WEB DEVELOPMENT

WHAT IS INTERNET?
• The Internet is essentially a global network of computing resources.
• You can think of the Internet as a physical collection of routers and circuits as a set of
shared resources.
• A network of networks based on the TCP/IP communications protocol.
• A community of people who use and develop those networks.
• The Internet is essentially a global network of computing resources.
• The global system of interconnected computer networks that use the Transmission
Control Protocol/Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to link billions of devices worldwide. Ex.
[Link] or [Link]

HISTORY OF THE INTERNET

The development of the Internet dates from 1969. The Advanced Research Projects
Administration (ARPA) wanted to develop a distributed, decentralized network, so that
communications could be maintained in the aftermath of a nuclear attack. Up until around 1969,
networks had been point-to-point networks. The desire to have a distributed, decentralized
network was important so that if one node of the system was down, information could still travel
through the available nodes. The network that ARPA created was termed ARPANET, and
eventually became the Internet.

The adoption of Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) as the Internet

standard protocol in 1983 heralded the coming to full maturity of the Internet (Dilligan, 1998). At
that time, there were several hundred nodes to the Internet, but all shared an affiliation with the
military or ARPA. In 1986, access to the Internet was allowed to all universities, and shortly
thereafter, to the public at large. By 1990, the number of sites on the Internet had grown to over
three hundred thousand. (Dilligan, 1998).

Difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web

The terms Internet and World Wide Web, although often used synonymously, are
different. The term Internet is a nominalized abbreviation of InterNetworking, and came into use
in 1982. The Internet identifies not a single network, but a vast network of networks. These
networks communicate with each other via the existing telecommunications networks. The
Internet offers several different services including e-mail and File Transfer Protocol (FTP). The
World Wide Web, commonly known as “the Web,” is the largest and fastest growing area of the
Internet (Worsley, 2000). The Web uses the network of the Internet to access and link Web sites.
The Internet essentially provides the infrastructure over which the Web is able to operate. The
Web is a way of organizing information so that any workstation or computer around the world
can access it through the Internet via any means of connectivity.

WEB FEATURES
The first Web pages contained little more than text and very basic formatting. Today,
there are many different things that can be on a Web page, including downloadable files,
programs, graphics, hypertext links, text, interactive animations, sound sequences, video clips,
and photographs.
Five broad descriptive features describe the Web and its capabilities (DiNucci & Giudice &
Stiles, 1997):
(a) It is based on hypertext – The rules that specify how to access and transfer files over
the Web are called Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). HTTP is an application-level
protocol, and allows systems to be built independently of the data being transferred.
The term hypertext indicates that any text in a Web document can be made to link to
any other document that is connected to the Internet. Hyperlink is the term used to
identify text that links to another location on the Web.

(b) It supports all kinds of media - The basic format for text that is published on the web
is an American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII). The ASCII format is
modified with Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), to organize and structure data on

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the user’s screen. Browser software communicates with Web servers to interpret
data received from them and allows users to open commonly used formats and to
move around through the Web. If a particular format cannot be read by the browser,
a free, downloadable helper program (or “plug-in”) is often available. The helper
program is an application that is launched by the browser to display files that it can’t
read by itself.

(c) It can be interactive - Unlike books and television, the Web as a medium allows
interactive communication. Publications on the Web can respond to input by the
user. The input from the user can be simple, such as typing in a phone number on a
form. Or, the input from a user can be more detailed, such as writing a book review
online. On certain Web pages, users have the ability to get precise information by
citing preferences.
For example, a user wanting to book an airlines flight on the Web can submit
departure and return dates and can receive available flight information from the
databases that house the information.

(d) It is nonlinear - hyperlinks on Web pages allow users are able to choose their own
path through the available information. There may be reasons to have a user directed
linearly from page to page, such as with an online PowerPoint presentation, or to
follow the sequence of several Web pages required to register online with an e-
commerce company. But users typically appreciate as much freedom as is possible to
move about in whatever fashion they desire. It is therefore important that designers
create Web pages that encourage a visitor to stay.

(e) Its pages can be designed - Web designers have many options available for creating
content on a Web site. It is worthwhile to create a display with content that is
attractive to users. Modifications and improvements can be made as often as are
necessary.

INTERNET-BASED SERVICES
Some of the basic services available to Internet users are −
• Email − A fast, easy, and inexpensive way to communicate with other Internet users
around the world.
• Telnet − Allows a user to log into a remote computer as though it were a local system.
• FTP − Allows a user to transfer virtually every kind of file that can be stored on a
computer from one Internet-connected computer to another.
• UseNet news − A distributed bulletin board that offers a combination news and
discussion service on thousands of topics.
• World Wide Web (WWW) − A hypertext interface to Internet information resources.

BASIC TERMINOLOGY

What is WWW?
➢ WWW stands for World Wide Web. A technical definition of the World Wide Web is −
All the resources and users on the Internet that are using the Hypertext Transfer
Protocol (HTTP).
➢ A broader definition comes from the organization that Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee
helped found, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): The World Wide Web is the
universe of network-accessible information, an embodiment of human knowledge.
➢ In simple terms, The World Wide Web is a way of exchanging information between
computers on the Internet, tying them together into a vast collection of interactive
multimedia resources.

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What is HTTP?
➢ HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. This is the protocol being used to transfer
hypertext documents that makes the World Wide Web possible.
➢ A standard web address such as [Link] is called a URL and here the
prefix http indicates its protocol.

What is URL?
➢ URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator, and is used to specify addresses on the World
Wide Web. A URL is the fundamental network identification for any resource connected
to the web (e.g., hypertext pages, images, and sound files).

