Workspace Setup Exerise

Associate a domain with a hosting account (only if registered with separate providers).

I registered my domain through the hosting company when I bought the hosting plans, so I didn't need to do this, but if I ever need to change hosts, I can keep the domain where it is if I update the name servers to point to the new hosting company.

Request that your domain be reclassified to a category that will allow for site access in more restricted environments.

Since my site is new it is being flagged as suspicious by the College firewall, and I couldn't view it from lab computers. I requested that it be reclassified as a personal site at Palo Alto Networks so that it will be viewable at schools, banks, and hospitals in case I apply for a job at one of them.

Plan your folder structure to aid in file management for your Web projects.

Use strategic nomenclature to name files and folders in a way that helps to describe the content of your website.

Review HTML coding concepts to create a template to use as boilerplate code for new pages.

I've created a template that has all the basic HTML I need to make new web pages so that I don't have to build each page from scratch.

Use a local development stack to create, preview, and update pages with PHP on your computer.

A local development stack will allow me to use PHP for my website without having to publish every page to see the changes I've made. I'm using MAMP for this.

Use PHP to eliminate redundant code in your template.

My HTML template is useful, but I'd still have to update every page that uses it if I made changes to the code down the road.If I use PHP, I can put all the code that needs to be used on more than one page into a file that I can call from each page, and then I only have to make updates to that code once at the source instead of everywhere it's used.

Use your PHP template to create an index page to assist with site navigation during development.

My hosting company won't let me access a folder that doesn't have an index page, so I've created a home page with some temporary text to use until I build the real thing.

Create an FTP account to access your hosting space.

Configure an FTP client to connect to your hosting space using FTP.

Streamline the process of connecting to your hosting space by saving the site connection settings in your FTP client.

Create an email address that is associated with your domain name.

Configure an email client to send and receive emails from your new account.

End every page with a call-to-action. A CTA is a sentence that tells the user what to do next and provides a link to the next page.