1.) What is the CSS Box model, and what are some applications of it in web design?
The CSS Box Model is described as the way in which a visual web browser displays elements in rectangular boxes. The box model can be thought of as a framed picture. In the very center of the box is the content. This can be anything from images to text. Surrounding the content is the padding. The padding gives the box its size. Padding should not be confused with Margin. The next portion of the Box Model is the Border. The Border outlines the padding so that the viewers of the webpage can better see the box that the content and the padding reside in. The final section of the Box Model is the Margin. The margin surrounds the entirety of box. This puts some distance between the borders of the box to the rest of the content on the webpage.
The CSS Box Model has many purposes in Web Development. One of the major purposes of the Box model is it's display property. Using the display property, you can lay the box as a blocked element, an inline element, and you can completely not render the object. In the block element, objects are laid vertically, beginning at the top of the containing block. The vertical distance is then determined by the margin properties set. An inline object is a bit more complex. In an inline object, boxes are laid horizontally one after the other. Horizontal Margins, borders and padding as respected between these objects meaning that these properties are taken into consideration by the web browser when rendering the website. In the "display: none" feature, the box is not generated making the element not exist on the web page. Descendants of this object will not generate any boxes either.
The Box Model also helps with positioning the content within the box. In CSS, blocks help to allow the designer to use some positioning schemes within CSS. A Block can be laid either as a normal flow, a float model, or absolutely positioned. The normal flow option is the default layout in which the web browser would use. The float option gives the designer the ability to float an object left or right but gives them no readily accessible way to center an object. In order to center an object using W3C standards, you must give the block's left and right margins a setting of auto. If you are centering an image object, you will most likely have to un-float the object due to all images being a default inline element.
These are some of the features that the CSS Box Model allows designers to help give their websites a more professional feel to them. The CSS Box Model is a very helpful tool for developers and all developers should begin to use this to help give that extra flair to their websites.
2.) What is server-side programming? What are some kinds of web applications that could not exist without it?
In Web Development, there are two ways to program to create dynamically generated web pages. The first way is through Client-side programming. In this type of programming, the program is executed within the browser. Typically, Client-side programming uses scripting languages such as JavaScript or VBScript. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of this depends on the user's browsers' ability to process the language. This is not always guaranteed.
The second way to create dynamically generated web pages is through Server-Side Programming. All browsers, whether it is a GUI or a line-mode or even an audio (as well as many others), support use of forms and Server-side processing of these forms. Server-side programming allows the designer of a web page:
There are many applications of Server-side programming that would not exist if Server-side programming did not exist. For example, many people have used forums or boards to discuss topics. This is all run through a Server-side language, most likely PHP. When you run across a feedback form, these are also processed through some sort of Server-side language. These type of things are not the only extent to which Server-Side languages are used.
Java allows designers to create applets to include in Web Pages allowing many possibilities beyond form processing. You can include interactive data, games, and many other things. Though often times only form processing runs server-side programs, it is always good to know that these possibilities exist.
3.) What would be a good essay question to ask the next time this course is taught? What would be a good response to it.
I think that a good essay question for next year would be to make the students pick on website, their favorite website. They should supply you the link to this website. They should then tell you several things about the website.
These things should include 1.)Whether it validates; 2.)To Describe what type of Styling it has. For example, The Nissan Car website (http://www.nissanusa.com) does not use CSS, instead the entire site is done completely in Flash. If their favorite website happens to be done in something other than CSS, they should; 3.) describe how to create a similar site using only CSS.
This would be a good question to ask because it gives the students an oppurtunity to see what some professional websites do to make their page look professional. That these places do not always follow standards. It also allows the student to see that there are a multitude of other ways to create websites, though these may not always be the best way to create a site.
4.) Write a critical review of the course, identifying the key topics and discussing their value (or lack thereof.) That is, critique the course the way you would write a book review.
This was a great course, I personally learned a lot in this course, namely with CSS. I have more of a logical approach to coding, so CSS never came easily to me. With CSS, I had to change my thinking and think more artistically; which was hard at first. Eventually however, I was able to pull together some amazing things using CSS. I am very happy with how much I've learned in this course.
In the first few lessons of this course, we learned about the history of the World Wide Web and all of it's aspects. We learned how TCP/IP works and other things like this. These topics are imporatant but can be very boring. Dr. Chang, I feel, realized this and made it as interactive as possible. While Teaching TCP/IP, we all interacted together as a computer to learn the idea of packet switching. This was an interesting way of learning but made it much more fun than just listening to how it worked. During the third week, we had a brief refresher in HTML, XHTML and Validation.
Following that we started CSS. This was the area of the course where I feel I learned the most. Not only did I learn how to code CSS properly but I also learned how to think using the other side of my brain, artistically. I feel that this will help me in the future both in the real world and in a professional setting. I feel that this is the most important part of this class and was the major focus of this class. I feel that it was handled wonderfully, because I had no problems keeping up with the rest of the class while learning it.
After learning CSS the class moved on to learning some very minor Server-Side Programming. This was fun to me; I think a lot of people had some difficulties picking this up. If anyone had any difficulties picking it up, Dr. Chang took time out to help those students. This course was wonderfully taught and I cannot wait until the next class to continue learning more about Web Development.