Sams Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML and CSS in One Hour a Day (5th Edition) P78 ppsx

Spam Applications such as weblogging tools and wikis enable you to build a relationship with your users by allowing them to contribute to your site, either by posting comments or contrib

Spam

Applications such as weblogging tools and wikis enable you to build a relationship with your users by allowing them to contribute to your site, either by posting comments or contributing information of their own Unfortunately, spammers looking to advertise their websites or raise their search engine rank also take advantage of these features by way of programs that seek out and automatically post to sites

running common software, such as TypePad, WordPress, and MediaWiki (among others)

There are a number of approaches to combating spam These days, most popular applications provide tools that attempt to prevent spammers from posting, but even so, some spam still makes it through I mention this only to let you know that it's a risk of deploying these kinds of applications on the Web these days

The most important thing to remember is that you shouldn't deploy one of these applications and then abandon it A MediaWiki installation that goes unused will be overrun with spammers in no time The same is true for the comments sections of weblogs as well If you put up an application but then stop using it, you should remove the files or configure your web server so that it is no longer publicly

accessible Not only will it keep spammers from filling up your databases with junk, but it will be an act

of good citizenship on the Web

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The purpose of this lesson was to take you beyond the realm of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and into the world of web publishing These days, there's more to publishing on the Web than uploading HTML files to

a server Using free or inexpensive tools, you can build interactive websites that help you keep a handle

on your content and make it easy to communicate with your users You can apply your newfound skills

to personalizing and improving these tools as well as to creating the content that you use them to

publish

Workshop

This final workshop contains some questions about content management systems, as well as a quiz and exercises

Q&A

Q What about security? I've read about security holes in some web applications.

A A number of popular web applications have been found to have bugs that can cause

security problems, and when you install an application, it's important to keep an eye

on subsequent releases to make sure that you install updates that fix any security holes that arise Deploying an application and not keeping it updated can leave you vulnerable not only to malicious users who want to break into your servers, but also spammers who look for problems with applications that can send mail to use them to deliver spam The bottom line is that putting up an application on the Web places some responsibility on the person who deployed it to keep it up to date and prevent it from being used for nefarious purposes

Q Is there a way to automatically keep my applications up to date?

A Some servers run operating systems with package managers As long as you install

your applications from packages supported by the package managers, you can let the operating system keep them up to date Doing so generally requires that you run your own server If you are using a web hosting provider, you're probably on your own when it comes to installing updates

Q Will my web hosting provider install and maintain any of these applications

for me?

A Some web hosting providers maintain installations of popular applications so that their customers don't have to install the applications themselves For example, there's a list

of web hosts that support WordPress at http://wordpress.org/hosting/ If you're sure which application you want to use, it may make sense to select your hosting provider

on that basis

Quiz

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2. Why do some applications require you to change the file permissions on the server?

3. Why do most installable applications ask you to specify a prefix for table names in a database?

Quiz Answers

1. Hosted applications tend to be less work up front and easier to maintain, but offer less flexibility than applications you install yourself

2. Applications that make changes to the file system, either because they store their data

in files or because they allow users to upload files, generally require you to change the file permissions for specific directories when you install them

3. Each application has its own table prefix in order to prevent naming conflicts when several applications use the same database For example, several applications might have their own table called "users." Adding an application-specific prefix to it will prevent conflicts

Exercises

1. Find out which operating system, application development environment, and database are available from your web host, if you have one If you're working on internal

projects, find out about your servers from the Information Technology department

2. Install one of the applications mentioned in this lesson, or one you find yourself, and try it out

3. Go forth and put your new web publishing skills to good use

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Part VII: Appendixes

A Sources for Further Information

B HTML 4.01 Quick Reference

C Cascading Style Sheet Quick Reference

D Colors by Name and Hexadecimal Value

E MIME Types and File Extensions

Appendix A Sources for Further Information

Appendix A Sources for Further Information

Haven't had enough yet? In this appendix, you'll find the URLs for all kinds of information about the World Wide Web, HTML, and developing websites With this information, you should be able to find just about anything you need on the Web

Caution

Some of the URLs in this appendix refer to FTP sites They might be very busy during

business hours, and you might not be able to access the files immediately Try again during

non-prime hours

Also, for mysterious reasons, some of these sites might be accessible through an FTP

program but not through web browsers If you're consistently refused by these sites using a

browser, try an FTP program instead

These sites are divided into the following categories and are listed in alphabetical order under each

category:

● Access counters

● Browsers

● Collections of HTML and web development information

● Forms and imagemaps

● HTML editors and converters

● HTML validators, link checkers, and simple spiders

● Java, JavaScript, and embedded objects

● Log file parsers

● HTML style guides

● Servers and server administration

● Sound and video

● Specifications for HTML, HTTP, and URLs

● Server-side scripting

● Web publishing tools

● Other web-related topics

● Tools and information for images

● Web hosting providers

● Web indexes and search engines

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Access Counters

Access counters without server programs

http://www.digits.com/

LiveCounter

http://www.chami.com/counter/classic/

Bravenet Counter

http://www.bravenet.com/webtools/counter/index.php

StatCounter

http://www.statcounter.com

Site Meter

http://www.sitemeter.com/

Extreme Tracking

http://extreme-dm.com/tracking/

Browsers

Internet Explorer

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/

Lynx (text-based browser)

http://lynx.browser.org/

Links (alternative to Lynx with better table handling)

http://links.sourceforge.net/

Mozilla Firefox

http://www.mozilla.com

Seamonkey

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Netscape page

http://browser.netscape.com/ns8/

Opera

http://www.operasoftware.com

Safari

http://www.apple.com/safari/

wget

http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/wget.html

evolt Browser Archive (huge archive of old browsers)

http://browsers.evolt.org/

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Collections of HTML and Web Development Information

CNET Builder.com

http://www.builder.com/

The home of the WWW Consortium

http://www.w3.org/

The Virtual Library

http://wdvl.com/

MSDN (Microsoft Developer's Network) Online

http://msdn.microsoft.com/

Mozilla Developer Center

http://developer.mozilla.org

AOL webmaster.info

http://webmaster.aol.com/

evolt.org

http://www.evolt.org/

A List Apart

http://www.alistapart.com/

W3Schools

http://www.w3schools.com/