CIS 55 Web Site Review Sheet
This review sheet covers information used in labs 2 through 7. A link to a Microsoft Word version of this document is provided below if you wish to print this review sheet. Read through the information, study the information, and ask your lab instructor questions about anything that you do not understand.
Common Web Site Acronyms
FTP: File Transfer Protocol - a method used to transfer documents across the Internet
HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol - the WWW protocol that performs the request and retrieve functions of a server. The primary function of HTTP is to establish a connection with a web server and transmit HTML pages to a browser.
HTML: Hypertext Markup Language - a language for creating hypertext documents.
URL: Uniform Resource Locator - the unique address to a file on the Internet.
CGI: Common Gateway Interface - a server side program or script that can be run from a web page.
Web Site Structure Information
index.html - This is the name of the homepage (main page) for your web site. Nearly every web site created uses index.html as the main page of its web site.
public_html - This is the name of the folder in your Temple University astro account in which all files must be placed in order to use them with your web site.
CGI-bin - This is the name of a folder in your Temple University astro account that stores executables. An executable can be thought of as something that runs like a program (see CGI above). An example of an executable in your astro account is the mail program, which makes it possible to process the forms created in your Temple University web site.
Web Site File Format Information
While you can place any file into your public_html folder and create a link to it, here are the most common formats of music and image files used in web sites.
Music file formats: midi (.mid) - .wav - .mp3
Image file formats: .jpg - .gif - .bmp - .png - .gif and .jpg are the most common image file formats used on web sites. They are the most heavily compressed (smallest file size) and are supported by every web browser. It is unlikely you will use any type of image other than .jpg and .gif
You should also be aware that a .jpg can support millions of colors while a .gif file can support only 256 colors. This difference is the reason images shot with a digital camera or scanned photographs should be saved as .jpg files.
Common Image Terms
Image Map: A picture that has regions (or hotspots) that are links to other web pages, web files, or even used as e-mail links.
Image Cropping: Cropping an image eliminates a portion of the picture.
Image Resizing: Resizing keeps the entire image but changes the size of the picture.
Unix Commands
cd: the Unix command to change a directory/folder.
ls: the Unix command to list out files.
Publishing and Viewing Information
To publish your web site you will use this folder in your Astro account:
public_html
To view your web site you will use this address:
http://astro.temple.edu/~username
Miscellaneous Information
JavaScript: Light weight programming language (scripting language) used to enhance web pages. JavaScript is embedded into a web page as a program that is executed by a web browser.
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