A URL will have the following format

protocol://hostname/other_information

What is PROTOCOL?
➢ The protocol specifies how information is transferred from a link. The protocol used for
web resources is HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Other protocols compatible with
most web browsers include FTP, telnet, newsgroups, and Gopher.
➢ The protocol is followed by a colon, two slashes, and then the domain name. The
domain name is the computer on which the resource is located. Links to particular files
or subdirectories may be further specified after the domain name. The directory names
are separated by single forward slashes.

PARTS OF URL
Protocol Subdomain Domain Name Domain Suffix/TLD File Path

Ex. https:// www. google .com/ [Link]

What is DOMAIN SUFFIX?

➢ A domain suffix is the last part of a domain name and is often referred to as a "Top-Level
Domain" or TLD. Popular domain suffixes include ".com - commercial," ".net - network,"
and ".org - organization," but there are dozens of domain suffixes approved by Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

What is WEBSITE?
➢ Currently you are on our website [Link] which is a collection of various
pages written in HTML markup language. This is a location on the web where people can
find tutorials on latest technologies. Similarly, there are millions of websites available on
the web.
➢ A collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain
name and published on at least one web server.
➢ Each page available on the website is called a web page and first page of any website is
called home page for that site.

What is WEB SERVER?

➢ Every Website sits on a computer known as a Web server. This server is always
connected to the internet. Every Web server that is connected to the Internet is given a
unique address made up of a series of four numbers between 0 and 256 separated by
periods. For example, [Link] or [Link].

What is WEB BROWSER?

➢ Web Browsers are software installed on your PC. To access the Web you need a web
browsers, such as Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox.
➢ On the Web, when you navigate through pages of information this is commonly known
as browsing or surfing.

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What is SMTP SERVER?

➢ SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Server. This server takes care of
delivering emails from one server to another server. When you send an email to an
email address, it is delivered to its recipient by a SMTP Server.

What is ISP?
➢ ISP stands for Internet Service Provider. They are the companies who provide you
service in terms of internet connection to connect to the internet. You will buy space on
a Web Server from any Internet Service Provider. This space will be used to host your
Website.
➢ Ex. PLDT and Globe

What is HTML?
➢ HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. This is the language in which we write
web pages for any Website. Even the page you are reading right now is written in HTML.
➢ This is a subset of Standard Generalized Mark-Up Language (SGML) for electronic
publishing, the specific standard used for the World Wide Web.

What is HYPERLINK?
➢ A hyperlink or simply a link is a selectable element in an electronic document that serves
as an access point to other electronic resources. Typically, you click the hyperlink to
access the linked resource. Familiar hyperlinks include buttons, icons, image maps, and
clickable text links.

What is DNS?
➢ DNS stands for Domain Name System. When someone types in your domain name,
[Link], your browser will ask the Domain Name System to find the IP that
hosts your site. When you register your domain name, your IP address should be put in
a DNS along with your domain name. Without doing it your domain name will not be
functioning properly.

What is W3C?
➢ W3C stands for World Wide Web Consortium which is an international consortium of
companies involved with the Internet and the Web.
➢ The W3C was founded in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee, the original architect of the World
Wide Web. The organization's purpose is to develop open standards so that the Web
evolves in a single direction rather than being splintered among competing factions. The
W3C is the chief standards body for HTTP and HTML.

WEB - HOW IT WORKS ?

On the simplest level, the Web physically consists of the following components −
• Your personal computer − This is the PC at which you sit to see the web.
• A Web browser − A software installed on your PC which helps you to browse the Web.
• An internet connection − This is provided by an ISP and connects you to the internet to
reach to any Website.
• A Web server − This is the computer on which a website is hosted.
• Routers & Switches − They are the combination of software and hardware who take your
request and pass to appropriate Web server.

The Web is known as a client-server system. Your computer is the client and the remote
computers that store electronic files are the servers.

HOW THE WEB WORKS

When you enter something like [Link] the request goes to one of many special computers
on the Internet known as Domain Name Servers (DNS). All these requests are routed through
various routers and switches. The domain name servers keep tables of machine names and

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their IP addresses, so when you type in [Link] it gets translated into a number, which
identifies the computers that serve the Google Website to you.

When you want to view any page on the Web, you must initiate the activity by requesting a
page using your browser. The browser asks a domain name server to translate the domain
name you requested into an IP address. The browser then sends a request to that server for the
page you want, using a standard called Hypertext Transfer Protocol or HTTP.

The server should constantly be connected to the Internet, ready to serve pages to visitors.
When it receives a request, it looks for the requested document and returns it to the Web
browser. When a request is made, the server usually logs the client's IP address, the document
requested, and the date and time it was requested. This information varies server to server.
An average Web page actually requires the Web browser to request more than one file from
the Web server and not just the HTML / XHTML page, but also any images, style sheets, and
other resources used in the web page. Each of these files including the main page needs a URL
to identify each item. Then each item is sent by the Web server to the Web browser and Web
browser collects all this information and displays them in the form of Web page.

In Short
We have seen how a Web client - server interaction happens. We can summarize these steps as
follows −
• A user enters a URL into a browser (for example, [Link]. This request is passed to a
domain name server.
• The domain name server returns an IP address for the server that hosts the Website (for
example, [Link]).
• The browser requests the page from the Web server using the IP address specified by
the domain name server.
• The Web server returns the page to the IP address specified by the browser requesting
the page. The page may also contain links to other files on the same server, such as
images, which the browser will also request.
• The browser collects all the information and displays to your computer in the form of
Web page.

