Doctypes and domain names Creating and modifying Webpages This resource has been prepared for the School of Digital Technology, Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology. Updated 2016 by School of Digital Technology, NMIT
doctypes <!DOCTYPE html> is a required tag placed at the very beginning of every web page and is used to tell the browser which version of HTML is being used in the document. There’s a whole heap of DOCTYPEs but as HTML standards are still being developed we will be using the transitional doc type showing our page will contain both old and new HTML code. <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> All the html you create in Notepad ++ from now on should contain a !DOCTYPE. The format is: <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html> <head> <title>Safety tips</title> </head> <body> The web page is in here </body> </html>
Domain names As you already know every website has a URL (universal resource locator) that will display a web page. (eg http://www.nmit.ac.nz). To own a URL you must go through a process to register your domain name; very much like renting office space on the internet. For example you’d like to create website for your local swimming club, the first step would be to purchase a domain name. You’re thinking nelsonswimmers.com could be a good one, so First check that nelsonswimmers.com is available. One way to do this is to go to: www.networksolutions.com .and type ‘nelsonswimmers ‘ in the search box. It’s available (or was on 13 Dec2016 anyway) for purchase. If you did purchase it you would be the proud owner of nelsonswiimers.com/nz
Web Hosts There are a number of companies that can host your new website, (nelsonswimmers.com.nz_ some of them are free and some will charge. Wordpress will host a very basic website for free HosPapa, will over more services for a charge
Validating a webpage The W3C validator is a good way to check your html. Copying and pasting your html into the validator will let your know if your HTML code passes the minimum standards required to display on most web browsers effectively. Copy all your code Go to https://validator.w3.org/ Click Validate by direct input Paste you HTML code into this area Click CHECK If your html passed the Validator which it should do, the following screen should appear (notice the Passed notice): You can ignore the 2 warnings, addressing these is outside the scope of this course.
Validating a webpage To show your readers that you have taken the care to create an interoperable Web page (good for multiple browsers), you may display this icon on any page that validates. Here is the HTML you can use to add this icon to your Web page: Note: if you validation did not pass read the comments below the results to try and correct the errors. You may not be able to correct all errors as some may be beyond the scope of this course. However if your webpage is not showing the way you’d planned, the validator is a good place to start to find out why. We will run the validator later on in the course.