Yo! Sorry, just getting back around. Between clients and Obama parties, it's pretty wild around here
Quick primer Sparky:
As you may or may not know, the Hyper Text Transmit Protocol (HTTP, that which websites are delivered) is a pretty simple, single request-response protocol. In other words, a single request is thrown at a web server and a single response comes back. (There are some rather esoteric exceptions to this, but that is absolutely a fine way to think about it). The protocol is straight text, meaning that you can TELNET into a webserver and type in a request for a page and it will come back to you. The
content that is sent via HTTP is either Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) or other types of files like graphics. HTML is straight text as well, where clearly a graphics file is a binary.
The first question always asked (after one groks that) is, "well if it's a single request/response protocol, and HTML is straight text, then how do graphics work?" When the HTML of a page is delivered to the browser, it is parsed and the browser notices there are references to graphics in it. So each graphic is a single request to the server. F'reals. Every graphic is another request thrown up to the server and responded to with the appropriate data. In other words, if you had an HTML file with 100 graphic reference in it, it will take 101 requests/responses to and from the web server to complete the page you just requested (1 for the HTML then 100 for the graphics).
Back to plumbing. When you purchase a hosting plan, they will set up Apache (the worlds most common http daemon) to point to (your) root directory. In Linux directories are pretty much the same as DOS, except that they use a forward slash instead of a backwards slash. Your root will probably be something like, '/www/htdocs/YourDomainName/public/'. In your directory you'll make your first Hello World, and it will look something like this:
<html>
<head>
<title>This is my Hello World page!</title>
</head>
<body>
<center>
<h1>
Hello World!
</h1>
</center>
</body>
</html>
When you point your browser at (your) domain, you'll see a big "Hello World" in the middle of the page.
Hoorah.
The best way to work with your files is to get a program like TextWrangler or BBEdit (if you're a Mac man) that will load and save files from an FTP site. FTP, if you don't know, is File Transport Protocol and it is older than dirt. It allows you to move files from one machine to another. In this case, it will "load" a file from your hosted account via FTP, allow you to edit it and then when you save it it will push the file back up to the server.
There are a LOT of things that you should know in there ... you should eventually become familiar with VI (a command line editor for Linux/Unix) for example. But not now. What you need to do at this point is get this book:
Head First HTML with CSS and XHTML... because you need to know a LOT about HTML before we add any other complexity. You will read here from others that you should take on PHP, or MySQL or Python, or PERL, or .NET or any number of things. Trust me on this one. We want to reduce the overall complexity of what you're after and get right to the core of the first matter.
So, action steps:
- Order the book from Amazon. It'll take a couple days to get to you.
- Make sure there is a fresh bottle of Advil in your medicine cabinet. Trust me on this one as well
- Get a really cheap hosting plan. For the future, you'll want to find one that at least has PHP 5 support. GoDaddy has a fine plan and is plenty reputable, however the ISP that you purchased your domain from will probably have a plan that works for you.
- Google for a text editor you'd like to use. Notepad is fine for editing in Windows, but you'll need an FTP program to move the file from your local machine to your web host. TextWrangler is fine for the Mac. Pingback here if you think you've found one but are unsure. Download and install.
- Copy the HTML code from above into a new file in the text editor.
- Save the file via FTP to your hosted account. It will ask for your domain/host, a username and password which you should get from your web host.
- Point a web browser to (your domain) and you should see a big Hello World.
- Crack one, take a load off. You've hit the first mark.
- When the book arrives, start writing HTML like crazy. It'll come fast.
That should be enough to bother you for several days at least. My biggest suggestion: Don't spread your thinking into languages like PHP too quickly - you'll develop big 'ol holes in your learning of HTML. Get your grok on with HTML and CSS first. Good luck!
/perk