WEB - BROWSER TYPES

Web Browsers are software installed on your PC. To access the Web, you need a web browser,
such as Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox.
On the Web, when you navigate through pages of information, this is commonly known as web
browsing or web surfing.
There are four leading web browsers − Explorer, Firefox, Netscape, and Safari, but there are
many others browsers available.

Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer (IE) is a product from software giant Microsoft. This is the most
commonly used browser in the universe. This was introduced in 1995 along with Windows 95
launch and it has passed Netscape popularity in 1998.

Netscape
Netscape is one of the original Web browsers. This is what Microsoft designed Internet
Explorer to compete against. Netscape and IE comprise the major portion of the browser
market. Netscape was introduced in 1994.

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Mozilla
Mozilla is an open-source Web browser, designed for standards compliance,
performance and portability. The development and testing of the browser is coordinated by
providing discussion forums, software engineering tools, releases and bug tracking. Browsers
based on Mozilla code is the second largest browser family on the Internet today, representing
about 30% of the Internet community.

Konqueror
Konqueror is an Open Source web browser with HTML 4.01 compliance, supporting Java
applets, JavaScript, CSS 1, CSS 2.1, as well as Netscape plugins. This works as a file manager as
well as it supports basic file management on local UNIX filesystems, from simple cut/copy and
paste operations to advanced remote and local network file browsing.

Firefox
Firefox is a new browser derived from Mozilla. It was released in 2004 and has grown to
be the second most popular browser on the Internet.

Safari
Safari is a web browser developed by Apple Inc. and included in Mac OS X. It was first
released as a public beta in January 2003. Safari has very good support for latest technologies
like XHTML, CSS2 etc.

Opera
Opera is smaller and faster than most other browsers, yet it is full- featured. Fast, user-
friendly, with keyboard interface, multiple windows, zoom functions, and more. Java and non
Java-enabled versions available. Ideal for newcomers to the Internet, school children, handicap
and as a front-end for CD-Rom and kiosks.

Lynx
Lynx is a fully-featured World Wide Web browser for users on Unix, VMS, and other
platforms running cursor-addressable, character-cell terminals or emulators.

Google Chrome is developed by Google and its beta version was first released on September
2, 2008 for Microsoft Windows. Today, chrome is known to be one of the most popular web
browser with its global share of more than 50%.

Web - Server Types

Every Website sits on a computer known as a Web server. This server is always connected to
the internet. Every Web server that is connected to the Internet is given a unique address made
up of a series of four numbers between 0 and 255 separated by periods. For example,
[Link] or [Link].

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Apache HTTP Server

This is the most popular web server in the world developed by the Apache Software
Foundation. Apache web server is an open source software and can be installed on almost all
operating systems including Linux, Unix, Windows, FreeBSD, Mac OS X and more. About 60% of
the web server machines run the Apache Web Server.

Internet Information Services

The Internet Information Server (IIS) is a high performance Web Server from Microsoft.
This web server runs on Windows NT/2000 and 2003 platforms ( and may be on upcoming new
Windows version also). IIS comes bundled with Windows NT/2000 and 2003; Because IIS is
tightly integrated with the operating system so it is relatively easy to administer it.

lighttpd
The lighttpd, pronounced lighty is also a free web server that is distributed with the
FreeBSD operating system. This open source web server is fast, secure and consumes much less
CPU power. Lighttpd can also run on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris operating systems.

Sun Java System Web Server

This web server from Sun Microsystems is suited for medium and large websites. Though
the server is free it is not open source. It however, runs on Windows, Linux and Unix platforms.
The Sun Java System web server supports various languages, scripts and technologies required
for Web 2.0 such as JSP, Java Servlets, PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby on Rails, ASP and Coldfusion etc.

Jigsaw Server
Jigsaw (W3C's Server) comes from the World Wide Web Consortium. It is open source
and free and can run on various platforms like Linux, Unix, Windows, Mac OS X Free BSD etc.
Jigsaw has been written in Java and can run CGI scripts and PHP programs.

THE WEB
The Web is known as a client-server system. Your computer is the client and the remote
computers that store electronic files are the servers.

The Web physically consists of the following components −

• Your personal computer − This is the PC at which you sit to see the web.
• A Web browser − A software installed on your PC which helps you to browse the Web.
• An internet connection − This is provided by an ISP and connects you to the internet to
reach to any Website.
• A Web server − This is the computer on which a website is hosted.
• Routers & Switches − They are the combination of software and hardware who take your
request and pass to appropriate Web server.

WEB - SITE ADVANTAGES

• Business is Open 24x7
This means that once you put your business onsite, then your business is open 7 days a
week and 365 days a year. Even if you are in different locations of the world then you will
be able to serve your customers on 24x7 hours basis.

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• Increased Customer Base

Because anyone in the world can see your website so you will gain customers from other
states and countries while you are putting in the same amount of effort and money.

• Tremendous Cost Saving

This is one of the biggest advantages of having a business online. You do not need to
keep a big man power and lot of resources to maintain a business on site. There are
many other cost saving opportunities while keeping business online. Think of how many
cards you mail out to let customers know about your sale. All of that can be eliminated by
putting the sale information on your website and inviting your customers to visit it.

• Advertising Opportunities
Apart from saving your advertising cost, you have additional opportunities to run
advertisements from other companies and start making money. If you ever advertised in
a local newspaper, you know the costs. You are being charged per line, per inch, and per
color. On the Web, there is no limit to how much you can put. So whenever there is a
new product or service, then you can advertise it in a better way.

