Assignment Report

It was definitely an interesting journey getting this assignment completed. I had to use the HTML knowledge that I acquired to get the first part of this assignment done. As I'm already quite used to the world of blogging, the second part of the assignment wasn't too worrying for me. Nevertheless, it was a long process as I had to create a blog and design (sort of) a webpage.

The tools and technologies I learned during this assignment are obviously the HTML codes, the setting up and using of blog(s), and the use of a free webserver to create a webpage. I cannot say if there are any advantages or disadvantages because as with everything, using HTML codes and blogging and creating a webpage all have their own steps. Once the steps are mastered or when you get used to them, doing all these things become very much easier. However, there are of course little issues that were not to my liking.

Debugging the HTML codes were a bit of a chore. I was glad that I did the exercises that were given (the two HTML exercises that were done in the lab) because if I didn't, debugging the HTML codes would have been even more of a chore. It was a tedius and meticulous process as I had to constantly refresh the page and then adjust the codes accordingly so as to get the output that I want. Often times, I would find that I forgot to close a tag or that I had mistaken different tags. But having done this assignment, I now automatically insert a pair of html, head, title, and body tags whenever I want to start a new HTML file. It would seem that I managed to pick up something after all.

Choosing which web hosting server to use was not that difficult. It was only ever going to be between Bravehost and Freewebs. Freewebs won out because it didn't have ads. I found that Bravehost was a bit cluttered with ads and it wouldn't look nice. I didn't have much difficulty with Freewebs once I'd gotten used to the interface. At first though, I was wrecking my brain as I could not find a place to insert the HTML codes. And when I did find a place, it didn't turn out as it should. It was only later when I found out the Freewebs account was set to a more advanced/user friendly state where they provide the web building tools and all I had to do was just pick and choose. I had to downgrade it to the basic HTML mode to be able to type in my codes.

Uploading files to the web server was easy as they have clearly labeled buttons that were easy to locate. Basically, the process was like normal, just like every other social sites and picture sharing sites. As the file sizes weren't big, it didn't take long at all to have them uploaded. Another plus was that everything was on the same page, so there wasn't any need to navigate away from the uploading page to view the uploaded files.

As I have my own personal blog, the process of creating a blog wasn't that foreign to me. I created a blog with Blogger because Xanga would not let me create separate blogs with one single account. At least, I wasn't able to find that option. Hence, I opted for Blogger as I already have a Gmail account and thus, do not have to create another account. The creating process was simple, I just had to find an address name that was availalable. The rest (blog title, description, layout, etc.) can be changed at a later time. I didn't have to learn much to know how to use this blog as the general functions and how they work are pretty much the same between Xanga and Blogger, bar a few different names and such.

In conclusion, I learned how to use HTML codes to create a webpage, how to use a web hosting server, and how to blog (in Blogger). I learned a lot about HTML codes and which tags are for what functions and so on. If I were to work on this assignment again, I would do things bit by bit instead of at one go. I learned that creating a webpage needs a lot of patience, thus if I work at it day by day, I would get a better product as I would be able to improve and tweak the codes/webpage daily until the deadline is up. I would also spend more time researching different web hosting servers. Although I'm quite pleased with Freewebs, there is no harm in finding out if there are others that I would like more. Lastly, I would probably stick to just one blog site as opposed to now having Blogger and Xanga blogs.

*Name and student ID is on the right side of the blog under Details.