Advanced HTML covers many different areas. From HTML 4.0, XML and DHTML connections, Floating Frames and Marquees that only work with IE+, to Multi-Column Text which only works in Netscape, and beyond. You name it, it's out there or it's on it's way!
Assignment:
Below are a few sites that offer some advanced previews of codes to come and some nice little tweaks and tricks to add along the way. Visit several of the sites to find an advanced HTML tweak that you would like to attempt.
Frames enable you display more
than one web page on the screen. Frames divide the screen into multiple, scrollable regions enabling
you to present information in a more flexible and useful fashion. Each frame can be given an
individual URL and name, allowing it to be targeted by documents in other frames. Each frame can
also be resized by the user.
You know that an image can serve as a hyperlink and that clicking anywhere on the image will activate the link. Image maps take this one step further. Image maps make it possible to mouse over and click on various parts of an image to take you to different URLs! For example, the Alaska Weather Geographic Map makes good use of image maps since the viewer can select regions on the map to link to the report about the region.
There are two types of image maps: server-side and client-side. Server-side image maps are the earliest developed and are supported by all browsers. Server-side image maps display the URL of the image map itself, but not the URL of the page to be loaded. Client-side image maps are a more recent development and not all browsers support them. However, as they are more efficient and easier to implement, they are quickly becoming the norm. Client-side image maps are able to display the URL of the hyperlink being moused over in the status bar of the web browser.
Image maps can be created in two different ways, by using an Image Map program or by determining exact coordinates of the perimeters of areas using an image editing program and writing the code yourself.
Creating an image map with an Image Map editor requires a five step progress.
Choose the type of Image Map editor you want to use.
Most of the information you retrieve from the World Wide Web using your browser is static, just as the pages in a book are. As you have seen, pages that are exceptions to this can be created using features like animated gifs, forms, and plug-ins. A few bells and whistles can improve the feel a user gets for a set of pages. For example, splash screens, applets, or some JavaScript can be used to spruce things up. However, it is better to include too few fancy items rather than to go overboard (Re: the Budd Uggly teaching site).
Splash Screens:
A splash screen is a temporary page (or "about box") that displays while the program is
loading in the background or that disappears just before the next document is loaded. An example of this is the following site: Screenworthy's . In order to create this splash screen a meta tag refresh script was used.
< META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="5; URL=http://www.screenworthy.com/main.html" >
Java Script Extensions:
JavaScript is a "scripting" language that was developed with the World Wide Web in mind. It is used for adding dynamic features to Web pages. JavaScript is not Java. Java is a seperate programming language distinct from JavaScript. Java programming is studied in the Web Programming I class. Many people confuse the two languages because of the similarity of their names. JavaScript statements are typically embedded directly within HTML code, in contrast to Java Applets and Java programs which are included seperately. JavaScript is a simple, interpreted programming language whereas Java is a compiled object-oriented programming language.
You have probably seen lots of Web pages that contain JavaScript code but perhaps were unaware they do. This page is has several examples. At the bottom of this document (if you are allowing Javascript to run on your browser) you should see an "updated" statement. This statement is automatically generated by the Document Updated
script. If you clicked on the document update hyperlink you noticed that that a smaller browser box opened that contained the script. This was done with the Pop Up Boxes
script. Above we discussed the Meta Tag Refresh script. If you mouse-over the menu at the footer of this page you will notice that the Status Bar Mouse Over
script.
Assignment:
The Java Script HTML Extensions document offers several tweaks. Choose one to use on one of your web pages -or- choose one of the scripts used on this page and linked in the above paragraph -or- choose one of the scripts from the Java Script Links list below.
Send the instructor the html extension that you tried and the URL it is displayed on.
Applets:
The idea behind applets is to allow even greater capabilities in terms of embedding dynamic content into otherwise static Web pages. Think of an applet as a "little application." An applet is a small program, written in the Java language, that the user downloads from a Web server and then runs locally on their own computer with their browser. (This is in contrast to a CGI script that is run on the remote server. You can learn more about CGI scripts in the Web Programming I class.) The browser takes care of all of the details of downloading and running the program without the user having to do any more than simply visit the Web page that includes the applet. There are two primary features of an applet:
The information presented by the applet is dynamic, meaning it changes over time.
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The Facilitator
