Week 4: Web Site Using Bootstrap

At this point, we've developed skills for crafting web pages using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The next step is to assemble a set of pages comprising a full website.

What is a Web Page Compared to a Web Site?

Truthfully, creating an entire website out of a single document is possible. So, what is meant by a website vs a web page? The documents we've been making are web pages. They have a single URL. A website will have multiple documents with the same domain name. The user can navigate between pages by clicking on links. In general, websites have a single purpose. Recall the project where we created a web page based on a "Subject of Interest". In this section, we'll create a multi-page website. Each page will focus on one aspect of communicating information related to the subject of interest.

What is a URL?

We mentioned that a website is a collection of pages with the same domain name. To understand what that means entirely, we'll dissect each part of a URL to better understand what each part is used for. When there are multiple pages in a website, we need to be able to route users through these pages. The URL contains the information that makes that routing possible.

Understanding the anatomy of a URL leads to understanding how the internet works.

BootStrap Framework

While it's possible to build a website by coding individual pages with HTML, JavaScript, and CSS to build out a website, there is redundancy in this code. The inefficiency in writing code for multipage websites has led developers to use frameworks. If you work with a team to build a large website, everyone must consistently set up CSS to share it among the pages. This leads to more consistency and makes it easier to correct errors.

The final project will involve creating a website using the Bootstrap v5.3 framework. We'll also gain valuable experience by working with a Bootstrap starter website. We'll start with a template from Start Bootstrap instead of starting the website from scratch. While this might make it easier because we don't have to write all the code ourselves, it challenges us to understand existing code and then add new code to it to fulfill requirements. A lot of what web developers build on existing websites.

We'll be using the Small Business Template. This is an excellent time to start thinking about content for a small business website. Like the "Subject of Interest" web page, we'll need to supply images, text, and URLs that characterize the business for which we are creating the website.