Web Hosting

                This is the final blog for my Web Development 2 course and I am to search the web to find three Web Host Providers that meat a certain criteria and record my findings. The criteria are as follows: Supports PHP and MySQL, Offer e-commerce capabilities, and Provide at least 50MB hard disk space.

v  http://www.ipage.com/ipage/index.html

Ø  $4.50 a month

Ø  Unlimited disk space

Ø  Unlimited domains allowed

Ø  Unlimited transfer/bandwidth

Ø  Unlimited MySQL databases

Ø  Free domain name

Ø  Free site building tools

Ø  Free Security Suite

Ø  Free online store

Ø  Free Yahoo and Facebook credits

v  http://www.fatcow.com/fatcow/special-promo.bml?offer=OPI&LinkName=No_Name

Ø  $3.67 a month

Ø  Unlimited Disk space

Ø  Unlimited bandwidth

Ø  Unlimited POP mailboxes

Ø  Unlimited MySQL databases

Ø  Unlimited domains allowed

Ø  Free domain name

Ø  Free site building tools

Ø  Free shopping cart

Ø  Free script barn

v  http://www.justhost.com/

Ø  $4.45 a month

Ø  Unlimited disk space

Ø  Unlimited transfer

Ø  Unlimited domain hosting

Ø  Unlimited e-mail accounts

Ø  Unlimited MySQL databases

Ø  Free site builder

Ø  Free domain name

Ø  Free instant setup

Of all these Web Hosting sites I found the first site very informational and I felt it had the best options as to hosting a web site.

My Web Site

For this post i am to choose one of two sites to validate my site (http://rs-web.wwcc.wy.edu/webdev/cosc2350_spr11/jwolfe/default.htm ). The two sites were: http://www.cynthiasays.com/, and http://watson.addy.com/. I chose http://watson.addy.com/, as this site I want to use to validate my site. The results of my validation are as follows:

Checking server response ...
Server response

http://rs-web.wwcc.wy.edu/webdev/cosc2350_spr11/jwolfe/
was redirected to
http://rs-web.wwcc.wy.edu/webdev/cosc2350_spr11/jwolfe/Default.htm

Response code from http://rs-web.wwcc.wy.edu/webdev/cosc2350_spr11/jwolfe/Default.htm
OK (code 200)

Analyzing HTML ...
Computing download speeds ...
Estimated download speed

These download times are estimates and should only be used as a general guideline. Many factors, such as your modem, quality of connection, ISP load, server responsiveness, and Internet routing can greatly impact the actual download times experienced by your visitors.

Object type	Number	Size in bytes	Estimated download times (seconds)
			14.4	28.8	33.6	56k	128K	T1
HTML	1	2588	1.89	1.04	0.86	0.74	0.32	0.13
Images	1	54054	39.43	21.62	18.02	15.44	6.76	2.70
Total	2	56642	41.31	22.66	18.88	16.18	7.08	2.83

Analyzing HTML syntax ...
Syntax and style analysis
(clicking on the line # takes you to that line in the code)

Congratulations! I found no problems.

Computing word counts ...
Word counts:

Words: 151
Average word length: 4.2
Unique words: 97

Checking spelling ...
Spelling Check
(clicking on the line # takes you to that line in the code)

No spelling problems

Link verifications
(clicking on the line # takes you to that line in the code)

Regular links

default.htm

Result: (200: OK)
Link found on lines: 33, 60

projects/projects.htm

Result: (200: OK)
Link found on lines: 34, 60

calendar/calendar.htm

Result: (200: OK)
Link found on lines: 35, 62

photo_gallery/photo_gallery.htm

Result: (200: OK)
Link found on lines: 36, 63

favorite_links/favorite_links.htm

Result: (200: OK)
Link found on lines: 37, 64

contact/contact.htm

Result: (200: OK)
Link found on lines: 38, 65

Images

images/Jodi.jpg
    Result: (200: OK)
    Link found on line: 49

Search engine compatability:

You don't appear to have a META tag for a site description, you should add one. This is often used by the search engine to create the listing for your site.

You don't appear to have a META tag for site keywords, you should add one. This can help the users of a search engine find you.

Checking site link count ...
Page link popularity

I cannot find any pages with links to http://rs-web.wwcc.wy.edu/webdev/cosc2350_spr11/jwolfe/

CSS Page Layouts

This week we worked on page layout. For this blog I am to look up CSS page layout tutorials that differ from those discussed in my text and list them (by my understanding).

·         http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/css_page_layout_basics.html

This site provides many of the basics in which we learned in Web Development 1, as well as brushing up on them in this week’s text.

·         http://www.learn-css-tutorial.com/CSS-Page-Layout.cfm

This tutorial gives a little more insight into page layout. I found this site to be most beneficial when it comes to page layout.