• Creates a Brand Image

Internet is a great medium through which you can create any image of yourself which
you want. It is all in your hands. For example, you can design a professional website, add
helpful content, and your company will immediately take a step up in the image it
represents. No matter how small your business is, with the right tools and a great desire
you can make it look like a corporation on the Web.

• Customer Satisfaction
If you have a really good site online, then you can give your customers a lot of
satisfaction in terms of customer care. You can keep online help, FAQ, and other
important information which is useful for your customers. You can create online forums
for open discussion and you can conduct customer survey to take customer feedback etc.

• Showcase Your Work

Whether you are a real estate agent, construction business owner or a beauty salon
specialist − you can put your work on display when you have a website. Anytime a
potential client wants to see your past work and projects, simply refer him or her to your
site. No need to scan and mail pictures, or bring your client to a finished building project.

WEB - SKILLS REQUIRED

This is not required that you should have knowledge of all the listed skills. If you want to
develop a simple Website, then you would needs just first four skills listed here. Rest of the
skills are required if you want to go for a bigger and more interactive Website.

• Computer Operations − All you need to know is how to operate a computer − Windows,
Linux or Macintosh. This depends on which Web Server you want to host your website.
So you should have basic knowledge of that system only. You should be well acquainted
of basic operations like creating file, deleting file, updating file, directory creation, file
permission etc.

• Remote Access − Most of the times your Web Server will be accessed from remote site
only. You should be well aware how to connect a computer from remote site. So at least
you should have basic knowledge of telnet utility to connect to a remote machine. There
are many service providers who will provide you control panel to manage your Website.

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• File Uploading & Downloading − As I told you most of the times your Web Server will be
on remote site. So you would need to upload and download all the files related to your
Website. So at least you should have basic knowledge of FTP utility to connect to a
remote machine and download or upload your files. Almost service providers give you
facility to upload your files on your Web server.

• HTML / XHTML Knowledge − These are the markup languages which you will use to build
your website.

• CSS Knowledge − Cascading Style Sheet knowledge is required to achieve many results
which are not possible through HTML or XHTML.

• PHP Script − Now-a-days many sites are being developed using PHP language. This script
helps you to create an interactive Website.

• PERL Script − PERL is another language which is being highly used to develop interactive
Web Applications.

• Java or VB Scripts − These scripts are required to perform user level validations and to
add more interactivity in your Website. So a web developer is desired to have
knowledge of any of the client side scripts.

• AJAX Technology − This is the latest technology in the web. Google and Yahoo are using
this technology to give a better browsing experience to their site visitors.

• ASP or JSP − These are another technologies to be used to develop interactive Websites.

• Flash Knowledge − You can plan to use Macromedia Flash to build your Website. This is a
bit time consuming to learn this technology but once you learnt then you can develop
very beautiful and attractive websites using Flash.

• HTTP Protocol − As you grow you are desired to have more knowledge about Web. So I
would suggest you to go through the web backbone i.e. HTTP protocol as well.

WEB - TOOLS REQUIRED

The following tools and infrastructure will help you in developing a Website −
• Computer Machine − If you do not have computer available and you received this tutorial
printed on a paper then I would say that first of all you would need a computer machine
running either Windows or Linux or UNIX or Macintosh system or any other operating
system.

• Internet Connection − If you are not connected to the internet and you received this
tutorial printed on a paper then I would say that this is second and another most
important tool would need to connect to the Internet and to you Web Server where you
will host your website. For this purpose you can buy either a dial up connection or
broadband connection of high speed connectivity based on your requirement and
budget.

• A Web Server − Apart from basic Internet connectivity you will need one Web Server to
keep all the files related to your Website. So you would need to buy space on a Web
Server. There are millions of ISPs who are in business of selling web space at competitive
prices.

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• A Text Editor − This is another most important tool which you will need to develop your
Website. If you are using Windows then you can use notepad as a text editor, or if you
are using Linux/Unix then vi editor is one of my favorite editors. You will need this editor
to write your HTML, PHP or ASP pages or for any other editing purpose. For practice
purpose, you can use Online HTML Editor.

• A Web Browser − You will need this tool to see the result of your HTML file. So you
should have either Internet Explorer or Firefox etc. installed on your computer.

• Web Authoring Tools − If you don't want to use a simple Text Editor to edit your HTML
files then there are many commercial Web Authoring Tools available. These tools are also
called HTML editors. Microsoft's FrontPage and Macromedia Dreamweaver are both a
visual HTML WYSIWYG and HTML source code editor. These editors helps you to develop
your HTML pages vary rapidly.

• Secure telnet client − If you are connecting to your Web server directly then you can use
a tool called PuTTY - is a free and open-source terminal emulator, serial console and
network file transfer application.

• Secure FTP client − If you are connecting to your Web server directly using FTP client to
upload or download your web files then you can use a tool called PSFTP (Secure File
Transfer Protocol). Simply put, after you design your website, you need to send it to the
Web and your FTP program will do just that for you.

WEB - DOMAIN NAMES

A domain name is the part of your Internet address that comes after "www". For
example, in [Link] the domain name is [Link]. A domain name
becomes your Business Address so care should be taken to select a domain name. Your domain
name should be easy to remember and easy to type.

How to Get a Domain Name?

When you plan to put a site online, this is one of the important steps to buy a domain name.
This is always not necessary that whatever domain name you are looking that is available so in
that case you will have to opt for any other good domain name.
When you buy a domain name it is registered and when domain names are registered they are
added to a large domain name register, and information about your site − including your
Internet IP address is stored on a DNS server and your contact information etc. is registered
with your registrar. You can buy domain name from any domain registrar like GoDaddy.

