AIM Class1
Contents
Course Introduction
Introductions
Introductions of instructor and students in course.
Overview of Course
Required Texts
HTML for the World Wide Web with XHTML and CSS by Elizabeth Castro, ISBN: 0321130073, February 2003 - 5th edition (abbreviated as XHTML in the syllabus)
The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web by Dave Shea and Molly E. Holzschlag, ISBN: 0321303474, 2005 (abbreviated as ZEN in the syllabus)
Highly Recommended Texts
Excerpts from these texts will be given as handouts
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville, ISBN: 0596000359 (abbreviated as IA in the syllabus)
Pause & Effect: The Art of Interactive Narrative by Mark S. Meadows, ISBN: 0735711712 (abbreviated as PE in the syllabus)
Login Accounts
To use the computers and studios in the Interactive Arts and Media department, you must first have an account with our servers. If you do not have a login account, please fill out the New Account Form.
Website Contracts
You must have a website on our servers for this course. Once you have an account, you can apply for a website by filling out the website contract form. Print the form, fill it out, and submit it to your instructor or Jeff Meyers.
Contact Information Forms
Print and fill out the Contact Information form. Return the completed form to your instructor.
Overview of Syllabus
Walkthrough of syllabus
Questions about Syllabus
Goal Oriented Media
What does it mean to develop something that is goal oriented?
Introduction to Website Construction
- Broad context of HTML/XHTML/CSS/XML
- WYSIWYG editors (such as Dreamweaver) vs. using a text editor
About the Web
- Brief history of the Internet
- Internet vs. WWW
- Evolution of markup - where it came from, where it is going.
Vocabulary
- Internet
- WWW
- FTP
- Browsers
- Servers
- IP address
- URL
- Markup
- HTML
- XML
- XHTML
- CSS
Definitions
Markup
HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is a set of directions that instructs another program (a "user agent" or "browser") to structure content.
Resources and Software
- Note about available resources at Columbia
- Server space (IAM)
- Recommendations
- Text editors (HTMLkit, SCITE)
- Image editors (GIMP, Photoshop, ImageReady)
- FTP applications (WinSCP, FileZilla)
- Server spaces
- Domain name services
- Redirecting to your site
Quick Overview
The process of editing with a text editor and a browser for previewing (screenshots are in the HTML Authoring (pdf) document).
XHTML + CSS
Structure and Presentation
Structure should be separated from presentation.
XHTML: Extending HTML
Earlier we spoke about the benefits of XML and why we are moving away from pure HTML documents. So why was HTML extended instead of replacing it entirely with XML?
XML is a "meta" markup language. In order to have anything meaningful, you must either use a pre-existing set of elements or create your own (unlike HTML, XML doesn't come with a predefined set of tags). For those looking to quickly markup a document, or for those who mainly need the set of tags already defined by HTML, XHTML is a more appropriate language to start with. XML languages can then be used in XHTML documents (HTML can not be used in XML languages - extending HTML allows us to use XHTML in conjunction with XML)
XHTML is almost exactly the same language as HTML 4.0 with a few important differences.
- Syntax - See the W3 Guidelines
XHTML Compliant Documents
Basic XHTML/CSS doc formats
Single page construction
- Basic text editing SCiTE Text Wrangler
- Links
- Lists
- Images
- Tables (with caveat)
Multiple page construction
- Linking between pages
- Organizing site structure (and files)
- File naming: Filenaming is extremely important when working in a team - by having a predefined way of labeling files it is easier to know what a file's purpose is without having to open it up and figure it out. It is also useful when working individually on a large project. For example, if a site has navigation graphics that begin with nav_filename.jpg, when you see a file called nav_logographic.jpg you will know exactly what it is used for, and what type of image it is. It is ok to have long file names (we aren't running unix here), and the more explicit the name, the easier it will be to decipher the file's use three years from now.
- Naming conventions: Create a (or choose an existing) naming convention that you are comfortable with and then stay with it. Be consistent.
- Directory structure: Keep units together (such as all project one files in a folder called "projectOne" with a subfolder for "images")
- Basic navigation system
Posting to a server and testing
- How to post to the IAM server
- How to post to a remote server (using FTP)
- Browsing to a page vs. opening a page locally
Links
Text Editors
- PC/Linux: SCiTE
- OSX: Text Wrangler
FTP Programs
Markup
Getting Started With HTML HTML Authoring (pdf) HTML 4.0 Specification
Homework
- Create Class Portfolio Website AIM Homework Create Class Website AIM Project 1:Create Class Website
- [AIM Assignment 1] - Web site analysis project
Reading
XHTML: Introduction (pgs 13-22), Chapters 1, 2, and 3