Learning Website Design: Session 3 – How Browsers work

December 6th, 2009 admin Location: Raleigh, North Carolina

In our previous article we took a look at what is html and how hyper transfer protocol allowed us to see pages. In this article I am going to explain in a simple way how the browser finds and displays your pages.

The browser is a piece of software that sits in your computer and interprets html, css, javascript and some other technologies like images, videos and java applets.

THE URL

The first step in using a browser is that you type in a URL in the URL bar. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address that identifies a particular resource on the web. The address is a naming convention and it is composed of different parts:

• The first part is the protocol. Some protocols include https, ftp, etc.
• The host or hostname is merkados.com, where the .com is also known as the top level domain tld.
• The subdomain is whatever is before the host name, examples could be: intermarketing.merkados.com. Where intermarketing is the subdomain.
• The next part is the port. And the default port number for http transmission in web servers is 80. Other ports are possible; a web server can listen on port 8000, for example. You can avoid listing the port number when the default is expected, however if you are accessing another port you need to include it: intermarketing.merkados.com:8888
• The request path is /path. Path typically refers to a file or location on the web server, e.g. /directory/file.html. So for example: merkados.com/pathgoeshere/ would be a directory. and merkados.com/pathgoeshere.html would be a file.
• This URL can also have parameters. These parameters help determine the request for dynamic pages served with a database. Parameters start with a question mark (?) and are separated with an ampersand (&). So for example you would see: www.merkados.com/path?uid=23033. The uid would be the user id parameter and in this case is 23033.
• Finally the last part that you may encounter in a URL is an anchor. The anchors are set by the pound sign (#). For example: merkados.com/services#best_services. That means jump to a subsection inside of a page named services that is called best_services.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Design Tutorials | Comments Off

Learning Website Design: Session 2 – Main Concepts

December 2nd, 2009 admin Location: Raleigh, North Carolina

OK, in our first session of our series “Learning website design” we looked at our favorite tools to get the job done. In this one, I will explain the main concepts of how the web works and also an introduction on how websites do their job.

HTTP – HyperText Transfer Protocol

It is important to understand what HTTP is. It stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. Hypertext is the text that can be linked to other pieces of content (other text). Think of a protocol as a set of rules or directives that allow computers (browsers) to interpret a language. For example, when you extend your hand forward to another person, they “understand” that they are supposed to “shake” your hand in a gesture that means “welcome” or “hello”. That understanding is a protocol. The protocol of HyperText Markup simply defines what the rules are for a browser to be able to interpret it and display it in a human-readable way. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off