Chapter 8 - Web Site Development

This chapter will discuss the skills needed for a successful large-scale project and introduce you to common web development methods.

It is important to realize that each project is unique with its own needs and requirements. Choosing the right people to work on a web project team can make or break it. View a quick visual overview and visit the links on this page to learn more about the process of web site development..

An Almost Free Web Host (great for students!)t

The textbook author has used Brinkster for years to host numerous web sites. They have been reliable and are reasonably priced. Students can host their first web sites for about the cost of a Starbucks Venti. More information on Brinkster.

More Tips on Choosing a Web Host

The text contains a handy checklist to help you compare web host features and pricing. However, at this point your research has just begun. Seach an independent message board, such as WebHosting Talk, or Web Hosting Ratings to see what people are saying about your potential host. You may find some scathing comments about your potential hosts -- try to determine if there is a pattern (perhaps the host upgraded servers and had a bad week). However, if there seem to be continuous complaints -- let the buyer beware.

You also may want to use a search engine, such as Google to look for information about your potential hosts. When researching AIT, I ran into http://www.aitsucks.com -- some former customers are so upset with AIT that they went to the trouble to create a web site!

In addition, you also may want to visit Netcraft's http://uptime.netcraft.com/ and fill in the web host's URL for

"Whats that site running?". This will list the operating system and web server software being used in addition to a graphical view (if available) of the time since last reboot for each of the computers serving the site. Although even reliable web hosts can experience technical glitches, frequent reboots (such as the report on Global Internet Solutions, are a sign of potential hosting problems. Compare the reports at Netcraft for http://www.gisol.com with http://www.hostway.com as an example.

Finally, remember that often the cheapest isn't the best -- a word of mouth recommendation is probably the best way to find a reliable web host). Be careful if the domain name is "free" often the web host registers this for you and you have no control over it. This can be a disaster if you need to change web hosts at some point.

Web Development Process

Sometimes it's helpful to read another point of view on this topic, the web development firm Macronimous.com describes their web development process and provides a flowchart of the workflow.

Chapter Updates

1. The mlcnet.org site has been modified recently and the link is broken on page 335. See the "Note" under Step 4. Keith Instone's presentation can be found at
   http://instone.org/files/KEI-Howtotest-19990721.pdf.

Questions or Comments?

The author would like to hear from you!
Send an e-mail to webdevfoundations@hotmail.com