Week Fifteen (MGDP2060)
This article lists topics for Week Fifteen of MGDP2060.
This is the final class session of the semester.
Contents
- 1 All work due by December 20
- 2 Optional student guest lectures
- 3 Guest lectures
- 4 Clients and servers
- 5 Kinds of data
- 6 HTTP request methods
- 7 Hyperlinks
- 8 Web forms
- 9 PHP
- 10 LAMP stack
- 11 localhost
- 12 phpMyAdmin
- 13 WordPress
- 14 WordPress themes
- 15 WordPress child themes
- 16 WordPress custom themes
- 17 Referencing images (and other resources) in a theme
- 18 WordPress functions.php
- 19 WordPress plugins
- 20 MediaWiki
- 21 E-Commerce
- 22 Web host control panel
- 23 Domain names
- 24 WHOIS
- 25 Domain name registration
- 26 Spring 2016: Web Design and Development II (MGDP2050)
- 27 See also
All work due by December 20
All work is due by Midnight December 20.
- Zip file containing your Theme folder
- Send to instructor via email: karl@karljones.com
Optional student guest lectures
Optional: student guest lectures (optional non-credit activity for personal growth)
Guest lectures
Guest lectures did not work out.
Instructor will give a presentation instead, summarizing key points from the semester, and filling in some missing pieces.
Clients and servers
A client (computing) is a computer program which sends a request (computing) to a server (computing).
The server receives the request, and sends a response (computing).
See also Client-server model.
Kinds of data
Many different kinds of clients and servers exist for various purposes:
For each kind of data, there is a client, and a corresponding server.
Example: web browser, web server.
HTTP request methods
Get: use get method for repeatable requests.
- Web search
Post: use post method for one-time requests..
- Send email
- Complete e-commerce transaction
- Create a new user account with social media service
Hyperlinks
When a user clicks on a hyperlink in a web page, the browser sends a request using the get method.
Hyperlinks always use the get method.
Web forms
When a user clicks the submit button in a web form, the browser sends a request to the server.
Depending on the web form, the request is typically either get or post.
PHP
PHP is a programming language.
It is widely used for server-side scripting, including web development.
It is common for web forms to submit requests to a PHP page.
- That is, the
action
attribute of the form is set to the URL of some PHP page - When a server receives a request for PHP page, the server's PHP module processes any PHP code in the page
PHP pages typically contain a mix of HTML and PHP code islands, although it is also common for PHP pages to contain one large PHP code island, and no HTML.
Keep in mind that server-side PHP can, when processing a request, generate HTML (and CSS, and JavaScript, and plain text).
- This principle of dynamic content is central to server-side scripting
PHP is also used on the desktop (non-server-side) for various tasks, including non-web-developments tasks, for example the one-time conversion of data from one format to another.
LAMP stack
In computing, a stack (or bundle, or collection) is the union of two or Computer programs which were not originally intended to interact with each other.
The stack acts as a single entity, managing the individual programs
A LAMP stack -- or LAMP (software bundle) -- is a well-known stack for web servers.
LAMP stands for:
LAMP stacks make it easy to run a web server on your desktop. You can run any LAMP-based program, for example WordPress.
Popular LAMP stacks include:
localhost
In computer networking, localhost is a reserved word which means something like:
"The URL of the web server running on my computer, for example MAMP."
The numeric IP address of localhost is:
127.0.0.0
phpMyAdmin
phpMyAdmin is a browser-based tool for working with MySQL.
phpMyAdmin is built into MAMP.
WordPress
WordPress is a free and open-source web application framework based on PHP and MySQL.
WordPress themes
WordPress uses a system of themes to provide:
- Presentation and style rules for the WordPress content
- Additional functionality (similar to plugins)
Thousands of free themes are available for easy download.
WordPress child themes
Child themes are the preferred method of modifying existing themes.
A child theme allows you to easily override CSS values of an existing (parent) theme.
You can also override individual templates within a parent theme.
You can, in fact, simply edit an existing theme. But there are problems and shortcomings with this approach:
- You might break the theme
- You will no longer be able to receive updates from the authors of the original theme
WordPress custom themes
A custom WordPress theme typically refers to a WordPress theme which you create yourself (as opposed to a WordPress child theme.
In the broadest sense, the WordPress themes which ship with WordPress as "custom themes", because someone created those themes.
However, the term "custom" typically refers to themes you create yourself.
Referencing images (and other resources) in a theme
...
WordPress functions.php
Many WordPress themes use the optional functions.php
file to add functionality not found in standard WordPress.
For example, using the WordPress Bootstrap NavWalker requires you to add PHP code to functions.php
.
WordPress plugins
WordPress features a plugin architecture, allowing administrators to extend WordPress functionality using third-party or self-developed plugins.
Favorites:
MediaWiki
MediaWiki is free and open source software which you can use to run your own wikis for any purpose.
It is the same software which powers Wikipedia.
E-Commerce
Free and open source shopping carts include:
Web host control panel
Web hosting services typically provide a browsed-based control panel, so customers can log and manage their accounts.
Domain name registrars have similar control panel for managing domain names.
Popular control panels include:
Domain names
See Domain name for more detailed information.
WHOIS
Use WHOIS to look up information about domain names.
Many free WHOIS services are available.
Domain name registration
Topics:
Spring 2016: Web Design and Development II (MGDP2050)
Topics:
- Cascading Style Sheets
- Bootstrap (framework)
- Introduction to JavaScript
See Web Design and Development II (MGDP2050).