Domain Extension Types

There are many types of domain extensions you can choose for your domain name. This
depends on your business nature.
For example, if you are going to register a domain name for education purpose then you can
choose .edu extension.
Below is a reference of the correct usage of certain extensions. But there is no hard and fast
rule to go for any extension. Most commonly used is .com
• .com − Stands for company/commercial, but it can be used for any website.
• .net − Stands for network and is usually used for a network of sites.
• .org − Stands for organization and is supposed to be for non-profit bodies.
• .us, .in − They are based on your country names so that you can go for country specific
domain extensions
• .biz − A newer extension on the Internet and can be used to indicate that this site is
purely related to business.

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• .info − Stands for information. This domain name extension can be very useful, and as a
new comer it's doing well.
• .tv − Stands for Television and are more appropriate for TV channel sites.

Newer domain extensions such as .biz .info and .us etc. have more name choices available as
many of the popular domains have yet to be taken and most of the them are available at very
nominal prices.

Choosing a Domain Name

The domain name will be your business address. Hence, it is imperative that you choose the
domain name with utmost care. Many people think it is important to have keywords in a
domain. Keywords in the domain name are usually important, but it usually can be done while
keeping the domain name short, memorable, and free of hyphens.

Using keywords in your domain name gives you a strong competitive advantage over your
competitors. Having your keywords in your domain name can increase click through rates on
search engine listings and paid ads as well as make it easier to using your keywords in get
keyword rich descriptive inbound links.

Avoid buying long and confusing domain names. May people separate the words in their
domain names using dashes or hyphen. In the past the domain name itself was a significant
ranking factor but now with advanced search engines, it is not a significant factor anymore.

Keep two to three words in your domain name − it will be more memorable. Some of the most
memorable websites do a great job of branding by creating their own words. Examples include
eBay, Yahoo!, Expedia, Slashdot, Fark, Wikipedia, Google...

You should be able to say it over the telephone once and the other person should know how to
spell it and they should know what you sell. If you can do that and work keywords in there,
good for you. If you can't, skip the keywords.

What are Sub-Domains

You can divide your domain into many sub domains based on your requirement. If you are
doing multiple business using the same domain, then it would be useful to have sub-domains
for every business. Following are examples of some sub-domains –

You must have seen [Link] as a main domain but google has created many subdomains
based on their business. Some of them are as follows –

• [Link] − This sub domain is being used for Google Adwords.

• [Link] − This sub domain is being used for Google Groups.
• [Link] − This sub domain is being used for Google Images.

WEB - SITE CONSTRUCTION

What to Put on Your Website?

What you would have on your website totally depends on your business and the nature of your
website. Here is a list of pages that you might want to create for your website.

• Attractive Home Page: Always required for every website.

• List of Product and Services along with complete detail.
• Complete Pricing Information.
• About your company and nature of business including your achievements.
• About your staff and if possible their experience.
• Your complete contact information.

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• Frequently Asked Questions.

• Success Stories and Feedback from Customers.

Finally, make your site useful and interesting for your customers. Your site visitors are your
customers and they should find each and everything they are looking for. Customer satisfaction
should be your prime concern.

How to Design Your Website?

You should not simply start developing your website, otherwise you will end up with a bogus
website. First, you should put a complete plan and your design on a paper or in an electronic
document.

In this section, we have listed out a few points which can help you to design a better website −
• Consider what technology you are going to use to develop your website. Adopt one
which gives you better flexibility and rapid development opportunities and then design
it accordingly.

• Design a generic framework so that in future you can enhance and modify your website
by putting minimal effort.
• Design a site to keep required performance in mind. If you are designing database driven
website then lot of effort has to put to design good database schemas.
• Keep your design as simple as possible so that any new developer should become
familiar with your design as soon as possible.
• Identify repeatable components of your website and then keep them separate and try to
use them wherever possible.
• Identify the nature and qualification of your site visitors and give importance to look and
feel accordingly.

• Think from the perspective of a site visitor. If you were a visitor, then how would you like
to see this website? If the same site belongs to somebody else, then would you like to
spend some time on such site?
• You should create a search engine friendly website.

Your presentation should be unique and attractive, otherwise there are a lot of websites
available on the Internet and it will be difficult for you to retain a site visitor for more than a
minute.

How to Make a Website Interactive?

Many statistics show that if you are able to retain your site visitors for a long time, then they do
bigger shopping and visit the site again and again. So make sure you have done something for
your site visitors to do on your website. Offering a lot of quality information can serve as a great
magnet for visitors.

Here is a list of some interactive tools that you can add to your website without any
programming skills or incurring any costs −
• Poll
• Forum
• Guest book
• Chat room
• Greeting cards
• Tell-a-friend about this site
• Feedback form
• Live customer service
• Daily joke or daily cartoon
• Daily news headlines

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• Site Search Engine

• Mailing List
• Automated Frequently Asked Questions
• The list can go on and on, depending on what will attract your type of visitors.

How to Code Your Website?

Finally, when you start coding for your website, you should be well aware of the following tips
for a better website −
• Your site should meet all the quality requirements defined by W3C. Today we are
using XHTML to develop any website. XHTML is just a cleaner version of HTML.
• You should keep validating your source code using W3C Validator.
• Do use appropriate comments but avoid using to many comments inside HTML files.
• Keep your style sheets and JAVA or VB scripts into separate files and then include them
where ever is required.
• Do not use too much graphics in your web pages.
• Try to keep your web pages static instead of generating them dynamically.
• Make sure there is no broken link on any web page.

