Mamdani Web Inc

Will be Added Soon!

admin — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:04:32 PST

These Tutorials Will be updated very Soon. Please get back to check it out later! Thanks

Building your first web page – Part 3

admin — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:53:52 PST

Time to build your first HTML page by hand

I could go on with more theory and send half of you to sleep (trust me); instead you are now going to actually build your very first web page! One of the best ways to learn something is to actually do it, so don’t worry if things are a little foggy for you right now, as we build the web page, things will start to clear up.

Step 1: Let’s write some HTML code

Open up a text editor like Notepad on Windows and type this:

Your first hand coded page!

Hand coding web pages is easy!

I would like to thank everyone who helped me type this page.

Step 2: Save the file as an HTML document

Save your HTML file (save it to your desktop so you will be sure to find it!) using your text editor’s ‘Save as’ function and name the file webPage.html.

You can choose any name you want, as long as you follow these four rules:

Web page names cannot have spaces in them: ‘web page.html’ is no good but ‘webPage.html’ is perfecto.
The name has to end with either .html or .htm; by ending the file name this way you are telling the computer that this is a web page and that it should use a web page reader / browser to view it.
Don’t use funny symbol like: $, %, ^, & in your page names. Stick to standard letters and numbers.
In Notepad, please save the file as UTF-8.

Step 3: Marvel at your work and view your page

You should be able to now just double-click on the page or open it up with your web browser by going to its “File” menu, then select “Open file” and select your page.

You should be able to see your page in all its glory! Ok, not too much glory, but it was your first hand-coded page after all! If you don’t see anything, then compare what you typed with the original I gave you and just go over the process again. You will get it if you give yourself a chance!

If you’re not sure if what you created is looking like it’s supposed to, you can check out the final page here and compare it with your own.

Conclusion

Now that we’ve built our first web page, we can now move on to building our first web site.

CONTINUE: Lesson 3: Building Your First Website »

Building your first web page – Part 2

admin — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:46:25 PST

Tag Diagram

You may have noticed that HTML tags come in pairs; HTML has both an opening tag () and a closing tag (). The only difference between the opening and closing tags is that the closing tag contains an extra forward slash.

Some EXAMPLE HTML tags that might make things clearer:

 Makes text bold 
 Makes text italic 
 Tells the browser that this text is very important
-the browser usually
makes this text really big 
 Creates an HTML table - think of a spreadsheet

I hope you can see the pattern in the list above.

HTML tags are not just for placing and formatting text, HTML tags can be used to include other things like: animation, video, Flash, audio, and even multimedia programs.

Comparing HTML code and the web page it creates

Let’s start with a very simple web page to make it as easy for you to understand. First lets look at the final page: sample web page

Now that we’ve seen what the page looks like, let’s look at the HTML code used to create the page.

What you should do now is take a little time and compare the HTML page and the page with the code that is used to create the page. Notice where the tags are and what they are doing.

Some Theory: The structure of an HTML page

An HTML page is divided into two major sections:

1. The head: The head () section contains underlying information about the page which does not get displayed in the web page (except for the title of the page). It does, however, have an affect on how the web page is displayed.
2. The body: The body () section: this section contains all the stuff that appears on the actual web page when someone happens to come along with their web browser. We are talking about the actual text, images, flash movies, and so on that people will see. That, of course, means the tags used to format all this stuff are there too…

You will notice that both the head and the body sections of a web site are marked in the HTML page with their respective tags: ( ) and ( ).

If the body tag creates the body of an HTML page, and the head tag creates the head of an HTML page, how do you create an HTML page itself? You guessed it, use the HTML tags:

The ‘mother of all tags’ is the HTML () tag, and like all tags it must have a start tag () and an end tag (). The difference between the start and end tags is the forward slash (/), but you already knew that.

Every web page MUST begin and end with the HTML tag, otherwise the web browser (programs like Internet Explorer) will not be able to display the page. You also have to have the head tags and the body tags. All the other tags are optional.

So the bare-bones HTML page must have these tags and in this order:


	
		Title of your page

CONTINUE: Time to Build Your First HTML Page »

Building your first web page – Part 1

admin — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:30:56 PST

In this ‘hands-on’ module we will be building our first web page in no time. We just need to quickly cover a couple of points beforehand to help get our feet on the ground.

