the bottom most FUCHSIA #FE00FE, Links are AQUA #0EF7FF, and accents are LIME #00FE00.

color wheel

I have kepts the fonts very simple and readable by using font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif, on all pages but this Log Page, which uses font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace.

May 24, 2013
ASSIGNMENT: P5

My Portfolio Website is done in HTML5.0. All pages pass validation with the exception of two cautions regarding the <object> tag calling the Flash file for the header. The <video> tag used in HTML5.0 is not compatable with all browsers.

May 28, 2013
ASSIGNMENT: P6

All meta tags and titles have been checked. The website is solid and ready for scrutiny and use in IE, FireFox, Chrome and Safari.