Welcome to DIY Tech Blog's Website Basics Page. The purpose of this page is to provide the beginner with the very basics of how websites work and how they are created. WARNING - This page is written for the absolute beginner; More advanced readers should visit the pages listed in our menu to the left of this page. Terms used in the lesson may not be familiar yet, so you can refer to our Defenitions Page for an explanation. We also have a page dedicated to those ever annoying acronyms. To view visit our Acronyms Page.
What is a webpage?
Speaking in very basic terms, a webpage is nothing more than a file stored on a remote computer. Just like a letter you wrote on your computer and saved as a file or your child's fourth grade book report, a webpage is a saved file. Usually this file is stored on someone else's computer, called a server. You may have noticed I said "webpage" and not "website". For the purposes of this discussion we will refer to webpage's, one file, and understand that several webpages linked together, make a website. So let's move on... the file that contains our webpage will most often contain code. The code that basic webpages are made of is called HTML or hyper text markup language. We will talk about HTML in great detail in later lessons.
When someone accesses a webpage on the Internet they are accessing the file with our code inside. A browser, such as Internet Explorer, reads the code and displays the file as a webpage on the computer screen. The code, HTML, tells the browser what colors to use, what letters to display and where to put things on the page. It will also tell the browser where to find pictures or images that the webpage needs and it will tell the browser where to take you when a link is clicked.
Where are webpage files stored?
Webpage files must be stored on a computer that is available twenty-four hours a day and it must be accessible by the public. Fortunately, there are plenty of companies that have such computers and they are called Web Hosts. The computers that these web hosts operate are called web servers. Web hosts will rent you space on their web servers for as little as a few dollars a month. So anyone wanting to own a website can rent some space on a web server from a web host and create a website. A web host can also be very helpful to the new website owner; they offer programs that help build the website for you. They may also offer email accounts, promotional tools, graphic design and much, much more. There will often be additional cost associated with these services, of course, but they are very helpful. To learn more about Web Hosts visit our Web Host Help Page by visiting our Web Host Page.
So how do the webpage files get onto the web host's web servers? Good question. Files that are created on your computer at home can be moved onto the web server by a thing called FTP. FTP is a "protocol". Protocol is the technical term for the rules that the Internet lives by. But don't worry, you don't have to memorize any rules, programs called FTP Clients remember them for you. So all you need to do is download an FTP Client and you can transfer files to your web server.
What will the webpage file contain?
Now that we understand what a webpage file is and where our webpage file will reside, we should know a little bit about what our file will contain. To be honest, most webpage file may contain a variety of web language code and what is called "script". At first look a webpage file is enough to make the beginner run and hide in fear. However, with a basic understanding, most beginners will be able to identify parts of the code and even make minor changes on the page.
The fundemental web language is called HTML. HTML is an acronym and stands for hypertext markup language. A beginner can create a very nice webpage using only HTML. And we have detailed sections at DIY Tech Blog that show exactly how HTML works and how you can create a webpage using the language. In the lessons regarding HTML, you will learn that some web code tells the browser how to display a webpage on the screen and others perform dynamic tasks on the website, such as sending emails. Web language codes that work behind the scenes of a website are called "scripts" and they include php, cgi, asp and more. Scripts are more advanced and require more technical knowledge to work with. We will discuss scripts in more detail later, but the focus of our discussions will be HTML.
This might be a good time to talk about a "home page". When someone types in the URL for your website, they will usually see what is called your "home page" or "landing page". The internet browser will automatically locate and load the homepage, or first page of the given website. So now, the next logical question is... How does the browser know which page is the homepage? Very good question!! Here's the answer, when a URL is entered by the domain name only a browser will, by default, load any page named index.html or home.html. If you do not have an index.html or home.html page, the browser will display an error. For this reason, it is important to remember to name the page you want visitors to see first on your website by either of these two names.
What else might our webpage contain?
Essentially that is it, webpages contain code or script. You might be thinking that web pages contain pictures and places for you to enter information, which is true. However, these are part of the code or script within the page. Images are seperate files that the code refers too and displays on the page. We will discuss images, applications and forms in later lessons. Areas of a webpage where information can be entered are often called forms, we will also cover the details of forms later in our discussion.
Most websites start out with a very basic struture and grow as they develop. This is where the novice web developer should begin. By building and working with simple websites and adding more complexity will help you understand how larger sites operate. DIY Tech Blog is a great place to work through the early days of webiste ownership. We always welcome and advice or suppestions, so drop us an email if you want to see or learn something that you cannot find on our site.
Let's summurize what we have learned.
The purpose of this lesson is to understand the basics of how websites work and how they are created. We now know that websites are made up of many webpages and that webpages are simply files. We know that these web files are stored on web servers, usually owned by web hosts. We talked about the code or script that the webpage files might contain. And we also discussed how the files get to and are accessed from the web server.