Assignment: Web Services Report
What is a DNS server?
A DNS (also known as Domain Name system) is a server that is inclusive of a database that
consists of public IP addresses and their accompanying hostnames. The DNS server is used
because the computer needs to use the IP address to access websites. The DNS server is the
translator between the hostname and the IP address. In other words, DNS is one of the services
responsible for directing network traffic based on name and numerical IP addresses.
Purpose and types of DNS and how they are used for domain name
management
The purpose of a DNS server is stated above, the DNS server is one of the services in charge for
directing network traffic based on name and numerical IP addresses.
How domain names are organized and managed
Domain names (DNS) is organized in the form of a hierarchy as shown below in Figure 1
Figure 1:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2005.01.howitworksdns.aspx
Different Types of Domain names
TLD - Top Level Domains
These are the highest Domains in the DNS hierarchy:
1. ccTLD - country code Top Level Domains
a. Two letter domains established for physical locations; for example; .pk signifies
Pakistan. When originally chosen, usually only residents of a country could
register their corresponding ccTLD; but over the years quite a few countries have
allowed parties outside their shores to register website names. An example of this
is Tuvalu (.tv).
2. gTLD - generic Top Level Domain
a. The best known common TLD's include .com, .net, .biz, .org and .info - these can
be registered by anyone, anywhere in the world.
Below the TLD's are various other levels:
Second level
Right under the ‘Top level Domains’ (TLD) are the second level Domains, these include
(.com.au) etc.
Third level
The third level Domain come after the second level domains these are the country codes for
example, Google.com.pk will come in the third level domain. The change between second and
third level can be a little unclear. For instance, Google.com is considered a second level domain,
but Google.com.pk would be classed as a third level domain.
Web hosting
What is Web Host?
A host is web hosting language refers to a web server that stores website files, as well as several
programs and applications. With said that ‘host’ refers to a set of hardware, software and
communication lines, which is required for the web hosting to run smoothly. To use hosting’s
advantage for its commercial use, website owners, companies or individuals have to sign a
contract with the web hosting service provider and choose a plan that matches to their specific
demands.
Communication protocols involved in Web Hosting
The TCP and IP is a set of protocols for the communications amongst two or more computers
TCP – Transmission Control Protocol:TCP is in charge for breaking data into small chunks before the data can be sent over a network,
and for accumulating the chunks of data again when they arrive back to the end-user.
IP – Internet Protocol
Internet protocol (IP) takes care of the communication that is sent amongst computers. It is
responsible for sending, receiving and addressing the data chunks over the internet.
TCP/IP Protocols for the Web
TCP and IP protocols are used by the Web browsers and servers to connect to the Internet. The
most common TCP/IP protocols are:
HTTP - Hyper Text Transfer Protocol
HTTP responsible for the communication between a web server and a web browser. HTTP is
used for sending requests from a web client (a browser) to a web server, returning web content
from the server back to the client.
HTTPS - Secure HTTP
HTTPS is a security protocol that takes care of the communication between web server and the
web browser. The HTTPS is used mostly when sensitive data such as credit card transactions
being held
FTP - File Transfer Protocol
FTP takes care of the sharing of files between computers.
IP Addresses
Internet Protocol Address ‘IP Address’ is used to address a computer. It uses 32 bits, or four sets
of number separated by a period, e.g. ‘192.168.0.1’. Every computer must have a distinctive IP
addresses before it connects to the internet
Server Hardware and Network Operating System
A server operating system (OS) is a type of operating system that is designed to be installed and
used on a server computer.
It is a progressive type of an operating system, having features and abilities required within a
client-server design or a similar computing setting.
Some common examples of server OSs include:
 Linux


Windows
Mac OS X
Webserver Software
A webserver software is a mainframe that runs a website, using the HTTP protocol. The web
server sends web pages to browsers as well as related data files to Web-based applications. The
Web server contains the hardware, operating system, Web server software, TCP/IP protocols and
site content (Web pages, images and other files).
How to Publish and access a website (hosting a website over a webserver)
using various methods
If you want total control over your published website, you will need to pay some money to buy:
 Hosting – renting a file space on a web hosting company’s web server. You have your
website files on the space provided by them.
 Domain name – this is a unique ID bought by you and with this unique ID people can
find your website, e.g. www.Google.com, or www.facebook.com. You just basically rent
your domain name for a while from a domain registrar.
