Dreamweaver MX 2004: Your Connection to the Internet - Understand Data-Driven Web Application Components
(Page 6 of 16 )
Everything covered so far makes up the component parts of your real interest in this book, which is the Web site. If you understand the stand-alone HTML document, you can consider the Web site to be a collection of those documents that makes up an interconnected web of information. What the entire Web is on a grand scale, the Web site is in its own little universe.
When you have a lot of content that you need to display, you have a couple choices you can make. Believe it or not, some people actually choose to make one really long document that scrolls down forever. Although it eventually gets to everything they want to say, there is a more practical solution.
A Web site is formed when you bring together a collection of HTML documents that are related to one another and need to be displayed together. By organizing this content and providing logical ways to navigate it, you are turning your individual documents into a site that users can use to find and access the information they need. There are three common layouts for such a site.
The first is the Table of Contents model, which provides a front-end interface to a catalog of material. For instance, if you have a book or a report that is divided into sections, you might have a table of contents page that provides links to each section. As each section is completed, the user would return to the table of contents to determine the next section he or she wants to access.
The second is the Web structure, where content is full of cross-referencing links. On any given page, you might have a number of links to other parts of the site connecting related material. The intent of such a structure is for the user to peruse the content of the site in a sort of stream-of-consciousness way, branching off to related parts of the site at will.
The third is the Web application. In a Web application, the user is typically guided through the site in a structured way by the manner in which the pages are designed. For instance, if you are filling out an online insurance application, it would be important to complete each section of the application in order to be sure that everything is properly filled out. In a Web application, the user depends on the site designer to guide him or her through the specific documents that need to be completed.
Progress Check
What is the use of the File Transfer Protocol? (To transfer files to and from computers over a distributed network)
What are the two protocols that make up TCP/IP? (Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol)
WHat is the language of the Web? (HTML)
As you can see, there is a lot to learn during your journey toward Web stardom. The technologies and concepts that make up the Internet have been a while in the making, and if you are just now starting, you have a little catching up to do. But that is why we are here together.
So let’s get started doing something practical by looking at the technologies involved in deploying a Web application. We start by installing Dreamweaver and then consider the related products you will need to access in order to successfully build your site.
 This chapter is from Dreamweaver MX 2004: A Beginner's Guide, by Tom Muck and Ray West (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2004, ISBN: 0-07-222996-9). Check it out at your favorite bookstore today.
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