Frequently Asked Questions
If you have a question that isn't answered here, let me know what it is and I'll consider adding it.
- How do I know what the assignments are?
- How do I know when the assignments are due?
- Do I really have to purchase the text?
- Do I really have to purchase the CD?
- How can I do well in the class?
- Why do you ask us to do a web site separate from the assignments each week?
- Will I lose points if my web site doesn't look great?
- Each time I do an assignment should I build a new web page from scratch?
- Is it OK if I include features in my web site that we have not yet covered in the class?
- How can I see my web pages outside the Class Gallery?
- How can I see the source code of a web page?
- What should I do with the web site that I created in the A class?
- How do I move/copy/delete a file or folder on the student server?
- How do I get the "alt" value to display when hovering over an image in Mozilla?
- How can I validate my XHTML before I mount it on the server?
- How can I figure out those confusing validation error messages?
- Why is it that the book uses "ISO-8859-1"
as the value for the charset in the meta tag (on p. 240, for example),
but in David's template in Assignment 2 the charset value is
"UTF-8"?
- I've uploaded my new webpage to the server, but my
browser still shows me the old page. Why is this?
- How do I know what the assignments
are?
- On the class home page is the schedule for the class. There is a summary
of each assignment on the page, the detailed assignment instructions are reached
by clicking the assignment name.
- How do I know when the assignments are due?
- Assignments are always due a week and a day after they are assigned. For example, this
class starts on a Wednesday, so the work assigned
in a particular week is due the following Thursdaynight at 11 PM.
- Do I really have to purchase the
text?
- Absolutely! The text is the central core around which the course is built.
It will be your friend for the duration of the course. It is an excellent text
and easy to read. All of the assignments and quiz questions will be based on
the content of the text.
- Do I really have to purchase the
CD?
- I strongly encourage you to purchase the CD. However, if one can measure
degrees of "required", the CD is less required than the text. Most
students love the CD and depend heavily on it because it gives clear, concise
instructions on how to get the assignments done. Also, it includes videos, so
if your learning style is visual or audio rather than read/write, the CD will be
indispensible.
- How can I do well in the class?
- The best strategy for doing well in this class is to do the required reading
from the text CAREFULLY! Don't skim. Read every word, and then re-read. When
the text suggests that you do an exercise, actually sit down and do it before
you go on to the next page!
- Why do you ask us to do a web site
separate from the assignments each week?
- I used to ask students to develop their web sites and do their weekly
assignments in those pages. It turned out that many of the sites looked horrible
because so many different CSS rules had been developed. I decided that the
better way to do it is to use a practice page each week for the assignments,
and then you can decide to use what you think would look good on your web site.
- Will I lose points if my web site doesn't
look great?
- CSS is all about looking good, but, on the other hand, this is not a design
class. This is a class in which you learn the technical aspects of web page
development. In the A class I asked my students to experiment with CSS, but in
this class I want you to master what we study. Find ways to implement the CSS
elements you like in your pages, and your site will end up looking good.
- Each time I do an assignment should
I build a new web page from scratch?
- Not necessarily. I used to ask students to do their assignments on their
web site pages, but that proved to be too cumbersome. Now I ask students to
develop a web page for each assignment to demonstrate that they can do the work
of that week. You can use the same basic HTML code over and over again if you
like, assuming the content is appropriate to the assignment.
- Is it OK if I include features in my
web site that we have not yet covered in the class?
- No. This usually ends up confusing the student who tries, not to mention
the instructor trying to grade the work. Please avoid this.
- How can I see my web pages outside the Class
Gallery?
- Your space on the student server is yours for as long as you are a student
at the JC, plus one semester. You have storage limit of 50 MB, and you can use
it as you like, within the limits of the use agreement. You access your web
pages from the internet by typing
http://student.santarosa.edu/~yourusername/filename.html.
- How can I see the source code of a web
page?
- Right-click (Command-click on Mac) on the page (not on a picture) and choose
View Source or View Page Source from the menu that appears. This will work on
any page except one made in frames.
- What should I do with the web site that I
created in the A class?
- I suggest that you start a new site in this class. If you decide to do this
and you want to maintain that first site, you should create a folder to hold the
pages you made in the A class. Name the folder something that makes sense, copy
the files in the public_html folder (including the images folder and any other
folders you created) and paste them into your new folder. Most FTP software will
allow you to drag and drop your files into the new folder, but it won't erase
the files from the original location at the same time. You will have to go back
and delete all those files and folders in the public_html folder. Also, you
can't delete a folder that has any files in it, so you need to delete the
contents before you can delete the folder.
Then you will tell your friends and relations to go to
http://student.santarosa.edu/~yourusername/newfoldername/index.html to see your
old site.
- How do I move/copy/delete a file or folder on
the student server?
- The student server doesn't act like your hard drive at home. If you
accidentally upload a file or folder to the wrong spot, it can be a pain to
make things right again. You can copy and paste from any location, and most of
the current FTP software will allow you to drag a file or folder to a new
location. However, the drag doesn't actually move it; a copy is made in the new
location instead. So, to get your the original incorrectly placed files/folders
out of your space, you need to go back and delete them.
You can delete files without a problem, but you can't delete a folder unless it
is empty. This usually isn't a problem, except for Mac people. It turns out that
a hidden file called .DS_Store is uploaded along with your other files. There
should be a setting in your FTP software in one of the menus to
"Show Hidden Files". Turn that on, and then you can delete all the
files in a folder.
- How do I get the "alt" value to display when
hovering over an image in Mozilla?
- You need to include one more attribute in your image tag in addition to
alt -- title. So the whole tag would be
<img src="images/coast.jpg"
alt="Sonoma Coast" title="Sonoma Coast" />
- How can I validate my XHTML before I mount
it on the server?
- You go to http://validator.w3.org
and click on the Validate by Direct Input tab. You can paste in your code and
have it checked on the spot.
- How can I figure out those confusing
validation error messages?
- I've put together a page that should help. By
now, however, you should have enough experience to be able to figure out most of
them on your own. If you are still completely mystified, you should come and
talk to me. This is an incredibly important skill to master.
- Why is it that the book uses "ISO-8859-1"
as the value for the charset in the meta tag (on p. 240, for example),
but in David's template in Assignment 2 the charset value is
"UTF-8"?
- In the template given in assignment 2, the meta tag (which is in the head
section) declares a charset value of "UTF-8". In most of the examples
in the text, the value "ISO-8859-1" is used. Here's the scoop. Some
servers do not declare a default charset, and so you can use either UTF-8 or
ISO-8859-1. However, the student server declares a default charset of UTF-8, so
if you use the value ISO-8859-1 in your meta tag, the validator gives you a
warning message about a "character encoding mismatch"". You should try
it just for fun.
Why do you care about this? If, after this class, you transfer your pages to
another server, and that server declares a default charset of ISO-8859-1, you
would need to change your meta tag accordingly to avoid getting that warning
message when you validate.
- I've uploaded my new webpage to the server, but my browser
still shows me the old page. Why is this?
- Browsers commonly save a copy of each page that they display, to save it the
trouble of having to retrieve it from the server if the user asks to see it
again. Unfortunately, this means that if you want to see the new, updated
version of the webpage, you have to click on the refresh (or reload) button in
your browser. Some browsers have a preferences setting to make it so that pages
are always retrieved from the server each time they are loaded, and I strongly
suggest using this setting if you can figure out how to do it. Unfortunately,
one of the (few) things I dislike about Firefox is that it does not allow this
preference to my knowledge.
