May I take this course?

CSCI-E-12 required, DGMD E-20 recommended, or permission of the instructor.

In order to be successful in this course, you will want to know the basics of HTML and CSS.

You will be creating some custom themes, in whole or in part. If you don't know enough HTML and CSS, you will not be able to keep up with this portion of the course.

If you have taken CSCI E-12 and/or DGMD E-20, you are all set.

If you are CURRENTLY taking CSCI E-12, you may not have enough CSS by the time the first assignment is due for this course. However, you could watch some of the lynda.com videos that explain HTML and CSS and keep up OK with this course.

For best results, I recommend you have the ability to build a website according to the following specifications before coming to class. If you feel uncomfortable with this, look at the lynda.com resources. There is some time to get comfort with the material before class starts at the end of January.

The website features you should already have mastered include: 

  • Correctly use HTML5 tags to produce the most semantic markup possible for your site.
  • Incorporate an external stylesheet containing appropriate styles to the page.
  • HTML and CSS pass validation.
  • A navigation bar to link all 3 pages together, styled appropriately. Of course, the links should work! You should be able to create horizontal and vertical navigation bars.
  • Include at least one image in your site, and include at least one background image.
  • Page layouts: Be able to generate a 3 column layout on your page, with a header and footer that span the width of your page. (Basically, look at the layout of this Canvas site -- one big blue header, 3 columns in the middle, and a footer on the bottom.)
  • Understand CSS selectors: descendant selectors are a minimum. If you know attribute selectors, parent-child selectors, adjacent sibling and general sibling selectors, pseudo-classes, pseudo-elements, you'll do even better. The #1 problem in theming is generating a selector to style what you want without changing HTML (to insert a class or ID). If you're uncomfortable with this, don't take the class!
  • FTP this site to your web hosting space. On posting the site, all links should still work, and the images should still display. (Good file management should make this all possible.)
  • This web design should work in Chrome OR Firefox for Mac OR PC. Cross browser compatibility is not a requirement at this time.

Also, please note that I don't judge designs on beauty. We are not all graphic designers. I am concerned that you create semantically correct HTML, and you understand the basics of how CSS functions. Beauty can either come later, or you'll work with a graphic designer who will specify this for you. Beauty is never a requirement in any of the classes I teach, but writing good code is always a requirement.