Steps of publishing a website:
Once you have your domain, you can create your site web pages, scripts and graphic files that put
together your site on your computer and then you can publish it in the following methods:
i. Through FTP connection
ii. Through Plesk File Manager
iii. Microsoft FrontPage software.
iv. Through Adobe Dreamweaver
1. Publishing website through FTP
When publishing website through the ‘File Transfer protocol’ (FTP), you use a FTP client
program and using the account identification you provided during the setup of the host account it
connects the website to the server. During this process you have to ensure that the passive mode
is enabled in order to bypass the firewall (that is if you have a firewall enabled on your internet).
You upload the files and directories that are accessible through the HTTP protocol to httpdocs
directory.
2. Uploading Sites Through Plesk File Manager:
Log in to Plesk control panel
Click the domain
Click File Manager in the hosting group
Create & upload files & directories
Place the files and directories that are accessible through HTTP protocol to the httpdocs
directory. After that place your CGI scripts into the cgi-bin directory
To create a new directory you’ll have to go to Tools group and click ‘Add New Directory’,
specify the name of the directory and then click OK
When you want to upload a file from your computer all you have to do is click ‘Add New File’ in
the tools group then you have to specify path of the folder in which the file is located or just
browse to locate the file, & click OK. If you are uploading an archive file (.zip or .rar), select the
corresponding Upload archive & extract it check box to extract the uploaded archive contents in
the folder where the file was uploaded.
3. Publishing Sites from Microsoft FrontPage:
Microsoft FrontPage deals with 2 different kind of websites: server-based and disk-based. A diskbased site is a Website that you can create and save on your hard disk, and then later publish it. A
server-based website is the one you create and work directly with on a Web server, without the
need of publishing since it’s already published and you work directly on it.
4. Publishing Sites with Adobe Dreamweaver:
You need to outline the properties of the website, you need to locate your website files in the
computer and set them up on Dreamweaver, specify the server that where the website will be set,
you need to do all this before you publish the site on Dreamweaver.
When outlining your website in Dreamweaver:
From the site menu, you click ‘New site’. The ‘site definition’ screen will open up. Click the
‘advanced tab’. In the local info category, stipulate the following:
 Website name: this will display the web browser’s title bar
 Local root folder: this will have the folder on your computer where all your website files
are stored e.g. c:\Website
 Images folder: this specified folder will contain your website’s graphic files.
Specify the following settings:
1. Confirm that you put in the exact login and password, so that Dreamweaver can connect
to the server.
2. Once the authenticated and tested that the server is working, save settings and click OK
Now to publish your site:
1. Open your website in Dreamweaver.
2. From the site menu, press Ctrl+Shift+U at the same time, this will allow the files to be
published on to the server.
Discuss the capabilities and relationships between front-end and back-end website
technologies and explain how these relate to presentation and application layers (P3)
FRONTEND DEVELOPMENT
Frontend of an application is the user-side. It is what the user sees, touches and experiences
while using the application/website. The frontend of an application is more about on how the
user will understand the interface of the application, and it is less about coding.
The technical skills required to be a frontend developer commonly include:
 HTML – All coding done in a web application is ultimately decoded to HTML. HTML is
a language that is understood by web browsers, they use it to display information to
users. A web developer’s understanding is quite similar to a carpenter’s understanding of
a screwdriver.
 CSS – HTML alone itself is quite simple, HTML provides some basic style options, but
in order to have a good frontend application, developers need to be experienced with
CSS. It provides the presentations tools to make the web page look nicer. The type of
tools it provides is paint, templates, glitter, buttons, tassel, lights, and many more.
Languages such as Sass and LESS are known as CSS precompile, they are used to write
CSS codes in a more efficient and manageable way.
 JavaScript – It might not be a frontend language, but is most frequently used language in
the frontend area. It is a language that is works on the clients’ machine, i.e. a user’s
computer. This means that JavaScript can be used to program fast, spontaneous and fun
user experiences, without forcing a user to refresh their web page.
BACKEND DEVELOPMENT
A backend of a web application is a type of developer who produces the logical backend and
essential computing logic of a website, software or information systems. The backend developer
is responsible for things like calculations, business logic, database, interactions with the user, and
performance. Most of the coding that is necessary to make an application work will be completed
on the backend of the application. This means that backend developers need to know programming
languages and databases, they must also understand on how the server is setup. If the app is slow
or it often crashes or is having some errors, it is mostly because of the backend issues.
Most of the coding of an application is done at the backend, it is easy to understand and work with.