• Test your developed web page in major browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla,
Netscape, etc.
• Test your all the scripts for all the possible scenarios. Do not host any page without
complete testing.

COMMON WEB DESIGN LANGUAGES

([Link]
you-need-them/)
1. HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)
• Makes up the layout and structure for your website.
• This language is dynamic and slows you to create a beautiful website using less
code.
• Used to create a starting point for the website and is what most of your static
pages start from.

2. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)

• Is the language developers can use to style a website.
• The style sheet language describes how your website is presented and its layout.
• Is used hand in hand with HTML to add colors, backgrounds, layouts, font sizes
and more.
• A core technology web developers use to design websites.

3. JAVA
• Is one of the most popular programming language.
• It is used to develop website content, games, apps and software.
• Is used in the production of most Android apps. Studies have shown over 15
billion devices are using Java in some form or other.
• Is portable and can be run on multiple software platforms.

4. JAVASCRIPT
• Is used in many aspects of web development.
• Web developers use this language to add interactive elements to their websites.
• User engagement is important to your business and your web developer should
be incorporating JavaScript elements in your design.

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 WEB DEVELOPMENT

5. PYTHON
• Is one of the easiest languages to used and work with.
• Can create a framework for basically any website need.
• This language uses simple and straightforward syntax, making it easy for web
developers to work with and explain to their users.
• Some famous Python websites: Pinterest and Instagram

6. SQL (Structured Query Language)

• Is a database query language that is used when your website is computing large
amount of data.
• Using SQL allows you to gather data from different databases and use it to cater
your website to your target audience.
• This language is not used alone; instead, it paired with others to get the most out
of your customer database and website development.

7. PHP (Personal Home Page)

• Is often used on data-heavy websites or for app development.
• This is an open-source language that can be easily modified to meet the needs of
your business or website.
• Large websites like WordPress and Facebook use PHP to manage and process
their data.
8. .NET
• (Pronounced dot net) is a framework that can be used to develop a wide range of
applications from the web to mobile to Windows-based applications.
• It can work with several languages such as C#, [Link], C++ and F#.
• Has a huge collection of predefined class libraries which support for simple and
complex data structure.

9. ANGULAR
• Is a TypeScript-based open-source front-end app platform.
• Is a complete rewrite from the same team that built AngularJS.
• Is a platform that makes it easy to build apps with the web.
• Empowers developers to build applications that live on the web, mobile or the
desktop.

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PARTS OF A WEB PAGE

The picture below shows you the main parts of a typical web page

1. The Banner
This is an area at the top of the page that is often the same on all the pages of the web
site. It may contain a company logo. It often has a search box located there and
sometimes a hot spot to take you back to the home page.

2. The Menu system

This area is concerned with providing a method of moving around (navigating) the site.
There are a number of menu styles in common use. These are explained a little later on.

3. The Content area

This is where the main content of the web page is located. Content can be in a number of
different forms such as text, pictures, video and Flash movies. Sound can also be
embedded in a web page such as background music.

4. Footer
This area often contains copyright notices, links to terms and conditions and a privacy
statement.

5. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

The text and layout of a web page can be formatted (styled) with 'cascading style sheet'
or CSS. This is text based just like html, but it is made up of a set of styling commands
that a web browser understands.

WEB - FREE GRAPHICS

GRAPHIC ELEMENTS
➢ Play a crucial role on any website. If you have time and talent to design your web
graphics, then it is great. It does not only require time and talent to have web graphics,
but you need to spend a good deal of money as well to buy good graphics software like
Paint Shop Pro or Adobe Photoshop.

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 WEB DEVELOPMENT

➢ However, if you are not blessed with an artist's hand and you don't have money as well
to spend on buying graphics software, then Internet is the heaven and you should
appreciate thousands of graphics designers who have created free web graphics for you.

Beautiful Flowers Clipart

• Click on any image, it will display a bigger image.
• Right-click on the image and select "Save Image As" to save the image on your PC.

MOST COMMONLY USED TAGS IN HTML

HTML tags are the hidden keywords within a web page that define how your web browser must
format and display the content. Most tags must have two parts, an opening and a closing part.
For example, <html> is the opening tag and </html> is the closing tag.

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WEB - HOSTING CONCEPTS

Web hosting - deals with putting the contents of your website on a Web server. Hosting your
website on your own server could be an option. Buying a server space or renting a complete
server from an Internet Service Provider ISP is the most widely used option.

Hosting Platforms
You can go for any of the following two most widely used hosting platforms –
Windows Hosting Servers − If you are a Windows lover then you will find many hosting
servers running different flavors of Windows and you can buy space from these servers.
Normally Windows hosting servers are more expensive because of lot of software
licensing costs are involved with these servers.

Linux Hosting Servers − If you want to go for Linux then opportunities are unlimited and
they will have to pay less then what you will pay for Windows Hosting Server. There are
many ISP who provides Hosting Servers with different flavors of Unix.

Hosting Types
There are many options available and you can select any hosting type based on your
requirement and budget. Following are most widely used hosting types −
• Free Hosting - there are many service providers who will give you free space on their web
server with a condition that you will allow them to run their advertisement at your web
pages. So if you are OK with this option, then you have nothing to pay for a space. There
are some websites like [Link], [Link], [Link], etc. that give you space
to build your web pages.

• Shared Hosting - your website is hosted on a powerful server along with other websites.
On a shared host, you will have your own user ID and password to login to the shared
host and you will be allowed to work in your work area. You would not be able to touch
any file or directory belonging to other host partner. Even you would not know how
many sites are hosted on your shared host. This type of hosting is very cost effective and
good for small websites where your space and speed are not very important. Here traffic
on one site will affect the speed of all other hosted sites.

