Web Guide/The Very Basics: Difference between revisions

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Let's do the thing. First of all, make sure you have a '''desktop computer''' or laptop (i'm just going to say "desktop" from now on to save time); you can ''technically'' follow along using a mobile phone or iPad but, for the time being, this guide won't cover how to do that. If you don't own a desktop, pretty much every public library will have some that you can use for free.

The first thing you'll need to do is create a folder on your computer, which will contain all the files for your website. If you don't have any experience working with files and folders, [[Web Guide/~~Sidebar:~~ How Files & Folders work|now is a good time to learn]]!

The first thing you'll need to do is create a folder on your computer, which will contain all the files for your website. If you don't have any experience working with files and folders, [[Web Guide:Sidebar/How Files & Folders work|now is a good time to learn]]!

== Setting ~~up your website~~ ==

== Setting Up Your Website ==

=== Windows ===

# Open File Explorer and find a place for the local version of your new site. At this stage, it doesn't matter where; your Documents folder is pretty solid.

# Right click and press "New..." -> "Folder" to create a folder to contain all the website's contents. Give it an appropriate name.

# Enter this folder, then right-click and create a new text document with "New..." -> "Text Document". Call it <code>index.html</code>. This will be your homepage. You might have to go into it and save it as an HTML file in Notepad to make sure it is actually an HTML file, because by default, Windows is evil and doesn't let you see file extensions. Make sure to delete the original text file if using this approach. If you do it via renaming, Windows will ask you if you want to change the file type, and believe me, you very much do. Text documents aren't very useful on the World Wide Web Tee Em, unless they're encased in HTML.

# Right-click (yeah i know, there's a lot of this) your new .html file, and select "Open with..." -> "Notepad", and watch as your blank HTML file appears magically before your eyes as a notepad document containing absolutely nothing. This is absolutely fine.

# If you type things into this and save them, it will save to the HTML file quite happily, though Notepad isn't exactly the best editor for this... see later for details.

</div>

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#If it doesn't start a new document automatically, click "New Document" or press <kbd><kbd>⌘</kbd> + <kbd>N</kbd></kbd> to do that.

# HTML is a plain text format, so we need to go to Format > Make Plain Text (or press <kbd><kbd>⌘</kbd> + <kbd>Shift</kbd> + <kbd>T</kbd></kbd>) to make TextEdit treat it as such.

# Go to File > Save (or press <kbd><kbd>⌘</kbd> + <kbd>S</kbd></kbd>) to save the file. It should pop open a dialog asking you where to save the file. [[File:MacOS save screenshot.png|thumb|right|This is roughly what you want it to look like]]

# Go to File > Save (or press <kbd><kbd>⌘</kbd> + <kbd>S</kbd></kbd>) to save the file. It should pop open a dialog asking you where to save the file. [[File:MacOS save screenshot.png|thumb|right|alt=A screenshot of the macOS save dialog. The "Save As" field is set to "index.html" and the "Where" field has been expanded and the "website" folder has been selected|This is roughly what you want it to look like]]

# Where it says "Save as:", type <code>index.html</code>. In the "Where:" field, navigate to the folder you created earlier (you might need to click the little down arrow to get a proper file picker).

# Click Save. If it interrogates you about the .html extension, select "Use .html".

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# Right click the newly created file and select <code>Add-ons</code> → <code>FileType</code>.

# In the window that appears, type <code>text/html</code> into the "File Type" field and then close it.

# You can now ~~double~~ click your ~~index.html~~ file ~~to open it~~ in ~~WebPositive~~.

# You can now right click and open your new file in a text editor like Pe (''not'' StyledEdit).

Note that WebPositive's developer tools are currently fairly lacking, so you may want to install a browser like Falkon from the HaikuDepot.

</div>

== Adding Things ==

[[File:Blank Page.png|thumb|right|alt=A screenshot of my empty index.html page opened in a web browser.|How exciting!]]

At this point, you should have a folder with a file called "index.html" inside it.<ref>By convention, the index.html file will be served up when you don't ask for a specific file. A "home page", if you will.</ref> You can double click the file in <span class="platform macos">the Finder</span><span class="platform windows">File Explorer</span><span class="platform linux">your file manager</span><span class="platform haiku">the Tracker</span> or drag its icon onto the "new tab" button on your web browser. You should see an entirely blank page. We haven't put anything in the file yet, so that makes sense.

Let's put some stuff on our page. For the rest of the guide I'll be making my website about my two cats, but you can of course [[Web Guide/What Do I Put On My Website?|make your website about anything you want]].

Switch back to <span class="platform macos">TextEdit</span><span class="platform windows">Notepad</span><span class="platform linux">whatever text editor you're using</span><span class="platform haiku">Pe</span> and just start typing some stuff:

<pre>

Hello! This is the homepage of Basil & Onion. They are the swamp creatures that live in my house.

</pre>

Press <kbd class="platform macos"><kbd>⌘</kbd> + <kbd>S</kbd></kbd><kbd class="platform linux windows"><kbd>Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>S</kbd></kbd><kbd class="platform haiku"><kbd>Alt</kbd> + <kbd>S</kbd></kbd> to save and then reload the page in your web browser. Hopefully, what you wrote should show up on the page!

== Next Up ==

* Tired of <span class="platform macos">TextEdit</span><span class="platform windows">Notepad</span> yet? Now is a good time [[Web Guide/Text Editors|install a nicer text editor]].

