Mike Garrison (mikegarrison@alum.mit.edu) writes:
I think that splash pages may not be one of the top-10 web mistakes, but they are probably the top useless web fashion of the past year or two.
Why?
No one wants to have to access it every time, so getting to it really annoys anyone who is not a first time user.
But for the first time user, it adds a useless step between them and whatever brought them to the site in the first place. So it really annoys them too.
Most new users will come via a search engine anyway, so they'll probably miss the splash page.
If you make it the default highest page in the server (eg. http://www.useit.com/ ) then when people try to find your home page by chopping off a URL, they get the useless splash page instead.
They ruin the back button. (Your #1 new mistake.) I especially hate it when a page I have bookmarked (say: //blah.com/ ) gets moved to some URL like //blah.com/content and my bookmark suddenly starts taking me to a splash page. Then I have to edit my bookmark so that it will take me to the real home page.
Jakob's reply: I agree: splash pages are useless and annoying. In general, every time you see a splash page, the reaction is "oh no, here comes a site that will be slow and difficult to use and that doesn't respect my time."
Splash pages are a sure sign of bad Web design.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
Validation
Is validation some kind of quality control? Does "valid" mean "quality approved by W3C"?
Validity is one of the quality criteria for a Web page, but there are many others. In other words, a valid Web page is not necessarily a good web page, but an invalid Web page has little chance of being a good web page.
For that reason, the fact that the W3C Markup Validator says that one page passes validation does not mean that W3C assesses that it is a good page. It only means that a tool (not necessarily without flaws) has found the page to comply with a specific set of rules. No more, no less. This is also why the "valid ..." icons should never be considered as a "W3C seal of quality".
Is validity the same thing as conformance?
No, they are different concepts.
Markup languages are defined in technical specifications, which generally include a formal grammar. A document is valid when it is correctly written in accordance to the formal grammar, whereas conformance relates to the specification itself. The two might be equivalent, but in most cases, some conformance requirements can not be expressed in the grammar, making validity only a part of the conformance.
What is the Markup Validator and what does it do?
The Markup Validator is a free tool and service that validates markup: in other words, it checks the syntax of Web documents, written in formats such as (X)HTML.
The Validator is sort of like lint for C. It compares your HTML document to the defined syntax of HTML and reports any discrepancies.
Why should I validate my HTML pages?
One of the important maxims of computer programming is: Be conservative in what you produce; be liberal in what you accept.
Browsers follow the second half of this maxim by accepting Web pages and trying to display them even if they're not legal HTML. Usually this means that the browser will try to make educated guesses about what you probably meant. The problem is that different browsers (or even different versions of the same browser) will make different guesses about the same illegal construct; worse, if your HTML is really pathological, the browser could get hopelessly confused and produce a mangled mess, or even crash.
That's why you want to follow the first half of the maxim by making sure your pages are legal HTML. The best way to do that is by running your documents through one or more HTML validators.
Validity is one of the quality criteria for a Web page, but there are many others. In other words, a valid Web page is not necessarily a good web page, but an invalid Web page has little chance of being a good web page.
For that reason, the fact that the W3C Markup Validator says that one page passes validation does not mean that W3C assesses that it is a good page. It only means that a tool (not necessarily without flaws) has found the page to comply with a specific set of rules. No more, no less. This is also why the "valid ..." icons should never be considered as a "W3C seal of quality".
Is validity the same thing as conformance?
No, they are different concepts.
Markup languages are defined in technical specifications, which generally include a formal grammar. A document is valid when it is correctly written in accordance to the formal grammar, whereas conformance relates to the specification itself. The two might be equivalent, but in most cases, some conformance requirements can not be expressed in the grammar, making validity only a part of the conformance.
What is the Markup Validator and what does it do?
The Markup Validator is a free tool and service that validates markup: in other words, it checks the syntax of Web documents, written in formats such as (X)HTML.
The Validator is sort of like lint for C. It compares your HTML document to the defined syntax of HTML and reports any discrepancies.
Why should I validate my HTML pages?
One of the important maxims of computer programming is: Be conservative in what you produce; be liberal in what you accept.
Browsers follow the second half of this maxim by accepting Web pages and trying to display them even if they're not legal HTML. Usually this means that the browser will try to make educated guesses about what you probably meant. The problem is that different browsers (or even different versions of the same browser) will make different guesses about the same illegal construct; worse, if your HTML is really pathological, the browser could get hopelessly confused and produce a mangled mess, or even crash.
