Web Development Workflow for Client to Upload Files

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The web development workflow is a guide intended to brainwash you on the stages of web development, from planning through to deployment. Since the conception of WebAssist, we have re-designed our website multiple times, also as produced numerous sites for clients. Through trial and mistake, we take created a successful workflow that will salve you time and coin.

Not all steps in the workflow will exist applicable to your website. For instance, if you are edifice a static brochure-type website, you can skip steps related to databases and commerce. As yous begin the Planning Stage, review all the steps and determine which apply to your site.

Planning your objectives is crucial to obtaining the results you want in the finish. In this phase, you volition besides want to discover and buy tools that will help you lot to reach your objectives in the almost efficient manner. We recommend taking advantage of a convenient HTML editor, such equally Dreamweaver, in combination with WebAssist products, to create your website. Setting upwardly the software needed to build your website in this stage will help salve you time once yous begin development.

Footstep 1: Create your objectives.

Consider what yous are trying to reach with your website. For example, do you plan to supply data, sell products, advertise services or some combination of these goals?

Step 2: Define your market and website features.

Make up one's mind your target market. Research competitors and websites you adore. Define all the features you need to meet your objectives.

You may want to employ: Blueprint Extender site import tools

Step iii: Decide the tools you require to achieve your objectives.

Consider what yous are trying to achieve with your website. For example, practise y'all plan to supply information, sell products, advertise services or some combination of these goals?

Y'all may desire to larn more about: Dreamweaver extensions | Pre-built web apps

Pace 4: Set up PHP.

If your web pages will need to interact with a database, submit forms or transport e-mail, you will need to write server-side code. At that place are various languages yous can use to write server-side code but WebAssist recommends PHP as information technology is a popular open up source language.

Y'all may want to read this tutorial: Setting upwards a testing server for Windows | Mac

Stride five: Install MySQL.

Databases are a standard way of organizing and storing information you lot want to display on your website, as well as a manner to save data users input on your website. If you need a database-driven website, WebAssist recommends installing MySQL because information technology is a pop open source solution that works well with PHP.

You may want to read this tutorial: Setting up a testing server for Windows | Mac

Step half-dozen: Create your database.

Information technology is important to architect your database properly. Educate yourself on creating relational tables and observe tools to interface with your database.

You may want our free eCommerce MySQL database.

Step seven: Define your site in Dreamweaver.

In one case Dreamweaver is installed and you are ready to create your site, y'all should define your site, which essentially helps you create all of your master website settings. As part of this process, you should create a directory that you will relieve your web pages to in the web root directory on your calculator (C:\xampp\htdocs on Windows; username/Applications/Mamp on Mac)

Yous may want to see these tutorials:
Define your site in CS4.
Define your site in CS5.

Step eight: Learn about templates and includes.

Step nine: Install and activate your WebAssist extensions.

WebAssist offers many Dreamweaver extensions that will aid y'all in achieving the functionality you desire in your site. An extension gives you a user interface to make selections in, then writes the code for you. Extensions are useful for inexperienced website creators that do not know how to write complex lawmaking, equally well as for web developers who desire to expedite the process of writing lawmaking. In this stride, you should purchase, download, install and actuate your desired WebAssist extensions.

You may want to watch our video on downloading, installing and activating your extensions.
You may desire to read these tutorials: Installing WebAssist extensions and Understanding WebAssist Activation

Step x: Review WebAssist tutorials and samples.

The gratis tutorials and samples that come up with your WebAssist extensions are useful in learning about the tools and discovering techniques to accomplish your objectives. In one case you have reviewed these, you lot will be able to gauge side by side steps and create a timeline that lines up with your skill level.

View tutorials and other support resource.

Once you are familiar with the tools you will be using to create your website, y'all are able to establish a timeline for the balance of the projection.You will save fourth dimension if y'all also register your domain, set up your commerce needs and research legal requirements in this phase.

Step 1: Develop a timeline.

Step 2: Register your domain proper name.

It is of import to register your domain proper noun (i.e. www.webassist.com) early and then that you lot obtain exclusive rights to it. Yous can check availability of the domain name you want at www.1and1.com.

