I short while I was asked to sit down with a graphic artist who also was a web developer because they wanted me to teach them what I knew because I had commented on their work to their client (who happened to also be one of my database clients).
I was more than happy to oblige, as I have no problem trying to help someone else out when I can.
They basically knew how-to use Dreamweaver, but that was about it. So I went over a number of things that I have learnt in the past few years and thought I should post them here should they be useful to someone else. So here goes…
The first aspect I wanted to emphasize was the importance of clean code! What does this entail, a couple of simple things really:
- CSS driven design
- Separate files for CSS, JS
- Clean directory structure. Don’t dump everything into the root folder, but rather make a simple directory structure (images, js, css, …)
- When appropriate add comments within your code so you can find yourself at a later date.
- Ensure that your design is cross-browser compliant. Long gone are the days that Internet Explorer is the only web browser, so make sure your website works in the other browsers (Firefox, Opera, Safari, and many more…)
- Ensure your code is W3C compliant by simply testing each of your pages with their Free Validation tools (links provided below). Take some time to get to know the standards and utilize all the free information this organisation provides.
W3C Links
Other Useful Links
- Learn how-to embed special fonts in a webpage without using images to do so, see: http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/sifr
- General info regarding proper webpage development, see: http://www.seoconsultants.com/seo/tips/
- Info about the Robots.txt file: http://www.javascriptkit.com/howto/robots.shtml
- As I mentioned earlier, it is crusial that you ensure that your website properly renders in various browser. As such, there are a number of website which offer to literally show you the results of your website in these browser. So take advantage of these services and test it out. For instance, check out: http://browsershots.org/
Javascript and JQuery
At some point or another you will be faced with the need to add some form of automation to your webpage. At that point you will need to look into javascripting,… I would urge you to simply go straight to learning JQuery instead. It actually use javascript, but is simpler and comes with many already existing functions and samples. Believe me, this will save you time and frustrations in the long run and will give you tremendous capabilities right from the start. Another beauty is that unlike custom javascript functions, jQuery is crossbrowser compatible! This will save you countless hours of testing, troubleshooting and finding browser hacks!!! Check it out for yourself at: http://jquery.com/
I truly hope this brief article gives you a jump start into web development and various online resources at your disposal. Have fun!