How to Build a Website — The Show For Beginners

Syntax

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk about the basics of building a website — how to get started for beginners!

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Show Notes

04:20 - HTML

  • HTML is the language you write to get text and elements to show up on the screen
  • Elements can describe the content they contain
    • p
    • img
  • Or be structural and describe the areas of the website
    • div
    • h
    • header, footer
  • Listen to our ep on HTML elements to learn more about them: Syntax 354: The Surprisingly Exciting World of HTML Elements
  • HTML elements have default styling applied to them before you write any CSS
    • This comes from the browser and can be manipulated
    • However, by default all elements are either block or inline-display

08:11 - CSS

  • If HTML is the bones, CSS is the clothes and skin
  • CSS dictates how a website looks
    • Without CSS, you have text on a blank page and images
  • CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets (“cascading” being the key word)
  • Adding CSS to a page
    • Link tag
    • Style tag
    • Inline styles
  • Selectors
    • You can select an element on the page via element, class, id, attribute
    • Syntax is selector, brackets, property, value
  • Property
    • A property is what you are changing (e.g. background-color)
  • Value determines how the thing looks
    • background: red;
  • Specificity
    • Specificity is a big part of the cascade. When you apply one style to something, you need to learn how to target things appropriately. This is a huge part of being good at CSS.
    • People develop systems like BEM to organize this
    • General rules - Use elements for base styling and classes for specific styling. Don’t use IDs for styling.
    • !important exists to override everything, but as a general rule, NEVER use it. Seriously.
  • Some interaction
    • Most interaction is done in JavaScript, but CSS has some basics
      • hover, active, focus
  • Pseudo selectors
  • You’ll often see people reaching for libraries to make CSS easier and more consistent
    • Common examples are Bootstrap, Foundation, and TailwindCSS
    • For the most part you’ll want to avoid these until you have a good understanding of the cascade, how CSS works, and how to write good CSS.
  • In addition to properties, you can now write your own custom properties for CSS.
    • While this could be seen as an advanced technique, I believe the new normal is CSS variables first.
    • CSS variables are indicated by —variableName: value; where variable name takes the place of a property.
    • You can then use the variable via var(—variableName) in place of a property. This allows for easy duplication of same values across your style sheet.

37:08 - JavaScript

  • JavaScript is used to add interaction to a website
  • It makes your website dynamic

JavaScript the Language

  • We have a base programming language that has nothing to do with HTML
  • It has things like:
    • Variables - ways to store things
    • Numbers + Math
    • Data Containers - Objects and Arrays
    • Functions - Code grouped together to achieve a certain purpose
  • It also has a “Standard Lib” which means JavaScript comes with built-in support for doing common things:
    • Formatting time + money
    • Alerting the user
    • Logging a value to developer tools
    • Capitalizing things
    • Sorting lists of things
    • Round or randomize numbers
    • Fetch data
    • Talk to a sever
  • Promises
    • Logic and flow control

JavaScript the DOM

  • When the HTML is loaded, it’s parsed into something called the DOM (Document Object Model)
  • Events
    • JavaScript is mostly event-driven - when something happens, do something else
    • When you click something and want something else to happen
    • There are lots of events
      • mouse, touch, pointer
      • Ready
      • Forms
        • Submit, change, keyboard, etc.
  • Can be used to fetch data
    • fetch() - you’ll often hear it called Ajax, or XMLHttpRequest
  • Can be used to make more HTML
    • Whole set of APIs for creating elements
  • The DOM can be traversed
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