That's why you want to follow the first half of the maxim by making sure your pages are legal HTML. The best way to do that is by running your documents through one or more HTML validators.
CSS Validation Service
What is Markup Validation?
Most pages on the World Wide Web are written in computer languages (such as HTML) that allow Web authors to structure text, add multimedia content, and specify what appearance, or style, the result should have.
As for every language, these have their own grammar, vocabulary and syntax, and every document written with these computer languages are supposed to follow these rules. The (X)HTML languages, for all versions up to XHTML 1.1, are using machine-readable grammars called DTDs, a mechanism inherited from SGML.
However, Just as texts in a natural language can include spelling or grammar errors, documents using Markup languages may (for various reasons) not be following these rules. The process of verifying whether a document actually follows the rules for the language(s) it uses is called validation, and the tool used for that is a validator. A document that passes this process with success is called valid.
With these concepts in mind, we can define "markup validation" as the process of checking a Web document against the grammar (generally a DTD) it claims to be using.
Most pages on the World Wide Web are written in computer languages (such as HTML) that allow Web authors to structure text, add multimedia content, and specify what appearance, or style, the result should have.
As for every language, these have their own grammar, vocabulary and syntax, and every document written with these computer languages are supposed to follow these rules. The (X)HTML languages, for all versions up to XHTML 1.1, are using machine-readable grammars called DTDs, a mechanism inherited from SGML.
However, Just as texts in a natural language can include spelling or grammar errors, documents using Markup languages may (for various reasons) not be following these rules. The process of verifying whether a document actually follows the rules for the language(s) it uses is called validation, and the tool used for that is a validator. A document that passes this process with success is called valid.
With these concepts in mind, we can define "markup validation" as the process of checking a Web document against the grammar (generally a DTD) it claims to be using.
Meta Tag
What Is the Meta Description Tag?
The Meta description tag is a snippet of HTML code that belongs inside the section of a Web page. It usually is placed after the Title tag and before the Meta keywords tag, although the order is not important.
The Meta description tag is a snippet of HTML code that belongs inside the section of a Web page. It usually is placed after the Title tag and before the Meta keywords tag, although the order is not important.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Forms in dreamweaver
In Dreamweaver CS3, you can check form input for the following types of form fields:
- Text fields. The most common type of form field, the text field is a simple one-line box used to collect information like names, e-mail addresses, zip codes, search terms, and so on. If a particular piece of information is required -- like a last name -- you can prevent a form from being submitted if the user doesn't type anything into that field. In addition, you can make sure that the information a user types into a text field is in the correct format; for example, a correctly formatted e-mail address. Dreamweaver CS3 offers 14 validation options, including e-mail address, zip code, phone number, URL, and time.
- Text area. A text area field is usually used to collect long text entries, such as comments, reviews, or blog entries. Not only will Dreamweaver let you make sure that a text area is filled out, it can also enforce a minimum and/or maximum number of letters. For example, you might want to limit feedback on a "Comments" field to 400 letters, both so it's easier for you to go through all your Web site feedback and to keep your site's database from being overloaded with too much data.
- Check boxes. Providing a simple yes/no option, a check box form field is perfect for multiple choice questions: "select your 3 favorite desserts," for example. Using Spry validation, you can enforce a minimum number ("pick at least 2 options") and/or maximum number ("pick no more than 3") of selections.
- Pull-down menus. A pull-down menu is a compact way to present a lot of options in a single line; for example, a list of states, counties, or districts. Dreamweaver CS3 lets you make sure the user has actually made a selection from the menu before submitting the form.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
FLASH Proposal
I will design a online Image Slide show in Flash, using action script and basic Flash animations. The photo slide show will project my Photography. There will be different range of photos.I wanted to incorporate my Digital Photography assignment with my Digital 4 assignment.
Tutorials Links
http://www.squidoo.com/flash_cs3_tutorial_DynamicButton
http://www.frenchsquared.com/AC_index.html
Examples of the slideshow
http://flashenabledblog.com/
http://www.flashcomponents.net/component/banner_image_gallery_xml.html?ref=cpinho
http://www.frenchsquared.com/AC_index.html
Examples of the slideshow
http://flashenabledblog.com/
http://www.flashcomponents.net/component/banner_image_gallery_xml.html?ref=cpinho
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