You may want to read this tutorial: Registering a domain

Step three: Purchase and set upwardly your hosting account.

For your website to be visible on the internet, your files will somewhen need to be "hosted" on a spider web server. WebAssist recommends world wide web.1and1.com for web hosting services.

You may want to read this tutorial: How to sign up for hosting

Step 4: Make up one's mind your online payment solution

If you choose to provide a seamless / local checkout for your customers, you typically need a SSL (secure socket layer) document, which your hosting provider will offer. Yous may or may non need a merchant account, depending on the payment gateway provider y'all cull. Utilise this tutorial to get educated on different checkout workflows and decide what is best for your website:
Tutorial on Online Payment Solutions

You lot may also want to view this tutorial: Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and eCart sites
You may exist interested in purchasing a SSL certificate.

Step five: Research legal requirements.

It is of import to solicit legal advice regarding copyrighting your work and providing legal documents (such as Terms of Services) for your customers on your website.

Creating compositions for your website allows y'all (or a client) to get a experience for how the website volition expect and how a user will navigate information technology. After comps are complete, you can optimize and slice your graphics, as well equally create your HTML and CSS. Alternatively, you can download our free Dreamweaver templates, which volition chop-chop reach many of the steps in this stage.

Stride ane: Create wireframes and compositions.

Creating flow charts, wireframes and compositions of your website are ways of laying out the information that volition be presented on your website. Virtually web designers utilize Fireworks or Photoshop to create their compositions. When working with clients, compositions are a way for web designers to brandish the look and feel of the future website prior to edifice it.

Step 2: Slice and optimize your graphics.

In Photoshop and Fireworks, you tin can hands slice the graphics in your compositions and optimize them for your website. Most people save the optimized graphics to an paradigm directory within the website directory.

You lot may want to view these tutorials: CSS Designer Starter Kit for Fireworks or Photoshop

Step 3: Produce your template with HTML and CSS.

You tin use Dreamweaver'south Pattern view, Code view and/or Live view to create HTML files and Cascading Fashion Sheets, which work together to brandish your layout in a web browser. As a full general rule, HTML should handle your construction (headers, paragraphs, links, etc.) while CSS should handle your presentation (fonts, positions, backgrounds, etc.). Virtually web developers create a HTML page that in one case validated and tested, becomes the template for their site.

You may be interested in Design Extender's CSS and site-building tools.
You lot may want to watch our video on using your own custom DWT with Pattern Extender's Site Building Tools.

Step 4: Create specialized style sheets.

You can also create print style sheets to handle settings for people printing your web pages and diagnostic style sheets to help you debug bug on your website.

You may be interested in Design Extender'south CSS tools.

Pace 5: Create your navigation.

Your navigation should always be unproblematic and intuitive but the larger and more complex your website, the more important it becomes to sympathise mutual practices, web standards and useful techniques.

You may be interested in Design Extender's card tools.
You may want to view these tutorials: CSS Menus Starter Kit for Fireworks or Photoshop

Footstep 6: Validate your HTML and CSS.

For the sake of browser compatibility, search engine optimization and website performance, you should validate your code and ensure it meets electric current web standards guidelines earlier moving to the next step. It is also a skilful idea to view the web page in all the spider web browsers you wait your target market to use.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Pace 7: Create a DWT with editable regions, or a theme-based site.

Step 8: Produce pages in site.

Stride 9: Add meta-tags and utilise SEO techniques.

You will desire to add titles and meta-tags to all of your pages. While this is simply i portion of optimizing your website for search engines, it is best to educate yourself on search engine optimization (SEO) and use effective meta-tag techniques.

You may want to read this tutorial: The Basics of SEO

Footstep 10: Add textual content.

At this point, you tin add all textual content to your website. Educate yourself on how to write for the web to send your bulletin as finer equally possible for your site visitors and SEO purposes.

You lot may desire to read this tutorial: Writing finer for the Web

Step 11: Populate your database with content.

If you are creating a database-driven website and y'all architected your database in an before phase of the project, you tin begin populating it with the data yous will be displaying. For example, if yous are selling products, you can brainstorm inbound your product names, descriptions and prices. As you populate your database, you may need to add more columns or more than tables.

