About
Web Templates
by: Lucia Ortnerova
WEB TEMPLATES
A web template is a tool used to
separate content from presentation
on the web design, and to the massive
production of web documents. It
runs in the context of a template
system.
Websites often require regular
content updates, and standardization
of appearance. A news website, for
example, needs to be daily updated.
Each news item will be contextualized
by a standard presentation (page
layout, structure, etc.). A typical
strategy to automate this standardization
is:
1. choose a web template system
to maintain the website;
2. specify the "presentation
standards" through web templates;
3. specify and update the content
on a database.
WEB DESIGN
Web design is the design of web
pages, websites and web applications
using HTML, CSS, images, and other
media.
Web design is part of starting
a website (web development) which
can include web server configuration,
writing web applications and server
security.
A website is a collection of information
about a particular topic or subject.
Designing a website is defined as
the arrangement and creation of
web pages that in turn make up a
website. A web page consists of
information for which the website
is developed. For example, a website
might be compared to a book, where
each page of the book is a web page.
A website typically consists of
text and images. The first page
of a website is known as the Home
page or Index. Some websites use
what is commonly called an Enter
Page. Enter pages might include
a welcome message, language/region
selection, or disclaimer. Each web
page within a website is an HTML
file which has its own URL. After
each web page is created, they are
typically linked together using
a navigation menu composed of hyperlinks.
Once a website is completed, it
must be published or uploaded in
order to be viewable to the public
over the internet. This is done
using an FTP client. Once published,
the webmaster may use a variety
of techniques to increase the traffic,
or hits, that the website receives.
This may include submitting the
website to a search engine such
as Google or Yahoo, exchanging links
with other websites, creating affiliations
with similar websites, etc.
A relatively new technique for
creating websites called Remote
Scripting has allowed more dynamic
use of the web without the use of
Flash or other specialized plug-ins.
Leading the various techniques is
Ajax, although other methods are
still common, as Ajax is not a fully
developed standard.
WEB PAGES
A web page or webpage is a resource
of information that is suitable
for the World Wide Web and can be
accessed through a web browser.
This information is usually in HTML
or XHTML format, and may provide
navigation to other web pages via
hypertext links.
Web pages may be retrieved from
a local computer or from a remote
web server. The web server may restrict
pages to a private network, e.g.
a corporate intranet, or it may
publish pages on the World Wide
Web. Web pages are requested and
served from web servers using Hypertext
Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
Web pages may consist of files
of static text within the web server's
file system (static web pages),
or the web server may read files
of computer code that instruct it
how to construct the (X)HTML for
each web page when it is requested
by a browser (dynamic web pages).
Web page is the main type of (and
a referential for) web document.
WEB TEMPLATES SYSTEM
A web template system is a kind
of "View subsystem" in
a Model-View-Controller (MVC or
similar) design pattern, to separate
presentation from content, on web
document production. A web template
system is characterized by:
1. Template engine: the software,
it processes input, transforming
into web document. It have two typical
entities on input:
a) Web template: a recipe with
web document fragments, to transform
content into web documents.
b) Content resource: a input supplier,
like a SQL database or a XML file.
2. Template language standards:
the language of the recipe.
Websites often require regular
content updates, and standardization
of appearance.
A news website, for example, needs
to be daily updated. Each news item
will be contextualized by a standard
presentation (page layout, structure,
etc.). A typical strategy to automate
this standardization is:
1. choose a web template system
to maintain the website;
2. group news items into sets,
with different presentation needs;
3. specify the "presentation
standards" through web templates,
for each set of news;
4. specify a content resource to
generate or update the content of
each news item.
The idea behind the "template
method" is to separate content
(data) from presentation (data representation),
and to separate business-logic from
presentation-logic. It have many
advantages in using:
1. Ease of design change
2. Ease of interface localization
3. Possibility to work separately
on design and code by different
people at one and the same time
4. Etc.
PAGE LAYOUT
Page layout is the part of graphic
design that deals in the arrangement
and style treatment of elements
(content) on a page. Beginning from
early illuminated pages in hand-copied
books of the Middle Ages and proceeding
down to intricate modern magazine
and catalog layouts, proper page
design has long been a consideration
in printed material. With print
media, elements usually consist
of type (text), images (pictures),
and occasionally place-holder graphics
for elements that are not printed
with ink such as die/laser cutting,
foil stamping or blind embossing.
Since the advent of personal computing,
page layout skills have expanded
to electronic media as well as print
media. The electronic page is better
known as a (GUI) graphical user
interface. Page layout for interactive
media overlaps with (and is often
called) interface design. This usually
includes GUI elements and multimedia
in addition to text and still images.
Interactivity takes page layout
skills from planning attraction
and eye flow to the next level of
planning user experience in collaboration
with software engineers and creative
directors.
A page layout can be designed in
a rough paper and pencil sketch
before producing, or produced during
the design process to the final
form. Both design and production
can be achieved using hand tools
or page layout software. Producing
the most popular electronic page
(the web page) may require knowledge
of markup languages along with WYSIWYG
editors to compensate for incompatibility
between platforms. Special considerations
must be made for how the layout
of an HTML page will change (reflow)
when resized by the end-user. cascading
style sheets are often required
to keep the page layout consistent
between web browsers.