• Virtual Dedicated Hosting - This type of hosting is better for medium size business. With
virtual dedicated hosting, you will have a dedicated bandwidth and dedicated RAM for
your site. You will be given a root ID and password to maintain your Web server. You will
be the complete owner of your virtual dedicated server and will be able to install or de-
install any software. This type of hosting is created on a single server, but it is managed in
such a way that every user will have dedicated speed and bandwidth. This is bit more
expensive but really good one for medium size business.

• Dedicated Hosting - This type of hosting is very similar to virtual dedicated hosting, but
here, a complete machine will be allotted for you. They are more expensive than virtual
dedicated hosting and should be considered when you have a very high traffic
requirement.

• Collocated Hosting - It is very difficult to set dedicated resources such as high-security

against fire and vandalism, regulated backup power, dedicated Internet connections and
more. Collocation is the option which allows you to put your machine in a service
provider's premises to avail all the available facilities. This is also a very expensive option
and should be opted when you have very high traffic requirement.

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Hosting Components
When you buy a Web server space, then you should be clear about the follows. You should do a
price comparison between different service providers based on the following components −
• Disc Space - A small or medium website will require between 10 and 100MB of disk
space. If you plan to keep a lot of audio and video on your website, then you need plan to
buy more space. Before buying server space, you should check the options available to
expand your disc space if you need it in future.

• Monthly Traffic - A small or medium website will need between 1GB and 10GB of data
transfer on a monthly basis. If you plan to keep a lot of audio and video on your website,
then you need a plan with more data transfer capacity. Check different options based on
your requirements. What are the other options available in case you cross the given data
transfer limit. Your site should not be stopped in case you exceed given limit.

• Processing Speed - If you are buying space on a shared machine, then you cannot guess
how much speed will be given to you. In that case, only way is to see other hosted sites
with the same service provider to know about their hosting quality. But if you are buying
virtual dedicated server or dedicated server, then you should consider how much RAM is
being allocated to you. Your pricing will depend on the given processing power to you.

• Connection Speed - Nowadays, most service providers allow very fast connection speed.
So choose a service provider who is giving better connection speed in terms of bits per
second. You can have a connection speed ranging from 64Kb per second to 2.488Gb per
second.

• Email Accounts - Make sure you are going to get sufficient number of e-mail accounts.
There are many other options available which come along with your e-mail account. Like,
will you get IMAP, POP and Email Forwarding options available along with your e-mail
facilities.

• Emailing Support - Apart from having email accounts, it is also very important that your
web server should have a facility to send emails from back-end. In case your site visitors
want to contact to you using a form, then you will be able to use that emailing facility to
send emails to your designated account. In simple terms, you should make sure that the
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) Server is setup and working on your Web server.

• Latest Technologies - You should make sure that your web server is equipped with all the
latest technologies. It should have the latest version support for PHP, PERL, ASP and
JAVA, etc.

• Databases - There are many databases available MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server, etc. You
should choose your server based on your database requirement. If you are buying space
on a shared server, then you need to verify how much space will be allocated for your
database. Many ISPs do not give more than a limited space for databases. If your site
needs a lot of database size, then you should go for a virtual dedicated server.

• Server Uptime - It is important that you buy a web server from a reliable and reputed ISP.
You should make sure your ISP is giving you 99.99% server uptime. If the is server down,
then there are many service providers who gives you compensation in case your sites
goes down more than a limited number of time.

• Backup & FTP - Make sure your Service Provider is giving you more ways of taking regular
backup of your website. If your site is changing everyday, then it becomes very important
that you should take regular backup of your website. Many service providers do it on
your behalf by charging a small cost for this service.

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• Control Panel - Just make sure what type of facilities you will get to maintain your hosting
account. Check if your service provider is providing you an easy-to-use Control Panel or
some other similar tool. Using a Control Panel, you should be able to maintain basic
operations related to your website such as logging your service request, your reboot
request, or any other problem.

• Customer Support - Before finalizing a deal with your service provider, you should make
sure they provide you the required support. You can get this information using Internet
forums or from your friends. There are many service providers who give you 24x7
support for any technical or non-technical problem.

WEB - ECOMMERCE HOSTING

Ecommerce - is a way of doing business through Internet. You are doing ecommerce, especially
when you are selling your products or services through Internet. If you planning to put a website
which will have transactions such as buying or selling items or services, then it means you are
going to setup an ecommerce website.

E-commerce hosting - is a bit expensive, but they are not as expensive that you cannot start an
ecommerce website. Nowadays, it is very easy to set up an ecommerce site. All that one needs
to do is to get in touch with any good service provider and start gathering basic information.

There are many service providers who help you set up your virtual store and charge you
unexpectedly very low. Google has also started google account service in which you can sell your
products.

While finalizing your ecommerce hosting setup, you should be very clear on how to handle the
following −
• Customer Registrations
• Customer Transactions
• Product Catalogs
• Customer Orders
• Order Security
• Server Security
• Server Maintenance
• Server Backup
• Server downtime
• Inventory Control
• Shipment Methods
• Payment Methods
• Foreign currency
• Credit Cards
• Taxes issues

You should take this list and discuss it with your service provider as well to understand how they
will support you to handle all these items.

WEB - SITE BACKUP

Your server's hard drive crashed. Your site is hacked and the hacker deleted all your files. Your
web host disappeared with your money and your data. Even worse, there was an earth quake
and your ISP building is gone down and everything is lost.

If you are not prepared for these situations, your hard work might be lost forever. That is why it
is of the utmost importance that you keep regular backups of your data.