·         http://www.maxdesign.com.au/articles/css-layouts/

This site provides many links to several different CSS page layout coding’s. Very informational! This site had the biggest selection of tutorials when it came to page layout.

Fish Creek Animal Hospital Design

Over the course of my Computer Science 1 class I have been in the process of developing a site for Fish Creek Animal Hospital. So for this week’s blog I have to review Chapter 5 of my text and cite a few things in regards to my site. The assignment in exact is as follows: Review the recommended Web page design practices from this chapter. Use the Web Design Best Practices Checklist (Table 5.1) to evaluate the Fish Creek site that you create in earlier chapters. Cite three design practices that have been well implemented. Cite three design practices that could be implemented in a better way. How else would you improve the Web site?

Thus far the three design practices that have been well implemented are as follows:

·         Consistent navigation area

·         Color is used consistently

·         Fonts, font sizes, and font colors are consistently used

I do believe that so far the site is overall consistent and there are more areas that I think are well implemented.

The three design practices that could be implemented in a better would be as follows:

·         The site could use more multimedia, such as pictures and videos.

·         Although the colors are consistent, I think there could be more colors.

·         The graphics for the navigation links are great but would be that much more if they moved or had some sort of movement to them.

Overall, the site is great and I have enjoyed working on it.

Facebook

This week we are to visit a Web site that is of interest to me and answer a few questions that pertain to the site. I would have to say that the Web site that I tend to use the most is Facebook. Yes, I am a Facebook junkie!!

www.facebook.com

What is the purpose of this site?

                The purpose if this site is to provide a place where people can get in contact with others, such as long lost family members or friends. There are also many games that one can play.

Who is the intended audience?

                The intended audience is anyone that may want to find a loved one or just anyone in general.

Do you believe the site reaches its audience?

                I do believe that the intended audience is targeted. Facebook has roughly 39 million active users so I would say that is a big YES!!

Was this site useful to you? Why or why not?

                This site is very useful to me. I have found many people that I lost contact with over the years. I am also able to stay in contact with family members that live in other states and countries. Not to mention I have met some new friends via this site.

List the colors that were used on the home page of this web site: background, backgrounds of page sections, text, logo, navigation buttons, and so on.

                When you first enter Facebook, which is the sign in page, there is a dark blue header and the rest is a light blue. There is also a graphic of a phone. Once you are signed in the background is white but there is still a dark blue header. Each individual has a wall that others can post to (comment to). There are links to find more friends, message friends, a place to put photos, and it is very easy to navigate through and very easy to read.

How did the use of color enhance the Web site?

                I like the colors. However, I think that there could be more than just the blue to enhace the site more. It is very simple the way it is.

CSS Tutorials

Today’s blog consists of CSS Tutorials. The assignment given is to search for three good CSS Tutorials. The following sites were listed in our text but I found it appropriate to stray from the book and find other sites that were also just as helpful: http://www.echoecho.com/css.htm, http://www.w3schools.com/css/, and http://www.davesite.com/webstation/css/. In my search I found many tutorials but the following three stood out the most:

·         http://www.quackit.com/css/

This site provides some good insight into CSS. There are a great deal of tutorials, codes, and some examples.

·         http://www.csstutorial.net/

This site is strictly about CSS. It starts with on introduction to CSS, then gives CSS tutorials, and then some CSS resources.

·         http://www.tizag.com/cssT/

This site is similar to the first site I found. It is very helpful to those beginning their web design career.

I would say that all of the sites listed are a great learning tool when starting to use CSS. Some have a few more things than others so I think it is important to check them all out.

Web Research

This week we were assigned to search the web for HTML and XHTML tutorials and answer a few questions pertaining to the search.

What are the URL’s of the Web sites?

-          http://www.w3schools.com/default.asp

-          http://www.webheadstart.org/

Are the tutorials geared toward the beginner level, intermediate level, or both levels?

-          The first site is geared towards bot levels. Having only taken one Web class prior to this one, I am new to making Web site. This site had tutorials from HTML to TCP/IP. There were the basic but then there was also advanced sections.

-          The second site also gears towards both levels. This site only provides tutorials for HTML, XML, and XHTML. HTML tutorials were basic; however the XHTML provided some advanced tutorials.

Would you recommend these sites to others? Why or why not?

-          I would recommend the first site because it was very informational and helpful. It didn’t just explain how to do the coding but it gave the opportunity to do the coding yourself.

-          I would recommend this site because it does provide some insight into coding. Unlike the first this one doesn’t provide do it yourself opportunities.

List one or two concepts that you learned from each of the tutorials.

-          By my understanding XHTML is a more refined version of HTML and has more strict rules.

-          Was not sure what Doctype Declarations where prior to this class, but now know that Doctype Declarations officially state which version and XHTML compatibility level that you're using in your Webpage.