Tutorial 1 - Developing a Web Page

Welcome to our class. Please carefully read this page and read all the linked pages provided here. Read everything again.

Expectations
After completion of this class, you should have a working knowledge of HTML, the programing language for the World Wide Web. Also, you will be exposed to many design ideas for development and delivery of Web based content.

During the first few weeks of class, I expect that some of you will already know much of what we will cover. GREAT! Also, I expect that some may feel like this is "too much too fast." Not so great. Ask for HELP. There are NO silly questions. Each week, there will be a Discussion Board Forum especially for HELP. I encourage all of us to use the Help Forums -- to ask and to answer. You can always send questions as eMail to me, gnorth@tulane.edu. I check my eMail many many times, days and nights. If need be, I will call you -- send me eMail with phone number and date/times you are available. And, if you really think it is an emergency, you may call me. My cell is 504-261-5748. My home is 504-834-1891. You can call as late as 11:00 PM (Central).

Required: The Text Book
As for our text, New Perspectives: HTML and XHTML, 4th Edition (ISBN 0-619-26747-X), you should be well along reading Tutorial 1. If not, you should begin now. A great deal of fundamentals are covered here. You cannot afford to fall behind before we start. We will continue working in Tutorial 1 through next week. Tutorial 1, Case Problem 4 will be an assignment you will need to turn-in, 11:59 PM Sunday, May 25. There is also work due for turn-in 11:59 PM, Sunday, Jun 1. This is discussed in detail here.

Required: Text Editor
To insure that you gain the needed knowledge of HTML, all web site development assignments will require that you write all HTML yourself using a text editor. Click here for an explanation and example.

Google definition of text editor. What is a Text Editor from Wikipedia.

A text editor is a HTML editor
There are many (free) text editors, some designed especially for HTML. It is OK to use a text editor that does HTLM syntax checking. It is NOT OK to use a WYSIWYG editor ... like MS Word, HomePage, Publisher, DreamWeaver, etc.

Required: eMail
When I send eMail to you, I will ONLY use your Tulane eMail address. I expect that when you send me eMail it will be from your Tulane eMail address and to my Tulane eMail address ( gnorth@tulane.edu ). The penalty for not following this guideline is that I may miss your eMail message to me -- it may get mixed up with one of my other eMail addresses and just get lost or treated as junk. Also I ask that part of the Subject be our course number ( CPST-240 ), and that you type you full name at the end of the Message. I retain all copies of your eMail to me and my eMail to you. You can receive and send Tulane eMail using Webmail at https://owa.tulane.edu/.

Required: Your Tulane WebSite
For our class you are required to have your own Web Site on Tulane's Student WebServer. Some of you may already have a Tulane Web Site. Obtaining your Tulane Student Web Site is very easy. Click here to sigh up for Tulane Student Web. Within about 10 minutes you will have your own web space on the Student Server. The address of your web page is: http://studentweb.tulane.edu/~yname/ ... where yname is your Tulane eMail address without the @tulane.edu. For example, my Student web page address is : http://studentweb.tulane.edu/~gnorth/. There is an alphabetical list of Student Web Sites.

Your Tulane Website is where you will place (FTP) all the web pages you develop for this class!

Required: FTP Client
Read what Wikipedia has to say about FTP ... and about FTP Client software. FTP is how I want you to copy the web pages you develop for this class from your own computer to your web space on Tulane's Student Server. There are many FTP clients. Wikipedia has a list of some. There are others. I like SSH - freeware FTP Client for Windows, and the one Tulane recommends. For Mac, I like Fetch ... although it is a commercial product, you can apply for a free educational license.

Using an FTP client, you "connect" to Tulane's Student WebServer. To do so, you need to know the Hostname (the name of Tulane's computer), Username, Password, and maybe Initial Folder.

public_html/     folder is where all your Web Pages reside. As we go along, we will see that you can have as many sub-folder inside of public_html/     as makes sense for your web sites. If you already have web pages on Tulane's Student WebServer, I suggest you make a sub-folder named, for example, CPST-240.

Remember ... ask for HELP ... ask early, ask often. Read everything again.