You may be interested in Design Extender's CMS tools or creating your own CMS with Data Bridge.
You may want to watch our video on How to Create a Content Management Organisation.

Footstep 12: Add together share buttons and social media features.

Now you tin can add forms, maps, products, a shopping cart, checkout pages and anything else you lot want to accomplish with your website. WebAssist extensions can vastly cut downward on the fourth dimension it will accept you lot to achieve your desired functionality. Well-nigh of these tasks are optional, depending on the blazon of website you lot are creating.

If you are new to dynamic development, be sure to acquire the nuts commencement with our Database Starter Kit.

Step i: Found a database connection.

Step ii: Create recordsets on your database-driven pages.

A recordset is a prepare of data that results from a query to your database. You must create recordsets before you can begin using dynamic, database-driven information on your pages.

Y'all may be interested in Data Bridge.

Step three: Create bindings and repeat regions.

Bindings essentially bind data from your recordset onto your page. For instance, if your recordset retrieves information from your production tabular array, yous may desire to demark the production name to a certain expanse of the page. Repeat regions wrap around a set of information in order to repeat the aforementioned set up of information for every tape returned. For example, you may want to repeat the product name down the page for every product in your product table.

Step 4: Create properly validated forms.

Stride five: Create emails from your website.

Step 6: Create Google maps.

Step 7: Create itemize pages.

If your website offers products, you will want to create a search page, a folio to display results and a page to testify the details in one case a result is clicked on. Other types of websites use the search-results-details metaphor also, such as real estate sites, forums, intranets and many more than.

You may be interested in Data Span or PowerStore.
You may want to read this tutorial eCommerce Series Overview.

Pace 8: Create a user registration arrangement.

Stride ix: Create a content management arrangement.

A content management organisation allows a webmaster, copywriter or designated person to edit portions of a website without editing the actual spider web pages or the database. A CMS may be as unproblematic every bit a few pages on an intranet or may be a complex entity that requires the full web evolution process from showtime to finish.

Yous may be interested in Blueprint Extender's CMS tools.
You may want to spotter our video on How to Create a Content Management System.

Step 10: Create reporting systems.

If you demand to display and/or consolidate information, such equally product sales, customers or inventory, you will likely want to create a reporting arrangement, consummate with data tables and graphical charts.

You may be interested in Data Bridge's Flash chart tools or PowerStore.

Footstep xi: Create eCommerce pages.

If you are selling goods on your website, you will need to add commerce buttons to your product pages, besides as add a shopping cart and checkout pages. If yous completed the step of setting upwardly your merchant account and payment gateway in an earlier stage, you can now integrate your payment gateway with your website.

Yous may exist interested in eCart, Gratuitous tools or PowerStore.
You may want to read this tutorial eCommerce Series Overview.

Step 12: Add digital download and upload functionality.

Step 13: Create site maps.

Once your pages are completed, you should create a html site map that search engines tin can clamber and users can browse, every bit well every bit a xml site map to submit to search engines.

You lot may desire to read this tutorial: HTML and XML site maps for SEO.

Information technology is of import to examination your website earlier you deploy information technology. Quality assurance typically includes: testing for broken links, browser compatibility testing, proofreading, operation testing (if you wait large amounts of traffic), security testing (for password-protected pages), transaction testing (for commerce sites), functional testing on dynamic pages and usability testing. Finally, you lot can deploy your website to the live server - your hosting business relationship - and allow the world to visit your website.

Pace 1: Upload your site to the live server.

With Dreamweaver, FTP tools or a method specified past your hosting provider, you tin transfer your local files to the live server.

Step two: Update your database connection file on the live server.

Your local database connection settings will probable differ from your live database connection settings; make certain to update your connection file when transferring your files.

Pace three: Test your alive website.

Considering servers can vary, it is important to re-examination your website once it is alive.

Footstep iv: Submit your website to search engines.

There are many search engines and directories you may want to submit your website to. This can improve your search engine ranking and allow people to find your site more easily.

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Source: http://www.webassist.com/tutorials/Web-Development-Workflow