VAV 2022 - [Do you want] \ {How} to make your web site ?

General info

Guidance-course/workshop by Harold Schellinx .

It'll take you about five and a half minutes to read! 🤓

1. First things first

The very first thing all of you need to do is select and reserve your own domain name. The most obvious choice will be: yourname.com or yourname.nl, like, for example, the domain name that the Dutch artist Peter Bogers uses for his web site: peterbogers.com. But there many other options. There are many places where you can go online to choose and register your domain name. This is always done for a limited period of time, one or two years, sometimes more. At the end of this period, if you wish to continue the use of the domain name that you selected, you will have to renew the registration. Some examples of places where you can register a domain name are gandi.net, Antagonist and Exsilia.net. Most of you will also need a hosting service, that is, a 'home' for your web site. The easiest will be to 'rent' the hosting (server space) together with your domain name. This is possible with the three previously mentioned companies, though easiest with Antagonist or Exsilia. Which, by the way, are far from being the only ones. There are many, many more. Unless you are looking for some very specific options (like hosting your own streaming video and/or audio, start up a web shop, et cetera), differences usually are marginal, both technical and price-wise.

2. Next choice

The second important choice you have to make is whether to create and design the site yourself, or to make use of one of the many tools and content management systems (CMS) that are available (online, or as software that needs to be installed together with your site), either free or at a price.

If you decide to create and design the site yourself, you will need to know or learn - at least the basics of - web languages, like HTML (HyperText Markup Language), CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) , Javascript, PHP. The great advantage is that in doing so, in the end, of course you will have total control.

This class will mainly introduce you to the making (of) basic web pages, the do-it-yourself way, totally from scratch, using nothing but your imagination, and the basics of HTML and of stylesheets to try and materialise your designed fantasy in a web browser. To see what HTML looks like, use your browser's option to view the source code of web pages. A good place to start learning more about the basics of HTML/CSS web design are the online W3 Schools.

Exercise:

What do you think the homepage of your website should look like? -Think it, sketch it, and then try to find out how your design can be realised (or rather: approximated) using basic HTML.

It is possible to use software that allows you to create web pages the WYSIWYG way. One of the most popular and powerful ones is called DREAMWEAVER, which is part of Adobe's CS package.

If you want to make use of one of the many 'content management systems' that are available to create and manage websites, you will in most cases need to choose one among a certain number of templates that fix the form and looks of your site. From there one - and this can be a big advantage - you just need to 'fill' the templates with your content.

Some of these 'content management systems' are also available as online services, and there is an ever growing (and changing) number of online enterprises that offer you 'easy' ways to create and run you own website (also these are often based on a large variety and choice of templates).

If you choose one of those, you will need to register for the service, and then can create your site online.

!-|(_Be aware though that using an online 'free' service will almost always mean that you do hand all of your content and personal information for possible datamining, -exploration and -exploitation to the company that is running this 'service'_)|-!

In case you do use an 'external', online solution, you will not need a web hosting service along with your domain name. You may just redirect visitors looking for your domain name to your online website (this option, other than via a simple web re-direct—an option that is usually offered by the domain registration service where you rented your domain name—however, usually is not offered for free by the online platforms). Some popular examples of 'online solutions' are Wordpress, Tumblr, Berta, Squarespace, WIX, Cargo, Hotglue ...

Exercise:

In order to be able to decide whether or not to use one of these 'online make your own web site' services, the best thing to do is to try them! Register online for one (or some) that you think might fit your needs. Take time to find out how it works, what you can do, and make a few sample pages... You can of course always remove such pages later and/or end the account if you do not wish to use it. If you have any specific questions about any of these services, we can have look together on one of the next times we meet.

3. Embedding video and/or audio

* Video: easiest and most convenient in almost all cases is to embed a YouTube or Vimeo clip in a webpage (copy/paste the necessary code). Similar for audio: embed a SoundCloud audio file in a webpage, or embed your Bandcamp tracks. YouTube, Vimeo, Soundcloud, Bandcamp take care of the necessary conversion into appropriate formats. Best of all: you do not need to host the files yourself. The bad downside of course is that in several (though not all, e.g. (until now) Vimeo, Bandcamp) you pay for the technical service and the bandwidth you use by advertisements that will precede your content.

* Embedding video and/or audio that you host yourself is becoming a lot easier with HTML5, a newer and very powerful version of HTML (the use of which for audio, animation, video however does ask for a bit of '(java)scripting' / 'programming' experience).

5. Transferring your web site via ftp to your hosting server

ftp means: 'file transfer protocol'

Even though many web hosts will provide a browser interface permitting you to transfer files, the best option is to use special ftp software (like Transmit), or use Dreamweaver's ftp function if you design your site in that program. As soon as you have registered your domain and found a suitable web hosting service, it is via ftp that you will make your wed pages accessible online.