COAP:COAP-2100/week3
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Week 3
Topics Covered
- HTML
- Introduction to HTML5. How is it different from XHTML 1.x and HTML 4.x ?
- Valid HTML. Why is valid code important and what needs to be validated ?
- Styling with CSS
- Introduction to CSS
- CSS validation
- Webdesign
- Basic Webdesign principles
Software
We suggest using the following HTML Editors
- NoteTab light. A simple programming editor with little HTML support. (Windows(
- Kompozer for HTML4 (grab the latest development version !)
- BlueGriffon Wysiwyg editor for HTML5. (Win/Mac/Linux)
- TextWrangler (Mac)
Browser extensions (if installable):
- HTML Validator. You can get it directly from Source Forge
- Codeburner for Firefox (HTML and CSS reference)
- Fireshot (Screen capturing extension for Firefox)
- web-developer
The tidy program (optional: without Internet connection, you need a local validator that also works with NoteTab light)
- Go to HTML Tidy for Windows
- Download the EXE version. You will get a *.zip file called tidy.zip
- Extract the single tidy.exe to some directory, e.g. c:\bin\
HTML/CSS Teaching materials
- HTML5 (Short overview)
- Dive Into HTML5 (free online book about HTML5, not for absolute beginners)
- HTML and XHTML elements and attributes (lecture notes)
- HTML and XHTML validation and repair
- Online HTML reference manual (at sitepoint, but you are free to choose others ...)
- CSS tutorial
- Online CSS reference manual
- Alternatives
- See HTML links
Classroom activities
Monday
(1) Introduction to some major HTML5 tags Online documentation about HTML:
- We will use HTML and XHTML elements and attributes (lecture notes)
- We also will demonstrate the Codeburner Firefox extensions and the related Sitepoint web site.
- See HTML links (Manuals and short references) for other HTML documentation or search the web .....
(2) A introduction to W3C Quality Assurance Tool set. It includes several tools
- http://validator.w3.org/ (Markup Validation Service)
- You can enter a URL, upload file or directly copy/paste code
- Supported formats (Sept 2009): HTML, XHTML, SMIL, MathML
- http://validator.w3.org/checklink (W3C Links Checker)
- http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/ (on line CSS validation service)
- URL validation: You can enter either an HTML/XHTML URL or just a CSS
- Alternatively you can upload a CSS file (and pick the CSS profile).
- Other tools, e.g. a Feed validator are available from the Quality page ...
(3) Using web browser development tools
- Use of HTML Validator. Once installed, you can View-Source (CTRL-U) and look at the errors.
(4) Using Tidy inside NoteTab light
- This may not work (since Tidy must be installed on your computer)
(5) Q/A Homework 2 (if needed)
- Pay attention to copyright (i.e. lock the web site or kill it if you reuse copyrighted materials)
(6) Start of Homework 3 / Objectives and requirements for a term project
- Discussion of the term project
(6) Using the tidy program (if time left)
- You can get various flavors from SourceForge. More precisely:
- Get the Windows binary version from http://www.paehl.com/open_source/?HTML_Tidy_for_Windows
- Unzip it somewhere on the harddisk (I stronly suggest the C: drive, we will discuss this with the Lab assistants, so wait)
- Then configure NoteTab light, i.e. hit CTRL-F7 and tell the editor where to find tidy.exe
- Alternatively (v.s. using a default repair configuration through NoteTab ), you also can install GuiTidy: http://www.paehl.de/tidy/ (scroll all the way down). It will give you more options. Advanced users will have to use the command line.
Wednesday
(1) Feedback for homework 1
- Good work
- Please hide problematic sites, e.g. those that advertise services that do not exist.
(2) CSS
We recall some CSS principles, in particular:
- Associating a styles and stylesheets with HTML
- Inline Styles
- Embedded Style Sheets
- Linking External Style Sheets
- CSS Validation ( http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/ )
- CSS Selectors
- Text styling (e.g. fonts, size, aligns)
- HTML div and span tags
- Backgrounds
- CSS “boxes” , positioning elements and text flow
(3) Web design
Some introductory texts:
- 9 Essential Principles for Good Web Design
- The 5 second rule
- The Ten Most Violated Homepage Design Guidelines
- Top 10 Mistakes in Web Design (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)
- 10 Principles Of Effective Web Design
- Usability 101
Homework 3
Task: Create a little HTML page that spells out a proposition for the term project: creating a little website using either an online service (see homework 1/2) or your own HTML5 coding.
- Think about objectives and requirements for your term project
- Create an HTML5 page and write down a draft proposal
- Create an external CSS style sheet that is linked to the HTML page
Constraints:
- HTML must include at least 3 titles plus paragraphs and lists (of your choice)
- Define a global default CSS rule or a rule for the body element
- Define an extra rule for titles, paragraphs and list elements
- You should make a serious attempt to define a project (i.e. explicitly define some objectives and requirements)
Evaluation:
- I only will evaluate whether you comply with the constraints, e.g. technical and design quality of the CSS, validity of the HTML
- Details of the term project proposal will not be evaluated and it is not yet binding. However, I require that you you define certain key elements:
- Objectives: What is the purpose of the web site ?
- Audience: What is your main target audience ? Can others consult it/find it useful ?
- Functions: What kind of information / applications should the site provide
- Styling: Any ideas about its look and feel ?
- Other information: ???
Submission:
- Upload both the HTML and the CSS file to the World classroom before start of week 4 Wednesday lesson.