1. Website Basics Setting up/planning a web site
CIS 388
Website Basics Setting up/planning a web site

2. Planning, planning, planning!!!
Considerations when preparing a website:
Hardware requirements
Server software/programming requirements
Page requirements/technologies and structure
Plugins, add-ons, redesigns, and future upgrades

3. Hardware Requirements
Basic hardware requirements for a simple web server
800Mhz cpu, 2Gb ram 10Gb hard disk, 10/100 NIC
A basic web site requires the same hardware as an FTP site, but add database (MySQL), a high volume of network traffic, ASP/PHP scripting languages, videos/audio, etc… and those requirements can go up FAST!
A development box should be simple and basic, but plan for a site to be hosted on something that can scale (*try to shoot for a production box that is roughly 2x what you may think you’ll need), virtual if possible! (virtualbox:

4. Server Requirements 2 most popular web servers are:
IIS (Internet Information Services) - *Windows only
Apache
For development box the server is generally as important, but for simplicity windows/IIS is recommended.
Tools and Resources:
Apache/Windows – WAMP (
IIS/Windows – Web PI ( *

5. Page requirements/technologies and structure
Server Side Coding Languages/ Web Server
ASP (IIS)
PHP (IIS/Apache)
JSP (Java server)
Basic Page Design Starts in Photoshop/Fireworks (graphics program)
Design Style of the page and cut it up and put it into code
*Keep pages as “light” as possible (png, gif, jpeg)

6. Plugins, add-ons, redesigns, and future upgrades
Going with a CMS (content management system) will simplify the considerations when planning a site as most content management systems specify certain software/hardware requirements.
Select a CMS that is widely supported, and has “room to grow” (plug-ins and add-ons)
Content Management systems separate the data/content of a page from the design making it easy to redesign the site. Also the database containing the data can be “picked up” and moved to another site/location with minimal effort in the event of an emergency and simplifies the backup process.
Web PI Web App Gallery:

7. Assignment
If possible, select a server/CMS package that we have covered today and try to play with it and configure it on your computer. Make some notes about what you thought/experienced and comment on it at my website (Class 2):
Also be sure to check out the links and resources page, I’ll be adding some of your links to the page: