Chapter 10

Web Site Development Tools


CONTENTS


At the time of this writing, dozens of Web site development tools are available for Windows NT. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of some of these tools and demonstrate how you can use them to develop a Web site. In the first few sections, you learn about Web page creation tools that you can use to create and edit Web pages. The last section is devoted to InContext WebAnalyzer, an application that you can use to analyze the contents of a Web site. Although you cannot use this application to create Web pages, it is helpful for managing the contents of a Web site.

As you create Web pages, you might at some point need to edit Web pages in raw HTML format to fine-tune the HTML code. Having several feature-rich HTML editors handy to edit Web pages is always useful. In the next few sections, you examine several feature-rich HTML editors that you can use to create and edit raw HTML files. Except for Netscape Gold and InContext Spider, virtually all Web page creation applications discussed next are raw HTML editors.

In addition to this chapter, be sure to read Chapter 12, "Designing and Managing a Web Site with FrontPage," and Chapter 13, "Publishing on the Web with Microsoft Office," to learn how various Microsoft Internet information publishing applications can be used to develop content for the Web.

HTML Assistant Pro

A useful HTML editor, HTML Assistant Pro uses floating toolbars and icons to make it easier to mark Web pages with various HTML tags, as shown in Figure 10.1. Visit the following Web site for additional information about HTML Assistant Pro. You can download a freeware copy of HTML Assistant Pro from the same Web site.

Figure 10.1: Editing a Web page with HTML Assistant Pro.

URL
HTML Assistant Pro home page:
http://www.brooknorth.com

Refer to Figure 10.1 for an example of how a Web page can be edited using HTML Assistant Pro. In addition to various toolbars that can be used to insert HTML tags, HTML Assistant Pro also includes several useful Web page development utilities. You can use Background Assistant to select background and text colors. You also can use the dialog box shown in Figure 10.2 to assign a background image to a Web page.

Figure 10.2: You can use HTML Assistant Pro Background Assistants to assign attributes visually to various Web page elements.

HotDog Pro

You can use HotDog Pro, a powerful HTML editor, to edit multiple Web pages (see Figure 10.3). It is ideal for working with several HTML files at the same time. In addition to its resourceful toolbars, HotDog Pro also includes a number of useful features such as a Web browser and a spell checker. Visit the HotDog Web site for additional information about this editor and to download an evaluation copy of it.

Figure 10.3: HotDog Pro is ideal for working with several HTML files at the same time.

URL
HotDog home page:
http://www.sausage.com/hotdog32.htm

HoTMetaL Pro

Although HoTMetaL Pro is similar to most HTML editors, it has one major difference. Virtually all HTML editors enable users to type in virtually any HTML tag. With HoTMetaL Pro, however, you can use only certain HTML tags in Web pages. This capability is a major advantage if you are interested in making sure that all your Web pages conform to the HTML 2.0 standard. One major drawback is that it imposes restrictions on HTML tags that you can use in Web pages being edited. HoTMetaL Pro therefore is not as flexible as other HTML editors. This inflexibility somewhat defeats the purpose of using an HTML editor in the first place: the purpose being to gain more control over the HTML code of a Web page.

As shown in Figure 10.4, HoTMetaL Pro marks HTML tags with special markers. This useful feature can be used to separate HTML code visually from the contents of a document. Use HoTMetaL Pro if you are concerned about your HTML. Be aware that if you use HoTMetaL Pro, however, you can use only HTML tags that have been programmed into it. Visit the following Web site for the most up-to-date information about HoTMetaL Pro.

Figure 10.4: HoTMetaL Pro highlights HTML tags with special markers.

URL
HoTMetaL Pro information Web page:
http://www.sq.com/products/hotmetal/hmp-org.htm

Netscape Gold

Netscape Gold is a powerful Web page development tool. Unlike Web page development tools discussed previously, Netscape Gold is a WYSIWYG HTML editor. Because Netscape Gold supports Netscapisms (or "Netscape enhancements to HTML"), you can use it to create attractive Web pages easily. Visit Netscape's Web site for the most up-to-date information about Netscape Gold.

URL
The Netscape Communications Corporation Web site:
http://home.netscape.com/

You can use Netscape Gold to create Web pages using the Netscape Page Wizard, as shown in Figure 10.5. You can use the Page Wizard to type interactively in various elements of a Web page and select Web page attributes such as background and text colors. After you customize the page, you can use Netscape Gold to download the Web page, edit it, and publish it on the Web.

Figure 10.5: You can use the Netscape Page to create Web pages with Netscape Gold.

Another useful feature of Netscape Gold is its capability to edit any Web page browsed with Netscape navigator. If you select the Edit button, you can download and edit a Web page being browsed. Note that you cannot browse the Web, find interesting Web pages, download them to your computer using Netscape Gold, and then publish them at your Web site. Doing so may cause legal repercussions due to violations of copyright law. This feature is mostly useful for editing templates and your own Web pages. Visit the following Web site for information about copyright law.

URL
Information about copyrights:
http://www.patents.com/copyrigh.sht

As shown in the Properties dialog box in Figure 10.6, Netscape Gold also includes powerful editing capabilities that you can use to format the contents of a Web page. Although Netscape Gold is a powerful Web page development tool, it lacks useful features found in other Web page development tools, such as a WYSIWYG table creation tool and a spell checker. For this reason, Netscape Gold is not recommended for large Web site development projects.

Figure 10.6: You can use the Properties dialog box to format various objects of a Web page.

Web pages created with Netscape Gold can be published on the Web using FTP, as shown in Figure 10.7. After you specify the address of an FTP server, a username, and a password in the Editor Preferences dialog box, you can transfer a Web page being edited with Netscape Gold to a remote server with just the click of a button.

