Recipes for You

An XML Sitemap and an HTML Sitemap are two tools used to help search engines understand your website and its content. While they do similar things, they are slightly different:

XML Sitemap: Tells the search engine about your website's structure and content. It’s a file that lists all your website's URLs, when they were last updated, and how often they change. They are helpful because they are used by all major search engines to find new content and crawl your site more efficiently; not using an XML sitemap can mean your site is invisible to search crawlers and misses out on SEO.

HTML Sitemap: Provides a visual map of your website's structure and content, but is only intended for end users. It incorporates hypertexts to link to pages or sections of the page. It also improves accessibility by offering an alternative to site search, and allowing navigation via screen readers. However, note that an HTML Sitemap may not be effective for very large or complex websites, because there would be too much information to sort through neatly – they can also be time-consuming to keep up-to-date. While both sitemaps are useful (and often necessary), an XML Sitemap is crucial for SEO, and an HTML Sitemap is more focused on user experience.

Here are three IDEs (Integrated Development Environments): Visual Studio Code, Dreamweaver, and Notepad++, and how each might suit a new coder...

VS Code: The pros of VS Code are that it is free, easily customised, and extensible. It has a large community of users and developers, being a Microsoft product which is based-off of open-source code. It supports a wide range of programming languages with heaps of helpful usability features like auto-filling, auto colour-coding, and bug checking. Unfortunately, its many features can mean it may have a steeper learning curve than other IDEs. VS Code is a great choice for beginners who want a flexible IDE with appealing aesthetics. Also, its large community of active users make it easy to find help and tutorials when you need them.

Dreamweaver: Dreamweaver has a user-friendly interface and drag-and-drop functionality (drop files or code blocks straight into the preview window). The preview window will also reverse-engineer code as you make changes. This makes it excellent for web development, especially for beginners. Dreamweaver supports multiple programming languages including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Apparently, however, it’s not amazing for mobile app development, but most of all, being an Adobe product inherently means it is likely to be slow and resource-intensive – and subject to a monthly license fee to use. Ultimately, Dreamweaver is a great choice for beginners who want a user-friendly IDE for web development – if they can afford the costs and hardware resources.

Notepad++: Notepad++ is lightweight and fast, excellent for text editing and basic coding tasks. It features some support for advanced coding features, such as automatic colour-coding, but is not really ideal for web development or mobile app development. Notepad++ is a great choice for beginners who want a simple, lightweight, FOSS (free, open-source software) IDE for basic coding tasks; however, it may not be the best choice for those interested in more advanced programming or web development.

The web browser has come a long way since its inception in the early 1990s. But as the web grew, and more developers were adding to it, so did the need for standardisation. Here are some milestones in web browser development:

HTML: The first web standard, HTML 1.0, was introduced in 1993. It allowed for the creation of simple web pages with text, images, and links – all in a common language. However, it was limited in its capabilities, and web developers could not really create complex content and sites were predominantly just text.

CSS: The introduction of CSS 1.0 in 1996 revolutionised web development. CSS enabled developers to separate website visuals from structure, making it easier to create visually appealing web pages that worked in different browsers.

JavaScript: JavaScript, introduced in 1995, added interactivity to web pages. However, its implementation was inconsistent across browsers, leading to the "browser wars" and the need for developers to write separate code for each browser.

DOM and XHTML: The introduction of the Document Object Model (DOM) and XHTML in 2000 provided a more structured approach to web development. The DOM allowed for dynamic manipulation of web pages, while XHTML introduced a more formalised structure for web pages.

HTML5 and CSS3: The release of HTML5 and CSS3 around 2010 marked another significant turning point in web development. HTML5 introduced new elements and attributes for multimedia, geolocation, and offline storage, while CSS3 provided advanced features for layout, animation, and graphics.

(Modern Web Standards:) Today, the web standards community continues to evolve with many new beta standards being constantly tested, with new features and technologies being introduced regularly, and compatibility becoming more and more evident.

Website testing involves checking if a website works as expected and meets user needs. This usually means checking for browser compatibility and website functionality.

Browser compatibility is checking that a website looks and works the same across different browsers (such as Chrome, Firefox, and Safari), different (older) browser versions, and different devices such as widescreen desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile phones.

Website functionality involves checking that a website is easy to use and navigate, handles errors correctly, and protects sensitive data. You should use a combination of manual and scripted/automated testing to make sure a website is working correctly.

The Northern Territory Government has endorsed the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) and are working towards making all websites and web content meet WCAG 2.0 Level AA compliance.

On the server, the root directory should contain all HTML files, a css folder (for all CSS files), an images folder (for all images), and a javascript – or js- folder for all javascript files.

Locally, the root directory may be any dedicated folder, but the contents should be identical.

Locally, while Windows allows many special characters in filenames, it is best practice to avoid them – or to limit special characters to spaces and hyphens or underscores to aid compatibility and searchability. Do not end filenames with a space or start them with a special character.

Ideally, file and folder names to be used in websites should not contain any numbers, and should only contain uppercase letters if they are written in camelCase.