Monday, May 16, 2011

Chapter 10 Web Research: Web Site Hosting

This chapter discussed options for hosting Web sites. In this research exercise you will search for Web host providers and report on three that meet the following criteria:
  -Support PHP and MySQL
  -Offer e-commerce capabilities
  -Provide at least 50MB hard disk space


   The first site I researches was Intuit Small Business.
   This is a great site with a lot of possibilities! They offer 3 different plans including a personal website plan for $5/month, a business plan for $20/month, and a professional plan for $50/month. While the personal plan only provides 25MB of hard disk space, the other plans include 5 and 10GBs respectively. E-commerce is available for all plans through Paypal and credit cards for no extra charge. Also, the one-time set up fee has been waived, so the monthly price is all you pay! Statistics, support, and a 30 day money back guarantee make this site a sweet deal! You can also try your first month free for either the personal or business plan! To top it all off, the site is very user friendly, and provides hundreds of customizable drag and drop layouts, and thousands of royalty images! You need no HTML knowledge or experience to get started. However, if you do, you can put it to use, and make yourself known!
( I could not find anything that said that they do or don't support PHP and MySQL)


   Register Domain Names is another great hosting site for those who want are looking for reasonable prices and effective services! It is a little more expensive (starting at $12.95/month for a "Do-it-myself" package) but includes a little bit more than Intuit's basic plan. (A great option for those who want the middle ground) This site also includes great support, hundreds of helpful customizable designs, and 5GB of space. There is also a plan that includes more space, and e-commerce capabilities for around $20/month. Register.com also provides quite a bit more reasonably priced deals on professionally designed websites made by experts so that you don't have to. (Once again, I can't find anything about PHP or MySQL)


Last but definitely not least is Host Monster. The first thing I noticed when arriving at Host Monster's home page: a very low price ($4 sale!), and several claims of unlimited and free resources! I then went to the Hosting Features page to be wowed by a long and impressive list of features including unlimited domains, unlimited space, e-commerce features, good support, multimedia, MySQL databases (finally!), CGI features, and much more! If this site is all that they say they are, this looks like the way to go. This site boasts that it is trusted by over 1.7 million sites! The one thing I didn't like is that you have to enter or search for a domain name to see plan options.
    I am impressed though, and think that if I was to choose from the little research I did, *Host Monster* would definitely get my money! They are well priced, secure, supported, and have great features for all possible future needs!



Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Chapter 7: Testing and Validating using Dr. Watson

Validation report for my site: Web Development: Ryan Romero using Dr. Watson


Server response

    Response code from http://rs-web.wwcc.wy.edu/webdev/cosc2350%5Fspr11/rromero/default.htm OK (code 200)
Analyzing HTML ...
Computing download speeds ...
Estimated download speed
    These download times are estimates and should only be used as a general guideline. Many factors, such as your modem, quality of connection, ISP load, server responsiveness, and Internet routing can greatly impact the actual download times experienced by your visitors.
    Object typeNumberSize in bytes
    Estimated download times (seconds)
    14.4
    28.8
    33.6
    56k
    128K
    T1
       HTML
    133112.421.321.100.950.410.17
       Images112823093.5351.2942.7436.6416.036.41
    Total213154195.9552.6243.8537.5816.446.58
Analyzing HTML syntax ...
Syntax and style analysis
(clicking on the line # takes you to that line in the code)
    Congratulations! I found no problems.
Computing word counts ...
Word counts:
    Words: 281 Average word length: 4.3 Unique words: 169
Checking spelling ...
Spelling Check
(clicking on the line # takes you to that line in the code)
    No spelling problems
Source code
        1 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC
    "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
        2 <html
    xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" dir="ltr">
        3 
        4 <!-- #BeginTemplate "master.dwt"
    -->
        5 
        6 <head>
        7 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type"
    content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
        8 <!-- #BeginEditable "doctitle"
    -->
        9 <title>Home</title>
       10 <!-- #EndEditable -->
       11 <link href="styles/style2.css"
    rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
       12 <style type="text/css">
       13 .style1 {
       14 color: #3D6C87;
       15 }
       16 </style>
       17 </head>
       18 
       19 <body>
       20 
       21 <!-- Begin Container -->
       22 <div id="container">
       23 <!-- Begin Masthead -->
       24 <div id="masthead">
       25  <h1>Web
      Development II</h1>
       26  <h3>Ryan
      Romero</h3>
       27 </div>
       28 <!-- End Masthead -->
       29 <!-- Begin Navigation -->
       30 <div id="navigation">
       31  <ul>
       32   <li><a
       href="default.htm">Home</a></li>
       33   <li
       class="style1"><a
       href="projects/projects.htm">Projects</a></
       li>
       34   <li><a
       href="calendar/calendar.htm">Calendar</a></
       li>
       35   <li><a
       href="photo_gallery/photo_gallery.htm">Photo
       Gallery</a></li>
       36   <li><a
       href="favorite_links/favorite_links.htm">Favorite
       Links</a></li>
       37   <li><a
       href="contact/contact.htm">Contact</a></li&
       gt;
       38  </ul>
       39        
      <p>&nbsp;</p>
       40        
      <p>&nbsp;</p>
       41        
      <p>&nbsp;</p>
       42        
      <p>&nbsp;</p>
       43 </div>
       44 <!-- End Navigation -->
       45 <!-- Begin Content -->
       46 <div id="content">
       47  <!-- #BeginEditable
      "content" --><img src="images/six-weeks-...-.gif" alt=""
      height="387" width="500" />
       48  <h2>A little bit
      about me...</h2>
       49  <p>   
      &nbsp; My name is Ryan Romero.<br />
       50     I am as simple and yet
         complex as anyone else in this world. I am a sinner saved by grace
         through faith by the death and resurrection of my Lord and Savior,
         Jesus Christ, God's perfect man. This is who I am. My identity. For
         without Him, I am nothing and can do nothing (John 15:5) I have
         been redeemed, received, reconciled, and resurrected through Him.
         It is by Him and for Him that I live. This is most
         important…because it is this fact that has made me who I
         am.<br />
       51     &nbsp; The next thing
         anyone who knows anything about me knows is that I am madly in love
         with Brianne Long. She means the world to me! Although being a
         couple hundred miles apart is very hard, it is so exciting to learn
         and grow, and look forward to what God has planned for our future
         when we can be together. The times we can be together are so
         special, and the times  we are apart always find us counting down
         until next time!   </p>
       52  <h2>A little bit
      about this site...<br />
       53     </h2>
       54  <p>&nbsp;
      This site is an ongoing part of my Web Development II class.
      Html has always been something that has intrigued and, quite
      honestly, scared me! I have enjoyed learning the concepts and
      techinques that are involved with Web design. I am exited to
      continue to learn, and apply my knowledge, though still quite
      small, as time goes on!</p>
       55     <!-- #EndEditable "content"
        --></div>
       56 <!-- End Content -->
       57 <!-- Begin Footer -->
       58 <div id="footer">
       59  <p><a
      href="default.htm">Home</a> | <a
      href="projects/projects.htm">
       60  Projects</a> |
       61  <a
      href="calendar/calendar.htm">Calendar</a> 
       62  | <a
      href="photo_gallery/photo_gallery.htm">Photo
      Gallery</a> |
       63  <a
      href="favorite_links/favorite_links.htm">Favorite
      Links</a> |
       64  <a
      href="contact/contact.htm">Contact</a></p>
       65 </div>
       66 <!-- End Footer
     --></div>
       67 <!-- End Container -->
       68 
       69 </body>
       70 
       71 <!-- #EndTemplate -->
       72 
       73 </html>