Web Development
My interest in web development has mainly stemmed from the fact that I like writing about my other programming projects. Having used HTML generators for a number of years (and just tinkering with pure HTML), I decided to look in to the benefits of creating Strict HTML compliant web pages. After a couple of nudges, I have also started using a combination of PHP and CSS. The articles / snippets below are just a collection of the things that I have picked up that I have either adapted myself, or are not readily available elsewhere.
CSS Articles
| Article | Description |
|---|---|
| Pure CSS Web Menu | It is fairly easy to use your favourite client-side language to create a dynamic menu for use on your web pages, but what if your users have web scripts disabled? This version uses pure CSS / HTML to create the same effect, so any standards-compliant browser should display your navigation menu in the same way. |
| My Custom Styles | Not really an article - I just use this page as a testbed to play around with site styles... |
PHP Articles
| Article | Description |
|---|---|
| W3C Auto Site Validation | When your site validates correctly using the W3C validation tool, you get code to place an image and link on your website which allows anyone to confirm that validation. This relies on your browser sending the "referrer" HTML header. This small PHP version of the W3C logo allows you to check any page even if the referrer header is not supported. |
External Web Development Links
| Link | Description |
|---|---|
| W3CSchools.com | Whether you are looking to learn a web programming language or are looking for reference material about a specific web language, start here. Major sections on HTML, CSS, XML, Javascript, ASP, PHP and SQL. |
| W3.org | The World Wide Web Consortium is responsible for developing web standards. The site is quite dry and some of the standards are particularly heavy, but it should be the ultimate reference site for current international web standards. |
| reCaptcha | reCaptcha is a validation system which helps to digitise old books! I have used it for the contact form on this site and all is working well so far. It uses a simple private/public key system for validating the web site. There us a fairly simple PHP example on the reCaptcha web site if you want to use it yourself. |