Neil Jones-Rodway concludes this series by building a website from the ground up...
First you have to decide how to structure your site. Most (if not all) sites have an obvious front page, which provides a jumping off point to navigate the rest of the site. It makes sense to use this page to introduce the site then link to as many sub-pages needed from there. I've set up some broad classifications of ways to annoy older brothers, with each subpage representing one of these classifications.
Front pages are typically named index.html. When you request a URL which
points to a directory instead of a specific file, the web server
software automatically looks for index.html (and depending on your ISP
other variants such as index.htm, welcome.html may also be recognised)
which makes URLs somewhat easier to remember. For example, when you
access...
http://www.flinny.demon.co.uk/
Front PageStart with the empty document template, and insert the title for the page. The <BODY...> tag needs to include the background image (see the boxout for tips on making background images) we'll be using, and specify colours for the text and the links. That sets up the empty page ready to fill in.The layout for this page is quite straightforward. A title graphic at the top and some introductory text underneath. Beneath that we can add some columns representing the classifications, and finally a contact address at the bottom. I've enclosed all this in a <CENTER>...</CENTER> tags so everything is horizontally centred on the screen.
Let's start with the image - a title graphic created and saved as a
transparent GIF. Some people prefer to store all the files in the same
directory, others prefer to use sub-directories. Using subdirectories is
neater but requires an understanding of unix relative path handling and
can be more awkward to update online depending on the software used. For
example an image called "title.gif" in a subdirectory called "images" is
accessed using the relative path "images/title.gif". Note a forward
slash is used instead of the standard Atari file system backslash. If
this all sounds too complicated simply store everything in a single
folder and forget I mentioned it!
The next task is to set up the columns. HTML doesn't support DTP style
multi-column layouts and instead emulates these using the flexible
<TABLE>...</TABLE> tag. This works well but does require planning
because text cannot flow automatically between columns and everything
has to be defined manually.
The final item to add to the index page is a contact address for people to send comments to - a simple "mailto" link is all that's needed here. SubpagesThe subpages for this site are all identical in layout just differing in content. The basic page includes a header, three main sections which utilise different techniques, tips, and stories.
Each header contains a small title graphic followed by an introduction.
following the introduction will be bookmark links to the different
sections, which are useful when creating lengthy pages as they help
minimise manual scrolling.
Each section has a heading, followed by an unordered list containing the
individual topics relating to the site. Each topic can be entered as a
separate list item, which offers a clear layout and is easy to maintain.
The heading is enclosed in a bookmark anchor, which is referenced by the
links at the top of the page.
This completes the site framework. All that's left to do add in the stories, and upload the pages to a web server. The pages can be updated from time to time to include other peoples stories and tips added onto the end of the appropriate lists. If you'd like to view the final pages they're on the Reader Disk/CD-ROM and online at URL: http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/arnel/lbh/
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