Web Site Maintainability
As you design and write your website, you become
very familiar with the structure you use, the layout
of the various pages and the manner in which you
tied them all together. Time goes by; you add a
little more here, a little more there and sooner or
later your site has grown into something huge. The
trouble is, after a while your memory of those early
details fades; you forget what this was for, what
that should be linked to, why these are here instead
of there. Now, when you make a small change, you run
the risk of all sorts of things falling apart! You
have entered the "Website Maintenance Nightmare"!
Please don't let this happen to you!
There are three golden rules to help avoid the
nightmare, related to consistency, structure and
annotation.
First, be consistent! If you use one method and
style throughout your site, you will have only one
method and style to remember (or to relearn!) This
does not mean that everything has to look the same.
It means that you should apply consistent styles and
use a consistent method throughout. For example,
instead of applying font styles to each piece of
text on your pages, you would be more certain of
consistency by applying a style sheet to all your
pages and keeping your styles in it. If you don't
know how to do that and are just starting out, don't
worry for now - just remember it's something you're
going to want to do. If you need to find out more
right now, check out the tutorial at
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/css.html
Another example is the use of frames. If you decide
to use frames, use the same frame structure
throughout. It's not wise to use a frames page here
and tables there, accomplishing a similar layout.
Choose one, and use it throughout. Again, if you are
new to site design, just hang on to this thought.
When you have gone through the tutorials, you will
have encountered both frames and tables. A little
experience will give you a feel for the virtues of
each and you'll be able to make your choice. The
trick here is to stick with a consistent method.
This of course, does not mean that you should not
use both frames and tables. It means you should not
use both to accomplish the same thing. For example,
don't create a table on one page to hold a menu on
the left side of your page (like the one on the
Goodies site) and hold it in a frame on another
page. As you develop pages, you will know when you
are encountering something similar to something you
have already done. When you do, do it the same way
(or, if you have found a better way, change every
instance to the new way!)
The structure of a site is usually determined by the
nature of its content. The trick here is to create a
folder (directory) structure that matches the
content structure. For example if you are creating a
photo album and have different page sets for each
year, keep the sets in folders named for each year.
Remember to use consistent names such as
/1999/family and /2000/family and you will be able
to match your site navigation to your folder
structure. It is also a good idea to ensure that you
don't crowd out a directory. Keeping certain files
separated helps. For example, if you use Server Side
Includes to help with consistency (a very good idea
- see
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/ssi.html) keep
all your "include" files in a folder named ssi - be
sure to include the path in references to them! I
also like to keep images in a folder of their own,
along with the pages that reference them. For
example, the folder /John contains pages about John,
and the folder /John/Pics contains the images used
in those pages. Jane's pages and pictures would be
in /Jane and /Jane/Pics. (Note also that UNIX/Linux
systems are case sensitive - they see Jane and jane
as different things; Windows systems are not (by
default) case sensitive - they see Jane and jane as
the same.)
Annotation is simply the use of comments. Don't get
caught in the trap of thinking that comments only
explain your methods to strangers for them to copy.
The "stranger" who will learn from the comments is
most likely going to be you, a little while after
you wrote the comments, when you have forgotten why
and how you accomplished something but now need to
change it. Trust me, you will thank yourself for
leaving yourself notes! This holds especially true
for programming in such languages as JavaScript, PHP
and Perl. Things have a tendency to wind up with
names that seem brilliantly enlightening when
written, and virtually meaningless a few of months
later!
If some of these notions don't make much sense to
you at this point, don't be concerned. Try to keep
the concepts in mind though, consistency, structure
and annotation -- you will be your own best friend
if you do!
Having read all of this series through to this point, you have completed the Non Technical Introduction and are now ready to start coding! We hope that you now feel more comfortable with the notion of developing a web site and that the concepts are no longer alien to you. The next step is to start on our Primers. You'll find them in the contents index links on the left of our web site pages.
I wish you the best of luck and hope that you enjoy your website development experiences and find it to be a satisfying venture.
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