The three ways you can build a web page

1. Use a pre-made template: WHAT IS A WEB DESIGN TEMPLATE?

A web site design template is a pre-made website design template which can be customized to reflect your company’s branding. Website design templates can be found in various formats like Photoshop and HTML. Many times, these templates are compatible with HTML editors like GoLive, FrontPage, and Dreamweaver.

Web site templates can be very useful; they can be used by experienced web designers to ‘jump-start’ the creation of a website. They are also a way for people to put out great-looking web sites quickly with little or no knowledge of HTML and web design.

2. Use an HTML editor like FrontPage or Dreamweaver:

HTML editors make building web pages feel like (to a certain extent) creating a document in Microsoft Word … it’s made pretty easy. But the downside is that you lose a certain amount of control of what you’re doing and in some cases become dependent on the program.

3. Hand-code your HTML in a text editor like Notepad:

That means you type in the HTML code yourself. This is the approach we are going to use here, because it’s the quickest way to learn how to build web pages, and it is arguably the best way because you have the most control over what you’re doing.

Ok, now that we know the advantages of hand-coding web pages, let’s jump into just the bare minimum of theory, then we will build our first web page!

What are HTML tags?

HTML tags are specifically formatted text that creates ‘markers’ for web browser to read and interpret. These ‘markers’ tell the web browser what and how to display things on the web page. Tags are placed in and around text and images (text and images are some of the ‘things’) that your want to have appear in your web pages.

HTML has a whole bunch of tags (just like the alphabet has a whole bunch of letters) that the web designer can use to build web pages. As mentioned above, tags have a specific structure so that when the browser is reading an HTML page, it knows the tags from the normal text.

Tags are typically words or abbreviations of words placed between angled brackets. So for example: to make text bold, HTML has the ‘bold’ tag that looks like this:

This text will be bolded

Another commonly used tag is the paragraph tag:

This is a paragraph of text.

CONTINUE: HTML Tags Diagram »

Web Design Basic Concepts – Part 3

admin — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:28:07 PST

A cheaper option

Some people may not want to buy a domain or pay for hosting because they only have a personal web site for fun or practice. You can still get your website live on the web by using a free hosting service that allows you to create what is called a ’sub-domain’. A sub-domain is just a domain that is part of another domain. So if mamdaniweb.com offered sub-domain hosting you could have an address like:

www.mamdaniweb.com/yourWebsite/

Or it could be like:

http://yourWebsite.mamdaniweb.com

Whichever way the free hosting service decides to do it. The point is that your web site domain is really a part of the parent domain, in this case killersites.com. Doing it this way, you don’t need to buy a domain name, and you don’t need to pay for hosting.

This is fine for fun or project websites, but if you are serious about your web site (say it’s your business website) using sub-domains is like taking someone else’s business card and writing your name on it! You figure it out …

One last point, I’ve heard of free hosting services that will allow you to host proper domains with them for free and without annoying ads that other free hosts will insert into your pages. But I’ve never used them, and in my opinion you always get what you pay for. In the internet’s recent past there was once a crop of free service providers that would give away access to the web via dial-up, they were notorious for bad service and all have since gone bankrupt … I wonder why?

Moving your website files onto the server

After you have your domain name registered and your hosting service in place, the last step is to upload the website onto the server. You can transfer your web site to your host’s server using an FTP program.

An FTP program is a type of software that is used to move files from one computer to another over the Internet. FTP is the acronym for: File Transfer Protocol; this just means that this is a ‘way’ of moving files.

There are several free FTP programs you can use to move your files and many HTML editors and web design programs like Dreamweaver have FTP capabilities built in.

One option you probably have to ‘FTP’ your files to the server is Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer 5 and up have an FTP program built right in. You can use it by typing in the FTP address of the server in the address bar preceded by the keyword: FTP. Here is an example:

FTP://207.35.15.67/yourwebsite/

LESSON 2: « Building Your First Web page

Web Design Basic Concepts – Part 2

admin — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:23:03 PST

Getting your web site ‘live’ on the Web

With the nerd background details under our belts, we can now learn about the two steps to going live on the Web:

Register your domain.
Rent some server space.

