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.
