Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Web Designing: HTML

Introduction to HTML

HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the main markup language for creating web pages and other information that can be displayed in a web browser.
The purpose of a web browser is to read HTML documents and compose them into visible or audible web pages. The browser does not display the HTML tags, but uses the tags to interpret the content of the page.

History of HTML, SGML

The Standard Generalized Markup Language descended from IBM's Generalized Markup Language (GML), which Charles Goldfarb, Edward Mosher, and Raymond Lorie developed in the 1960s. Goldfarb, editor of the international standard, coined the “GML” term using their surname initials. As a document markup language, SGML was originally designed to enable the sharing of machine-readable large-project documents in government, law, and industry. Many such documents must remain readable for several decades—a long time in the information technology field. SGML also was extensively applied by the military, and the aerospace, technical reference, and industrial publishing industries. The advent of the XML profile has made SGML suitable for widespread application for small-scale, general-purpose use.
While HTML was developed partially independently and in parallel with SGML, its creator Tim Berners-Lee, intended it to be an application of SGML. The design of HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) was therefore inspired by SGML tagging

Structure of HTML Document

HTML documents are structured into two parts, the HEAD, and the BODY. Both of these are contained within the HTML element -- this element simply denotes this as an HTML document.
The head contains information about the document that is not generally displayed with the document, such as its TITLE. The BODY contains the body of the text, and is where you place the document material to be displayed. Elements allowed inside the HEAD, such as TITLE, are not allowed inside the BODY, and vice versa.
The general format is
            <html>
                                    <head>
                                                <Title> Title of the page</Title>
                                    </head>

                                    <body>
                                                Content to be displayed in the Browser window goes here
                                    </body>
            </html>

Webpage layout

HTML Tags and Types

Elements and Tags

Elements form the essence of HTML. They give structure to a HTML document and tells the browser how the website should be presented. Generally elements consist of a start tag, some content, and an end tag. Tags are labels used to mark up the beginning and end of an element.
All tags have the same format: they begin with a less-than sign "<" and end with a greater-than sign ">".
Generally speaking, there are two kinds of tags - opening tags: <html> and closing tags: </html>. The only difference between an opening tag and a closing tag is the forward slash "/". The content of the element is added between the opening and closing tags of the element.
There are a few elements which both open and close in the same tag. These so-called empty elements are not connected to a specific passage in the text but rather are isolated labels, for example, a line break which looks like this: <br />.

Font tag

The <font> tag specifies the font face, font size, and font colour of text.
     E.g.      <font size="3" color="red"> This is some text </font>
             <font face="verdana" color="green"> This is some text </font>

Paragraph formatting

Paragraphs are defined with the <p> tag.
            E.g. <p>This is a paragraph</p>
Other text formatting tags used are:
·        <b> - bold
·        <u> - underline
·        <i> -  italics
·        <h1> to <h8> - Headings of various levels.

Meta data

Metadata is data (information) about data. The <meta> tag provides metadata about the HTML document. Metadata will not be displayed on the page. Meta elements are typically used to specify page description, keywords, author of the document, last modified and other metadata.
The metadata can be used by browsers (how to display content or reload page), search engines (keywords), or other web services.
            E.g. <meta name = “Keywords” content = “HTML, JavaScript, Frontpage”>
                   <meta name = “Description” content = “Web Designing Notes”>

Blockquote

The <blockquote> tag specifies a section that is quoted from another source.
Browsers usually indent <blockquote> elements.
E.g.     <blockquote>
Here is a long quotation. here is a long quotation
            </blockquote>

Hyperlinks

The HTML <a> tag defines a hyperlink.
A hyperlink (or link) is a word, group of words, or image that you can click on to jump to another document.
When you move the cursor over a link in a Web page, the arrow will turn into a little hand.
The most important attribute of the <a> element is the href attribute, which indicates the link’s destination.
Syntax: <a href = “url”> Display Text </a>
E.g. <a href = “https://sites.google.com/site/sreesanth”> My site </a>

Comments

The comment tag is used to insert comments in the source code. Comments are not displayed in the browsers.
You can use comments to explain your code, which can help you when you edit the source code at a later date. This is especially useful if you have a lot of code. Comments are added between <!-- and --> tags
Synatax: <!-- Comment -->
E.g. <body> <!-- This tag defines the contents displayed in the browser window -->

White space

Browsers will always truncate spaces in HTML pages. If you write 10 spaces in your text, the browser will remove 9 of them, before displaying the page. To add spaces to your text, you can use the &nbsp (non breaking space)

Horizontal ruler

The <hr> tag defines a thematic break in an HTML page. It is used to add a horizontal line in the page.