1. Registering your domain

There are many companies out there that allow you to register the domain name for your web site. Prices vary, as does the quality of service, but at the end of the day, they all handle the details of getting your domain name listed in the giant address book I spoke about earlier.

These days, you will find that many of the names you may be interested in registering are already taken. As I mentioned above, domain names have to be unique and many have been slurped up.

What is the difference between .com, .net, .org, etc.?

Practically speaking, there is really no difference these days. Search engines don’t discriminate between a .COM address and a .NET address. The only thing you might consider is that people tend to type in .COM automatically since it was the first publicly known domain extension. So when registering a domain name, I would go for the .COM first and if it was taken, I would then try for any of the others. (.net, .org, .tv, etc. …)

You probably guessed; a .COM address is not the same domain name of the same name with a different extension. So for example:

www.MamdaniWeb.com is not the same place as www.MamdaniWeb.net

As such, each of the addresses can be registered separately.

2. Renting server space to ‘host’ your web site

You need to rent space on a server so that it can serve your web site to the World Wide Web; this is often called ‘hosting’. Companies that provide this service are often called ‘host’ or hosting companies.

After you’ve registered your domain, all you need to do is contact a hosting company and tell them your domain name. They will be able to guide you through the process and you should be live on the web in no time – typically within a week or less.

CONTINUE: A Cheaper Option »

Web Design Basic Concepts – Part 1

admin — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:19:47 PST

An introduction to domain names, web servers, and website hosting

I assume that you know nothing about the inner workings of the Internet; maybe you’re not even sure how people actually get to web sites, where the web sites are actually sitting, what the web is in the first place….

In this article I am going to give you the minimum you need to get your ‘feet wet’ so that we can quickly get into building web sites. I won’t go into painful micro-details that would put all but true nerds to sleep, again there is just enough so that you have a basic understanding of what’s going on.

What is the web?

In a nutshell, the web is a whole bunch of interconnected computers talking to one another. The computers (on the web) are typically connected by phone lines, digital satellite signals, cables, and other types of data-transfer mechanisms. A ‘data-transfer mechanism’ is a nerd’s way of saying: a way to move information from point A to point B to point C and so on.

The computers that make up the web can be connected all the time (24/7), or they can be connected only periodically. The computers that are connected all the time are typically called a ’server’. Servers are computers just like the one you’re using now to read this article, with one major difference, they have a special software installed called ’server’ software.

What is the function of server software / programs?

Server software is created to ’serve’ web pages and web sites. Basically, the server computer has a bunch of web sites loaded on it and it just waits for people (via web browsers) to request or ask for a particular page. When the browser requests a page the server sends it out.

How does the web surfer find a web site?

The short answer is: by typing in the URL, or in other words, the web site address. So for example, if you wanted to find the web site www.MamdaniWeb.com, you would type in the address into your web browser’s address bar or maybe use your ‘favorites’ or ‘bookmarks’ link to MamdaniWeb.

There are other ways to find web sites (like search engines,) but behind the scenes web sites are all being found by going to the web site’s official address. That brings us our last nerd detail: how does a website get an official address so that the rest of the web can find it?

Registering your domain name

If you ever wondered what the heck registering a domain was all about … you probably figured it out by now! But just in case – registering a domain name gets you an official address for your web site on the World Wide Web. With this ‘official’ address, the rest of the web can find you.

Like your home address is unique in the real world, there also can’t be any duplicate addresses on the Internet, otherwise no one would know where to go! In other words, domain names are unique addresses on the web.

Why does registering a domain name cost money?

If you want to have your own unique address on the web, your own domain name, it will cost a few bucks for each year you want to ‘own’ the name. The cost of registering a domain name ranges from less than $10 USD to about $30 USD per year. You can register a domain from 1 to 10 years.

The reason for the cost is that the central ‘address book’ of all the world’s domain names needs to be updated – somebody’s got to pay for that! You may have noticed that I just snuck in a little extra piece of information: the giant ‘web address book’ of domains.

That leads us to our last bit of nerd information: when you type in a website’s domain name or click on a link that takes you to that domain name, your browser starts asking servers where that particular domain name is sitting (on the web) and the servers are then able to tell the browser where to go by referring to the giant address book I mentioned above.

CONTINUE: Getting Your Website Live on the Web »

How to build websites!

admin — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:14:07 PST