Wednesday, February 25, 2015

CSS3 Gallery

Hello Students,
Our next assignment is learning some of the new methods and techniques available to developers with CSS3. CSS3 is full backwards compatible with CSS and provides new and exciting functions to use and explore.

CSS3 Assignment:
Use the CSS3 Introduction section from W3C's website as a guided introduction to the subject. Read through each page and subject and create your own gallery of examples of the CSS3 techniques shown. When complete upload your gallery to our server for testing.
  1. Check out the CSS3 Introduction section on W3C Schools and follow each page step by step, trying out each method for yourself.
  2. Create an set of documents with Komodo to implement your code examples, create an HTML and a CSS file and save them both in a new folder, title the folder "CSS3 Gallery"
  3. Go through the sections of the CSS3 Introduction and try out each example for yourself. Create the necessary HTML and CSS code to display and provide a title for each example. For instance create an H1 tag that says "CSS Gradients" then show a series of your CSS Gradient examples.
  4. Create examples for each section:
      • CSS3 Borders
      • CSS3 Backgrounds
      • CSS3 Gradients
      • CSS3 Text Effects
      • CSS3 Fonts
      • CSS3 2D Transforms
      • CSS3 3D Transforms
      • CSS3 Transitions
      • CSS3 Animations
      • CSS3 Multiple Columns
      • CSS3 User Interface
When your gallery is complete, upload to our server for testing!


Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Getting Closer to Validation: Metadata and Character Encoding

Character Encoding for WebPages: HTTP file headers


Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the language used by a Web server and a Web browser to communicate with each other.

Every time a Web server serves a page to the browser, it adds an invisible "HTTP response header" to the file. This file header (not to be confused with the <head> section of a document) is metadata, which means it contains information about the file that it is serving to the browser. Many servers include character encoding (the character set used in the document) in this header. In other words, the server tells the browser how the document is encoded. (But, what the server says about the encoding may not be how the documents it serves are actually encoded; this is determined by your text editor when it saves a file.)

Most servers will say the files it serves are either ISO-8859-1 (Western European Latin characters) or the newer Unicode standard, UTF-8. In documents written in English there is little difference between these two standards; most noticeable differences will be in special punctuation. But if you wish to have your Web page display more than Western European languages (perhaps a page that mixes English with Chinese, for example), you cannot use ISO-8859-1; UTF-8 would be the way to go. At any rate, UTF-8 is the current standard for Web pages.

Browsers (also called "user agents") use an "HTTP request header" when requesting a file from the server. In this request header the browser identifies itself with a "user agent string." By keeping track of these user agent strings, Web traffic analysis software can create logs showing information on what percentage of users come to a site with Firefox, Safari, or Internet Explorer, for example.
Thecharacterencodingmeta tag

Many servers, but not all, indicate the character encoding in the HTTP response header. But whether or not your pages are on a server that indicates the encoding, you should do so in the document itself, by adding the appropriate character encoding meta tag to the head section. Assuming the document was encoded in UTF-8, and is using HTML 5, you simply need to add this to the <head> section:

<meta charset="utf-8">

Because this tag tells the browser how to interpret the characters used in the document, it should be the first tag in the<head> section.

The HTML validator needs to know which character set the document is encoded in so it can properly evaluate it. So if your pages are on a server that does not indicate the encoding, it is necessary to add the character encoding meta tag to your HTML or the validator may not be able to properly evaluate the page. Additionally, if your pages are not being served by a Web server (they are being viewed locally, or perhaps they are to be burned onto a CD) the browser will need the character encoding meta tag in your HTML to properly display the page.

In the case where the server indicates the encoding, and you also indicate the encoding with the character encoding meta tag, there is no problem if your tag and the file header from the server indicate the same encoding. But if the server says the encoding is, for example, ISO-8859-1, and your meta tag says UTF-8, the validator will give you a "character encoding mismatch" error. In such a situation the validator assumes the server's encoding is the one to use. In other words, in the event of a conflict between your tag and the server, the server overrides your character encoding meta tag.

How to see a server’s character encoding setting:

To see what your server says about the pages it is serving, you need a way to see its invisible file response header. A tool such as Rex Swain's HTTP Viewer will allow you to see this, including the character encoding, if any is indicated. Go there and enter a URL for a server that you wish to check then look at the "Receiving header."