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Now there are many questions −

• How frequently backup should be taken?
• Where this backup should be preserved?
• What type of backup should be taken?
• Who should take these backup?

How Frequently Backup Should be Taken?

If your site is not changing over a period of time, then it is advisable to take backups only
once and keep it on your hard disc or data disc or DVD wherever you like. In case you need to
restore it, just do it and see if your website is up and running. But if you are in the habit of
making frequent modifications on your site, then it is necessary that you take regular backup.

Websites like [Link] have very tight backup schedules and very expensive backup
infrastructure. It depends on your business and you have to see how much data loss you can
bear. If you think it is not affordable to lose even a single day’s data, then I would recommend to
schedule daily backup and similarly, you can decide if weekly or monthly backup are OK for you
or not.

Where the Backup Should be Preserved?

Most of the times, backups are taken from one machine and saved on another machine
or media. If possible, you should arrange a different backup server where you can FTP your
complete data to be backup up. If this is not too much then you can keep it in data CD or DVD
etc.
If possible, keep multiple copies of backup but with a managed way to avoid any
confusion. You should have a proper version control over different backups. There are many
service providers who provide you different backup servers with a very nominal cost and it is
recommended that you spend that amount on backup services.

What Type of Backup Should be Taken?

There are two types of backup − incremental and full. It depends on what type of backup
tools you are using. There are many backup tools − for example, Oracle provides its own utilities
to take different types of backup.

Incremental Backup − The backup’s controller compares the existing backup with the data that
you wish to backup. If there is an exact match between the two, then no additional files will be
backed up. However, if you have added or edited any file, these files will be updated in the
backup, thus the name incremental.

Full Backup − Here all files are written to the backup, even if they already exist in the most
current backup.

Who Should Take These Backup?

The simplest case is that you can login to your web server on a monthly or weekly basis
and copy all the website related files on different computer or media. It works only in case you
have limited amount of data on your site.

If you have a huge database and numerous files, then it is difficult to manage such
backups on an everyday and weekly basis. In such cases, you may need to have automated
scripts to take backup and keep them at another machine or media.

You can write your shell script or perl script and browse through different directories and
collect all the files and zip them automatically, assign them a unique backup number and then
ftp those files on a designated backup server or media like tap drive.

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Conclusion
It is up to you to decide how you want to take your backup. If you are a website owner, then you
must take regular backup without failure. Else, it might lead to serious consequences.

WEB - SITE STATISTICS

Who is your visitor? − You should have your site visitor IP address available with you to know the
geographical location and identity of that visitor.

Visitors’ Timestamp − You should be aware of the time when your site gets the most number of
visitors so that you can plan a server down easily. Secondly, timestamp and IP address will help
you identify your site visitors in case an investigation is required against a site visitor.

What the visitors prefer? − What pages did the site visitor view on your website will give you an
idea about the importance of various sections of your website.

How visitors came? − This is another important information you should be aware of. How are
you getting your site visitors? Are they coming directly or coming through some other website or
advertising program.

How long do they stay? − How much time a visitor spends on your site? If visitors are leaving
your site just after browsing 1 or 2 pages, then you should come up with some innovative ways
to retain them for a longer duration.

Visitors’ Browser − This information is important to improve your website for that type of web
browsers.

STATISTICS PROGRAMS
1. Googles Analytics - Program to capture your website statistics.
2. Webalizer - This will give you all the basic site statistics you need.
3. AWStats - is a site from sourceforge which gives you opportunity to collect your website
statistics.

SITE STATISTICS TERMINOLOGY

1. Unique Visits − The number of unique visitors you had in a given time period. Example − if
there was only a single person who visited your website, and visited 1,000 separate times
in a day, the unique visits would just be one. The uniqueness is counted based on the IP
address of the visitor.

2. Total Visits − The total number of visits including duplicate visits that a website receives
in a given time period. Each time a site visitor reaches your site, it is counted as one visit.

3. Page Views or Page Impressions − Each time a web page is loaded, it is referred to as a
page view. If you are counting a website link available on this page, then it will be
counted as a page impression.

4. Hits − Hits are very similar to page views and will be counted every time a visitor clicks
any link related to your website.

5. Direct Access − It refers to the people who accessed your website through their
bookmarks or typed in your URL manually in the URL box of the browser.

6. Referrer & Referral URL − The web address where the visitor followed a link to reach your
website. For example, if someone finds your website in google search and clicks over the
link to reach your site, then google will be the referrer.

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SITE POPULARITY
If you want to make your site a success, then the actual work starts after hosting your website
successfully. It includes the following actions, but gaining popularity is certainly not limited to
these actions.

Search Engine Inclusion − First step, you should go and include your website in various search
engines like google, yahoo, and msn. Never trust automated software to include your site in
search engines. There are many fraud companies in this business, so stay away from them and
don't waste your money.

Open directory inclusion − This is another way to make your site popular. There are many open
directory projects like [Link] and [Link] where you can include your website to get
attention from net surfers.

Google AdWords − This is a paid program from google where you can register and you can pay
based on the number of clicks on your website link or based on the number of page impressions.

Advertising Programs − If you have a big budget, then you can go for higher resources like TV ads
or Newspaper or magazine advertising programs. They are most effective and expensive as well.

Whitepapers and Article − If you write whitepapers or articles, then you can include your website
link in those whitepapers or articles to get more traffic on your site.

Site Link Exchange − There are many sites including [Link] that do site link exchange.
What it means is − You will keep the link of another website on your site and the other site will
keep yours. This is for the mutual benefit of the site link exchangers.

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