Web Design Academy
Practical Online Design Training
Web Design Technologies
HTML (HyperText Markup Language)
HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages. HTML is written in the form of HTML elements consisting of tags, enclosed in angle brackets (like <html>), within the web page content. HTML tags most commonly come in pairs like <h1> and </h1>, although some tags, known as empty elements, are unpaired, for example <img>. The first tag in a pair is the start tag, the second tag is the end tag (they are also called opening tags and closing tags). In between these tags web designers can add text, tags, comments, and other types of text-based content.
The purpose of a web browser is to read HTML documents and compose them into visible or audible web pages. The browser does not display the HTML tags, but uses the tags to interpret the content of the page. HTML elements form the building blocks of all websites. HTML allows images and objects to be embedded and can be used to create interactive forms. It provides a means to create structured documents by denoting structural semantics for text such as headings, paragraphs, lists, links, quotes and other items.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheet)
CSS is an Abbreviation. It stands for Cascading Style Sheet.
Style sheet refers to the document itself. Style sheets have been used for document design for years. They are the technical specifications for a layout, whether print or online. Print designers use style sheets to insure that their designs are printed exactly to specifications. A style sheet for a Web page serves the same purpose, but with the added functionality of also telling the viewing engine (the Web browser) how to render the document being viewed.
Cascade is the special part. A Web style sheet is intended to cascade through a series of style sheets, like a river over a waterfall. The water in the river hits all the rocks in the waterfall, but only the ones at the bottom affect exactly where the water will flow. The same is true of the cascade in Web style sheets.
Every Web page is affected by at least one style sheet, even if the Web designer doesn’t apply any styles. This style sheet is the user agent style sheet - the default styles that the Web browser will use to display a page if no other instructions are provided. But if the designer provides other instructions, the browser needs to know which instructions have precedence.
For example, in my Web browser, the default font is “Times New Roman” size 16. But nearly no pages I visit display in that font family and size. This is because the cascade defines the second style sheets set by the designers to redefine the font size and family and override my Web browser’s defaults.
JAVASCRIPT (jQuery)
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles. JavaScript was formalized in the ECMAScript language standard and is primarily used in the form of client-side JavaScript, implemented as part of a Web browser in order to provide enhanced user interfaces and dynamic websites. This enables programmatic access to computational objects within a host environment.
JavaScript's use in applications outside Web pages — for example in PDF documents, site-specific browsers, and desktop widgets — is also significant. Newer and faster JavaScript VMs and frameworks built upon them (notably Node.js) have also increased the popularity of JavaScript for server-side web applications.
JavaScript uses syntax influenced by that of C. JavaScript copies many names and naming conventions from Java, but the two languages are otherwise unrelated and have very different semantics. The key design principles within JavaScript are taken from the Self and Scheme programming languages.
FLASH AND ACTIONSCRIPT
ActionScript is the scripting language Flash uses to control its movies and the objects within those movies. If you want to do anything interactive in Flash, you'll need to use ActionScript. It allows you to execute different actions in a movie depending on what a user does or on what frame of the movie is being played.
ActionScript looks a lot like JavaScript, which Adobe did on purpose. A specification called ECMA-262 was written to provide an international standard for the JavaScript language. ActionScript in Flash is based on the ECMA-262 specification, so if you've used Java-Script before, a lot of ActionScript will look familiar to you.
Social Media Marketing
Social media is a new way to use the web. It’s a trendy term to describe a new kind of mass media. It involves both listening, and talking. It’s about being there for friends as well as engaging strangers. It’s all done on a daily basis by thousands of people in your town. Be under no illusion, it’s where the people are. And it’s definitely NOT just for kids.
S.E.O (Search Engine Optimisation)
S.E.O is the active practice of optimizing a web site by improving internal and external aspects in order to increase the traffic the site receives from search engines. Firms that practice SEO can vary; some have a highly specialized focus, while others take a more broad and general approach. Optimizing a web site for search engines can require looking at so many unique elements that many practitioners of SEO (SEOs) consider themselves to be in the broad field of website optimization (since so many of those elements intertwine).
PHP (Hypertext Processor)
The idea behind object-oriented programming is that a computer program may be seen as comprising a collection of individual units, or objects, that act on each other, as opposed to a traditional view in which a program may be seen as a collection of functions, or simply as a list of instructions to the computer.”
PHP implements the object-oriented paradigms of class, object, method, inheritance, and much more. For more information you can read the documentation - http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.basic.php
WordPress (Content Management System)
- It’s free. Whether you’re building a simple personal blog, or a high-level business website for a Fortune 500 company, working with WordPress will cost you nothing.
- The original b2 framework was licensed under the GPL (General Public License), and so is WordPress. The GPL allows developers the freedom to modify and redistribute the software, as long as you provide others the same freedoms. This brings several advantages, including WordPress being actively developed by its community as well as the core WordPress team.
- It’s known for its incredibly simple 5-Minute Install.
- There is an enormous number of WordPress resources available on the Web.
MySQL (Database)
Databases are central to many web applications. A database can hold almost any collection of information you may want to search and update, such as a user list, a product catalog, or recent headlines. One reason why PHP is such a great web programming language is its extensive database support. PHP can interact with (at last count) 17 different databases, some relational and some not. The relational databases it can talk to are DB++, FrontBase, Informix, Interbase, Ingres II, Microsoft SQL Server, mSQL, MySQL, Oracle, Ovrimos SQL Server, PostgreSQL, SESAM, and Sybase. The nonrelational databases it can talk to are dBase, filePro, HyperWave, and the DBM family of flat-file databases. It also has ODBC support, so even if your favorite database isn't in the list, as long as it supports ODBC, you can use it with PHP.
Read more - http://www.mysql.com/documentation
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Our Courses
- Web Design Introduction With Dreamweaver
- Advanced Web Design with WordPress
- Design For Mobile
- Graphic Design for Web & Print
- HTML 5 & CSS
- jQuery for Web Designers
- Adobe Flash CS6 - ActionScript
- Social Media Marketing
- Search Engine Optimisation
- Freelancing 101
- Audio Production
- E-Commerce
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"Web and Graphic design seems to be one of the few career paths in which a degree isn’t necessary to nd work, If your Portfolio makes the cut that is. Learning web design is fun and really easy if you follow what the tutor says. A great future also awaits! " – Martin - Durban
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Courses Coming Soon
- Email Marketing
- Search Engine Optimisation
- Flash & ActionScript
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Social Responsibility Program
- Introduction to Online Design
- How the Internet Works
- The Mobile Internet