Images

In HTML, images are defined with the <img> tag. It contains attributes only, and has no closing tag. To display an image on a page, you need to use the src attribute. Src stands for "source". The value of the src attribute is the URL of the image you want to display.
Syntax: <img src = “url” >

Lists

HTML supports two types of lists - ordered and unordered lists.
An unordered list starts with the <ul> tag. Each list item starts with the <li> tag.
E.g. <ul>
            <li> Floppy </li>
            <li> Pen Drive </li>
        </ul>
The list items are marked with bullets. The output of the above code is:
·         Floppy
·         Pen Drive
An ordered list starts with the <ol> tag. Each list item starts with the <li> tag.
E.g. <ol>
            <li> Floppy </li>
            <li> Pen Drive </li>
        </ol>
The list items are marked with numbers. The output of the above code is:
1.       Floppy
2.       Pen Drive

Frames

The <frame> tag defines one particular window (frame) within a <frameset>.
Each <frame> in a <frameset> can have different attributes, such as border, scrolling, the ability to resize, etc.
The <frameset> tag defines a frameset.
The <frameset> element holds one or more <frame> elements. Each <frame> element can hold a separate document.
The <frameset> element specifies HOW MANY columns or rows there will be in the frameset, and HOW MUCH percentage/pixels of space will occupy each of them.
E.g.     <frameset cols="25%,*,25%">
                                    <frame src=" a.html">
                                    <frame src=" b.html">
                                    <frame src=" c.html">
            </frameset>
The above code partitions the browser window vertically into 3 columns. The first and last columns being 25% of the windows width respectively. The middle portion (indicated by *) consumes the rest of the window’s width. Each frame is loaded with different html pages (a.html, b.html and c.html respectively)

Tables

The <table> tag defines an HTML table.
An HTML table consists of the <table> element and one or more <tr><th>, and <td> elements. The <tr> element defines a table row, the <th> element defines a table header, and the <td> element defines a table cell.
E.g.  <table border="1">
   <tr>
              <th>Book</th>
              <th>Author</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
              <td>HTML</td>
              <td>Ivan Bayross</td>
   </tr>
            <tr>
                        <td>Java</td>
                        <td> Schildt </td>
            </tr>
</table>
The above HTML code above looks as shown below in a browser:
Book
Author
HTML
Ivan Bayross
Java
Schildt

Forms

HTML forms are used to collect data from a user.
An HTML form can contain input elements like text fields, password fields, checkboxes, radio-buttons, submit buttons, reset buttons and more. A form can also contain select lists, textarea and label elements.
The <form> tag is used to create an HTML form
<form name = “”>
                          input elements
</form>
The most important form element is the <input> element.
The <input> element is used to select user information.
An <input> element can vary in many ways, depending on the type attribute. An <input> element can be of type text field, checkbox, password, radio button, submit button, and more.
The most commonly used input elements are:

Text Fields

<input type="text"> defines a one-line input field that a user can enter text into:
E.g. <form>
First name: <input type="text" name="fname"><br>
Last name: <input type="text" name="lname">
</form>
The above HTML code above looks as shown below in a browser:

First name:  
Last name:  
The type attribute determines what type of input control has to be placed on the browser. The name attribute associates a name for the input object.

Password Field

<input type="password"> defines a password field:
E.g.<form>
Password: <input type="password" name="pwd">
</form>
The above HTML code above looks as shown below in a browser:
Password: 
The difference between a Text field and a password field is that the characters keyed in by a user in a password field is not displayed, instead it shows ‘.’ or ‘*

Radio Buttons

<input type="radio"> defines a radio button. Radio buttons let a user select ONLY ONE of a limited number of choices. The name attribute for a set of radio buttons should have the same value, actually this group the buttons into a single unit.
E.g. <form>
<input type="radio" name="sex" value="male">Male<br>
<input type="radio" name="sex" value="female">Female
</form>
The above HTML code above looks as shown below in a browser:
Male
Female

Checkboxes

<input type="checkbox"> defines a checkbox. Checkboxes let a user select ZERO or MORE options of a limited number of choices.
E.g. <form>
<input type="checkbox" name="Accessories" value="Floppy"> Floppy <br>
<input type="checkbox" name=" Accessories" value="CD"> CD
</form>
The above HTML code above looks as shown below in a browser:
Floppy
CD

Buttons

The input element with type as “button” defines a clickable button. The value attribute can be used to define the text displayed on the button. The type attribute specifies the type of button.
Syntax: <button type="button|submit|reset" value =””>
Reset button is used to clear the data in input controls of a form. A submit button is used to send form data to a server. 
E.g. <form >
Username: <input type="text" name="uname">
<input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>
How the HTML code above looks in a browser:
Username: 



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