If you see something like:
Content-Type:·text/html;·charset=UTF-8
then you know the server says the documents it is serving are encoded as UTF-8.

If you see something like:
Content-Type:·text/html;·charset=iso-8859-1
then you know the server says the documents it is serving are encoded as ISO-8859-1.

If you see something like:
Content-Type:·text/html
then your server is not indicating the character encoding.

Remember that if your server does not indicate the character encoding, it is even more important that your pages contain the character encoding meta tag. This will give the browser the information it needs to properly render your page (otherwise it will have to guess at the encoding, and it may guess wrong), and it will give the HTML validator the information it needs to properly evaluate your page.
Keepeverythingin synch

To make sure the browser renders your page as you intend (so that special characters such as curly quotes, apostrophes, accented characters, dashes, etc. display properly), and to enable the HTML validator to work, it is important that the server’s character encoding setting, your page’s character encoding meta tag, and the actual character encoding of the document all match.

It is recommneded that Web pages use the UTF-8 encoding. To ensure that your pages are actually encoded as UTF-8, your text editor must be configured to save your pages as UTF-8

Setting Komodo Preferences for UTF-8 / No BOM:

Launch Komodo and go to File/Preferences/Internationalization.
Uncheck the top option box to find the UTF-8 option in the pulldown menu
Change this second language-specific default encoding option to UTF-8.
Leave Signature BOM unchecked.

Monday, February 23, 2015

ROP Expo Coming Up!


Hello Students, Parents and Faculty... please join us on the 5th at the Santa Cruz Civic for the Regional Occupational Program Expo. Students and instructors from all the ROP Pathways will be on hand with demonstrations, presentations and displays of student work. You can hear about the Career Technical Education programs in Santa Cruz County and experience interactive demonstrations of the skills that students are learning in their ROP classes. Admission is free and open to all!

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

CSS Mini Page + Writing Assignment



Hello Students,
Read the details of this project thoroughly before beginning, it consists of 2 parts. Part 1 is a writing assignment that must be created as a simple HTML page. The second assignment is to create a CSS script to enhance the look of the HTML page. Due on Tuesday.

Part 1:
Writing Assignment - A Summary of our studies in ROP Web Design

  1. Create a new blank HTML file
  2. Format the HTML file with the proper HTML tags and Doctype declaration
  3. Write a title for your page. Format it with the h1 tag
  4. Write a subtitle for your page that includes your name and grade and what city you where born in. Format it with the h2 tag
  5. In your own words write a paragraph that summarizes your experience with computers and programming before this class began. Format it with the paragraph tag
  6. In your own words, write a second paragraph that summarizes what you have learned so far in this ROP Web Design class.Format it with the paragraph tag
  7. Add your notes from the previous lecture "how the internet works" and "the history of the internet" and todays lecture as well "CSS".
  8. Save your document in a new project folder called "mini css site" and make sure it is called "index.html"
Part2:
CSS Assignment - Format Your Content
  1. Create a new blank CSS file
  2. Create a set of CSS Rules to format your h1, h2 and p tags
  3. Use CSS to modify the color of your text, the font and the text size
  4. Use CSS to modify your p tag to indent your text and create a colored background for the paragraph
  5. Explore CSS properties to enhance your page, use CSS creatively!
  6. Save your CSS document in the same folder as your HTML file
  7. Create a link in the head of your HTML document to link to your CSS file


Resources:

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Code Academy: HTML Basics

Students, your newest assignment is to work through the web fundamentals section on code academy. This will reinforce your new code skills and should be much easier for you now that we have a good working knowledge of html. When we complete the web fundamentals we will move on to other units. Watch your achievements grow and track your own progress, code academy makes learning programming languages fun and interactive.


Code Academy Part 1, HTML  and CSS:

  • Log onto codeacademy.com and create an account
  • Edit your profile
  • Click the "Learn" button and begin the "HTML Basics: Fundamentals of HTML" coding exercises
  • Complete all 6 units in the HTML Fundamentals lesson, Introduction to HTML, HTML structure using lists, HTML structures, tables, divs and spans
  • Upon completion email me a link to your achievements page
  • Complete all sections of the lesson by Tuesday