Figure 10.7: Web pages created with Netscape Gold can be published on the Web using FTP.

InContext Spider

As shown in Figure 10.8, InContext Spider has a different screen layout than the layouts of other HTML editors. Although it is a WYSIWYG HTML editor, it does not hide HTML from the user. The left pane contains various HTML tags used in the Web document. The object (text, graphic, and so on) formatted with an HTML tag in the left column is displayed in the right column. This useful feature ensures that Web pages created with InContext Spider are syntactically correct. Visit the InContext Spider information Web page for additional information about InContext Spider.

Figure 10.8: A Web page edited with InContext Spider.

URL
InContext Spider Web page:
http://www.InContext.com/products/spider1.html

Spider Mosaic, the Web browser included with InContext Spider, can be used to preview pages created with Spider, as shown in Figure 10.9.

Figure 10.9: Previewing a Web page edited with InContext Spider.

InContext WebAnalyzer

InContext WebAnalyzer is different from various Web site development tools discussed earlier. It is not an application that you can use to create Web pages. Instead, it is a useful tool for managing and analyzing the contents of a Web site. As your Web site increases in size, with additional hyperlinks, documents, and graphics, being able to look at your Web site from a graphical perspective will save you a great deal of time. It is often helpful to find out how various documents in a Web site are connected and check the Web site for broken links. As you learn in this section, WebAnalyzer is a useful tool for performing all these tasks. In this section, you learn how you can use various features of WebAnalyzer to manage a Web site. Download and experiment with a copy to discover features that are not discussed in this section. Visit the following Web site for additional information about InContext WebAnalyzer.

URL
InContext WebAnalyzer information Web page:
http://www.InContext.com/products/analyze.html

As mentioned previously, you can use InContext WebAnalyzer to comprehensively analyze a Web site graphically. Refer to Figure 10.10 for an example of a Web site being analyzed with InContext WebAnalyzer. As you can see, WebAnalyzer is broken down into three panes. The bottom pane displays critical information about various URLs at a Web site. Note that you can sort information displayed in the bottom frame by clicking on the corresponding column label. The right pane displays how various objects at a Web site are connected. When you select a page in this pane, all URLs of that Web page are displayed in the left pane, as shown in Figure 10.10.

Figure 10.10: A Web site being analyzed with InContext WebAnalyzer.

In addition to InContext WebAnalyzer, Microsoft FrontPage, covered in Chapter 12, "Designing and Managing a Web Site with FrontPage," also can be used to manage the contents of a Web site.

To generate a comprehensive report of a Web site being analyzed with WebAnalyzer, choose Project|Make Report from the main menu. After you create a report, you can view it by using a Web browser, as shown in Figure 10.11.

Figure 10.11: You can generate a comprehensive report for a Web site by using InContext WebAnalyzer.

You can select various options of the Web page in Figure 10.11 to obtain detailed statistics, as shown in Figure 10.12. Figure 10.12 contains the Web page displayed when "Summary statistics for analyzed Website" is selected from the Web page in Figure 10.11. You can use the summary displayed to obtain information about various objects used at a Web site.

Figure 10.12: Vital statistics of a Web site.

As more Web pages are added to a Web site, broken links inevitably pop up when pages are deleted or renamed. Although broken links might not be a problem for a Web site with only a few Web pages, tracking down broken links manually becomes increasingly difficult. Broken links found at some corporate Web sites attest to this fact. You've probably come across a few broken links at various corporate Web sites. You can use the Web page shown in Figure 10.13 to easily track down broken URLs of a Web site.

Figure 10.13: You can use InContext WebAnalyzer to find broken links of a Web site.

You can obtain additional information about a broken URL displayed in Figure 10.13 by selecting it. When you select a broken URL, you can obtain additional information by using a Web page similar to the one shown in Figure 10.14. Note that the Web page in Figure 10.14 not only displays the broken URL, but also the links to the broken URL.

Figure 10.14: Detailed infomation about a broken link.

Summary

You can use the HTML editors discussed in this chapter to fine-tune HTML code of Web pages. Although these HTML editors are not ideal for large Web projects, they are well suited for projects that require complete control over the HTML code. You also can use various HTML editors discussed here to create and edit Web pages easily.

Although HTML editors are useful for fine-tuning HTML code, they are not generally recommended for large projects. A new breed of HTML editors is coming into existence as this book goes to print. Use WYSIWYG HTML editors whenever possible to simplify projects and reduce time wasted worrying about various HTML syntaxes. However, the flexibility offered by WYSIWYG HTML editors is not always sufficient for some projects. Use raw HTML editors discussed here in such instances so that you have more control.

InContext WebAnalyzer is a useful Web site management tool. You can use it to manage the contents of a Web site by viewing it from a graphical perspective. As more Web pages are added to a Web site, at some point, keeping track of various Web pages and how they are linked to each other becomes increasingly difficult. This can lead to outdated Web pages and broken links, if a Web page is renamed or deleted. You can use InContext WebAnalyzer to solve some of these problems by viewing how Web pages at a Web site are linked and locating invalid URLs.

What's Next?

When used properly, multimedia complements the contents of a Web site by making it easier and more interesting to navigate for information. A number of multimedia formats are commonly used on the Internet. When you add multimedia to a Web site, you need to know strengths and weaknesses of various multimedia formats and know when to use what format. The next chapter discusses various multimedia formats and outlines benefits of choosing one format over the other. After you read the next chapter, you will know which format is appropriate and also how to use several graphics manipulation tools to create transparent, animated, and interlaced GIF files. Because bandwidth is a precious and limited resource on the Internet, the next chapter also provides several tips that you can use to optimize graphics for the Internet.