Cobbling HTML
Copy(c)right 2001 - 2007 by G.Mike Raymond

Today, anyone can write a home page for the WEB in 10 minutes. That includes the 10 year old kid next door who has probably already done it.

Constructing a web page is easily done with the help of one of several HTML code generator application such as HomeSite or SpiderWeb. In addition, many free web site providers such as GeoCities have online "fill in the blanks", page constructors. While this many be efficient, it will never help you learn much about HTML code and how it is used. Learning how to write HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) is relatively easy and very rewarding. Many so called "HTML experts" fall too easily into the "avoid Click Here" syndrome when recommending their concept of good HTML prose. I say be yourself and do what pleases you, and let "your" specific readers be the judges. Of course, if you are going to write for a truly world wide audience, then obeying some protocols might be wiser.

When you surf to a web page using the site's domain address (or Universal Resource Locator), the first page to load is the default or "index" page. Typically this file is named "INDEX.HTML". However this file can be named anything the Webmaster configures the server to use. If some other default home page name is required, it is always mentioned by the web master providing the service. The extension of HTM or HTML on a web file is standard but technically not always required.

A web "server" is the software program that renders your web page content available to the Internet. Most large operations use a Web server called Apache but there are many other choices. This includes a number of Freeware Web Servers such as Abyss and KeyFocus. A web server typically runs on a dedicated computer at the Service Provider's location or even from your computer at home. Running a web server on your home computer has many limitations but it is certainly doable. Interestingly, any computer dedicated to running server type software is also itself called a "Server."

In a commercial operation, the web servers hard drive is setup to use unique folders (directories) to separate all the various customer's home pages (html files) from one another. Frequently these folders are named the same as the customers account name.

An HTML file is just an ordinary text (ascii) file containing the special HTML Tags that can be typed up with any ordinary Text Editor or Word processor. A Tag is a key HTML word or words enclosed in cheveron brackets like this <FONT color=blue>. Most HTML files are given the extension HTM or HTML. Once an HTML file is created and tested it must then be uploaded to the web servers hard drive using a file transfer utility known as FTP.

Note: Personal Computers recognize 256 unique characters comprising something called the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (or ASCII table.) The first 128 codes comprise all the standard english alphabet (both upper and lower case), numbers, punctuation and formatting or control characters such as carriage returns and line feeds. Therefore a so called "Text file" consist of codes or characters from only the lower 128 characters of the ASCII table.

To recap, when a user on the Internet enters your URL into his Browser, that URL (Universal Resource Locator) or web address points to a particular folder and page on the web server. Frequently your ISP or web host "username" becomes the last part of your URL.

Note these sample URL's:

&l;http://earthlink.net/~jjones>

&l;http://earthlink.net/members/jjones>

Typically the "jjones" (aside from being the users id) is a sub folder name on the hard drive of the server and /members/ or the Tilde ("~") represents the common folder to the account sub folder.

Remember, the end part of your URL points to the folder where the home page is located on the host server. The first part of the URL (the domain) is frequently the address you use with an FTP client (File Transfer Protocol program) to upload your HTML files to the web server you are using. A very popular shareware FTP client is called CuteFTP.

Example: You would enter "earthlink.net" as the server address into your FTP client, and "/members/jjones" as the path, along with your regular username and password (unless a special username/password was required). Ok, so you write the code and upload it via FTP to your web provider, and you are in business. Now lets look at a few lines of HTML code that create a web page.

FINALLY......Sample code for a home page:

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>JJones Home Page</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<PRE>
This is JJones Mini Home Page!!
</PRE>
<center>
This is me! <img src="/imgs/jjones.jpg">
</center>
My favorite <a href="http://www.cnn.com">News Site
</BODY>
</HTML>


The code above stands good as a tiny yet "complete" home page. For the moment, just note that most every HTML <TAG> has an ending </TAG>. A very few Tags, like <P> and <HR>, do not. Also note that Tag Commands are CaSe-InSeNsItIvE. Most every page is constructed the same way; starting and ending with the tags of HTML and BODY.

All that is missing in the above sample is more HTML froufrou! And it can get a lot more involved. Example, frequently a business page needs to collect information from a user and process it. This is done with something called CGI (Common Gateway Interface) utilities. These are executable programs loaded by special tags in your HTML code that further process information provided by page visitors. Perl is the more common C language for creating CGI apps but most any win32 compiler can do it. If you are interested in CGI programming, visit CGI Resources. Another method of implementing an interactive web page is with Java Scripts.

Since its not my intention to demonstrate every meta tag used in HTML code here, I will leave that to your personal study. However, here is a site that offers a great deal of additional beginners Hints and another for professional Web Developers. Also see HTML HELP.

One great way to learn HTML is by looking at the source code of other web pages after you have visited them. All web browsers allow you to see the HTML source code of any page displayed and even make a copy of it.

Here is a site you can visit to learn about all HTML Tags that are available. Here is another good beginners site with good live HTML Demonstrations. Here is a helpful information on the use of HTML Tables and Graphic Images and MultiLine Forms and how to add Sounds (waves) and Navigational Aids.

After writing your page, you can load it into your own Browser to view it. There is no need to go live to test it. Many good text editors such as UltraEdit have a special button to load the html code into your default browser for viewing. In addition, there are web pages that test and grade your web page. A good one is Net Mechanic.

Here is another secret. All of todays Broswers have ftp recv built in for downloading files. The actual syntax is: "ftp://username:password@ftp.server.com/customers/". Of course most modern browsers do all this automatically for you just by clicking on a FTP link. Typically an FTP server accepts "anonymous" as a username and your email address as a password. Some older Browsers, such as Netscape 3 had the ability to FTP upload.



Here are some tips to follow when writing HTML.

Always keep the page "purpose" in focus; i.e. stick to your basic theme.

Always keep in mind "loading speed" and design your code for the fastest possible delivery time and display. Meaning, keep your procedures tight and avoid un necessary nesting and long processes. Be as short as practical with your tags constantly closing. This way the browser "thinks" the code is ending and is fooled into dumping immediately to the screen as it gets the code; when in fact, it ain't over, till its all over. This technique is particularly important when displaying many graphic images and long text dialog.

Avoid Hit Counters, aside from consuming load time they are of limited use on personal web sites.

Avoid "last updated" tags. They do little but advertise your failure to keep your material current. If you need personal reminders, make them non displaying tags within the html code. i.e. <! this is a private note >

Resist the urge to use Frames and Embedded Music files. Remember, not all Browsers can handle this advanced stuff. You want to play to the largest audience.

Remember, every <TAG> must have a closing </TAG>
Learn the correct rules for nesting tags within tags.
Check ALL text spelling and grammar before uploading.
Keep your links relevant to your theme.
Keep your page updated with new interesting stuff.
Never over crowd or "pack" your page.
Always thank your visitors and invite them back.

"So, there it is", as the Austrian king was fond of saying!

Extra HTML Hints:

Note in my example HTML code the <PRE> or PRE formatted Tag. This allows plain text to appear on your page exactly like its formatted in ASCII (or how you view it in your text editor).

Need to create SPACES in your interpreted code?
Use "& nbsp;" (less quotes) where you want the SPACE to appear.

Want to show the International symbol for Copyright?
Use "& copy;" where you want the © symbol to appear.

Speaking of copyrights, here is the gist of International copyright law.

By stating "copyright, date, author" somewhere in your document, it's automatically copyrighted. However, if you fail to register the copyright, you can sue to stop someone from using your work, but you cannot sue for any monetary losses that you might suffer.