</div>

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 Let's do the thing. First of all, make sure you have a '''desktop computer''' or laptop (i'm just going to say "desktop" from now on to save time); you can ''technically'' follow along using a mobile phone or iPad but, for the time being, this guide won't cover how to do that. If you don't own a desktop, pretty much every public library will have some that you can use for free.
-The first thing you'll need to do is create a folder on your computer, which will contain all the files for your website. If you don't have any experience working with files and folders, [[Web Guide/Sidebar: How Files & Folders work|now is a good time to learn]]!
+The first thing you'll need to do is create a folder on your computer, which will contain all the files for your website. If you don't have any experience working with files and folders, [[Web Guide:Sidebar/How Files & Folders work|now is a good time to learn]]!
-== Setting up your website ==
+== Setting Up Your Website ==
 {{#widget:Guides/PlatformSwitcher}}
 <div class="platform windows">
 === Windows ===
+# Open File Explorer and find a place for the local version of your new site. At this stage, it doesn't matter where; your Documents folder is pretty solid.
+# Right click and press "New..." -> "Folder" to create a folder to contain all the website's contents. Give it an appropriate name.
+# Enter this folder, then right-click and create a new text document with "New..." -> "Text Document". Call it <code>index.html</code>. This will be your homepage. You might have to go into it and save it as an HTML file in Notepad to make sure it is actually an HTML file, because by default, Windows is evil and doesn't let you see file extensions. Make sure to delete the original text file if using this approach. If you do it via renaming, Windows will ask you if you want to change the file type, and believe me, you very much do. Text documents aren't very useful on the World Wide Web Tee Em, unless they're encased in HTML.
+# Right-click (yeah i know, there's a lot of this) your new .html file, and select "Open with..." -> "Notepad", and watch as your blank HTML file appears magically before your eyes as a notepad document containing absolutely nothing. This is absolutely fine.
+# If you type things into this and save them, it will save to the HTML file quite happily, though Notepad isn't exactly the best editor for this... see later for details.
 </div>
 <div class="platform macos">
@@ Line 17: / Line 23: @@
 #If it doesn't start a new document automatically, click "New Document" or press <kbd><kbd>⌘</kbd> + <kbd>N</kbd></kbd> to do that.
 # HTML is a plain text format, so we need to go to Format > Make Plain Text (or press <kbd><kbd>⌘</kbd> + <kbd>Shift</kbd> + <kbd>T</kbd></kbd>) to make TextEdit treat it as such.
-# Go to File > Save (or press <kbd><kbd>⌘</kbd> + <kbd>S</kbd></kbd>) to save the file. It should pop open a dialog asking you where to save the file. [[File:MacOS save screenshot.png|thumb|right|This is roughly what you want it to look like]]
+# Go to File > Save (or press <kbd><kbd>⌘</kbd> + <kbd>S</kbd></kbd>) to save the file. It should pop open a dialog asking you where to save the file. [[File:MacOS save screenshot.png|thumb|right|alt=A screenshot of the macOS save dialog. The "Save As" field is set to "index.html" and the "Where" field has been expanded and the "website" folder has been selected|This is roughly what you want it to look like]]
 # Where it says "Save as:", type <code>index.html</code>. In the "Where:" field, navigate to the folder you created earlier (you might need to click the little down arrow to get a proper file picker).
 # Click Save. If it interrogates you about the .html extension, select "Use .html".
@@ Line 39: / Line 45: @@
 # Right click the newly created file and select <code>Add-ons</code> → <code>FileType</code>.
 # In the window that appears, type <code>text/html</code> into the "File Type" field and then close it.
-# You can now double click your index.html file to open it in WebPositive.
+# You can now right click and open your new file in a text editor like Pe (''not'' StyledEdit).
 Note that WebPositive's developer tools are currently fairly lacking, so you may want to install a browser like Falkon from the HaikuDepot.
+</div>
+== Adding Things ==
+[[File:Blank Page.png|thumb|right|alt=A screenshot of my empty index.html page opened in a web browser.|How exciting!]]
+At this point, you should have a folder with a file called "index.html" inside it.<ref>By convention, the index.html file will be served up when you don't ask for a specific file. A "home page", if you will.</ref> You can double click the file in <span class="platform macos">the Finder</span><span class="platform windows">File Explorer</span><span class="platform linux">your file manager</span><span class="platform haiku">the Tracker</span> or drag its icon onto the "new tab" button on your web browser. You should see an entirely blank page. We haven't put anything in the file yet, so that makes sense.
+Let's put some stuff on our page. For the rest of the guide I'll be making my website about my two cats, but you can of course [[Web Guide/What Do I Put On My Website?|make your website about anything you want]].
+Switch back to <span class="platform macos">TextEdit</span><span class="platform windows">Notepad</span><span class="platform linux">whatever text editor you're using</span><span class="platform haiku">Pe</span> and just start typing some stuff:
+<pre>
+Hello! This is the homepage of Basil & Onion. They are the swamp creatures that live in my house.
+</pre>
+Press <kbd class="platform macos"><kbd>⌘</kbd> + <kbd>S</kbd></kbd><kbd class="platform linux windows"><kbd>Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>S</kbd></kbd><kbd class="platform haiku"><kbd>Alt</kbd> + <kbd>S</kbd></kbd> to save and then reload the page in your web browser. Hopefully, what you wrote should show up on the page!
+[[File:Website with Text.png|thumb|center|alt=A screenshot of two windows, the first being a TextEdit window with the above text written in it, the second a Safari window showing the same text in a serif font.|500px|That's a website!!!]]
+== Next Up ==
+<!-- pe and most linux text editors are actually pretty good -->
+<div class="platform macos windows">
+* Tired of <span class="platform macos">TextEdit</span><span class="platform windows">Notepad</span> yet? Now is a good time [[Web Guide/Text Editors|install a nicer text editor]].
 </div>
 {{GuidePageEnd}}