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Part 1: Cross-Browser Compatibility Part 2: Development Part 3: Debugging Part 4: References |
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Part
2: Development What you do to develop a web site goes a long ways to how reliable, maintainable, and usable it ends up being. Here are a few tips to help in the development process. Start With the Information and Visual Design The more you can work out before you actually start development, the easier your development will be, and the fewer changes you will have to make later in the process. Settle on a firm design before touching HTML. This may mean going through several designs before you find what works best before starting development. Even if your site is small, this will help you give focus to your site. Put Extra Effort Towards Your Templates Work out the kinks in your site when you develop your templates. Do browser testing and code validation on your templates before building the rest of the site. The fewer bugs that get propagated through your site, the faster development will go. Use Server Side Includes Server side includes are simply chunks of HTML code that are shared amongst multiple web pages. By taking common chunks of HTML and placing them in separate files, you can make global changes to your site by editing only a few files. A simple example using the Apache SSI directives: <html> <head><title>Page title</title></head> <body> Web page content goes here <!--#include virtual="copyrightNotice.html" --> </body> </html> Figure 1: Contents of webPage.html <b>© 2003 My Name</b> Figure 2: Contents of copyrightNotice.html <html> <head><title>Page title</title></head> <body> Web page content goes here <b>© 2003 My Name</b> </body> </html> Figure 3: Output sent to browser To enable SSIs, check the Apache documentation. Other servers should have an equivalent feature.
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