Most languages like ‘Ruby’ and ‘Python’ have consistent styles and phrases that make the reading
and writing of the code more efficient.
The skills required to be a backend web developer normally include the following:
 Ruby – ruby is a programming language that was created to be easy and efficient. Ruby
on Rails is a framework for creating web applications. It is a popular web development tool
for startup business and most of the big companies that we see today e.g. ‘Twitter’, it started
on Ruby on Rails. Ruby is sometimes used to code business logic, calculate data and
distribute data among the server for optimization of the business.
 Python – it is quite easy to understand due to its easy readability and is quite popular
amongst developers. Dropbox, this famous company was built using python and uses it to
run most of its server-side coding.
 SQL – Standard Query language (SQL), is used for the communication with databases. It
does not matter which interface you use to build the application, SQL will be used to
interact with the database
Discuss the differences between online website creation tools and custom built sites with
regards to design flexibility, performance, functionality, User Experience (UX) and
User Interface (UI)
An online website creation tool is designed with smaller website projects in mind, this means that
the user doesn’t necessarily require any extraordinary programming skill or any technical
knowledge.
A custom website design is to create a website which is created on requirement of a specific
business or a client.
With custom website design it is easier to:
 Have unique design
o In the custom website design you can create your own design and you can create
the design as the company desires there are no boundaries in the designing the
website as there is in template.
 Scalability, Flexibility, Manageability
o Custom features can added in to your website to make it easier to manage. There is
a lot of flexibility in making a custom website, you can easily change anything at
any time while making the website.
 Security
o A really good website is created when the security issues is in mind while making
the website. You create the website with no gaps and vulnerabilities. With all that
it make the website really unattractive to hackers as the coding is unfamiliar and
unique
However the back clash with a custom build websites are:
 More Expensive and Takes Longer to Develop
o The custom build websites are made with the specifications of the business owner
and are flexible to the company’s requirements. They are more expensive and
take a bit longer to develop because they are made from scratch.
With online website creation tools:
 Cheap
o The templated sites are not made from scratch, they are inexpensive to create. Some
can be entirely made by you and your team, which carries down the cost by a lot
 Attractive
o Templates have been widely researched and revised by developers based on the
design, and popularity to new businesses. This leads to some really good-looking
designs that look professional and easy to use for new-comers.
 Quick
o In the template you don’t really need programming language because all the coding
is previously been done and been set-up. Creating the website is easily done and
comparatively in a shorter time as compared to custom sites.
Cons of online website creation tools
 Competition
o Due to the popularity of templates, you’ll find that there are many websites that
look quite similar or identical to yours.
 Security
o When using templates the hackers will be more aware with the code of the template
that is being used as opposed to custom sites. This is because of many reasons, e.g.
there are many popular templates, hackers create bots to place malicious code in to
an unsecure template and make it easier to hack and pull out sensitive data.
Evaluate a range of tools and techniques available to design and develop a
custom built website
Custom built website requires many tasks to be accomplished during the making in website and
its maintenance. During the designing of the web page, you have to keep the following important
things in mind:
 Web graphic design
 Interface design
 Authoring
 User experience design
 Search engine optimization
 Standardized code and proprietary software
Tools and technologies
There is quite of different varieties of tools and techniques used in the making of the webpage.
While selecting your tool and method for creating webpage, keep in mind all requirements so that
in the future you don’t have to face any issues.
Tools that are used for website designing:
 Sketch
 UXPin
 Form
 Macaw
 Marvel
 Webflow
Methods used for website designing are:
 HTML / CSS
 JavaScript
 PHP
 Dreamweaver
Skills required
Page layout
Most of the time the page layout highly affects the user interface. You are highly recommended
that you set the width and breadth same for each field. Depending on the page layout, the units
will be sent to the web browser which will be fitted into your browsers display.
User experience design and interactive design
Web designer consider how the web page works and understand the working of web page. User
experience is directly depends on the layout. The website designer has to think thoroughly on how
the web pages will work and comprehend the working of the web page.
Typography
Web developers use different types of font but they have to recognize the specific number of fonts
that are across all types of browsers.
Motion graphics
The web page layout and the UI is affected by the motion graphics, they sometimes create issues
for the people who are not familiar with the site browser.
Generated content
There are 2 ways in which the website is designed. 1st) static website supplies all pages of the
website and uses the pages when the website is being used. 2nd) dynamic website runs on the client
side and it stores all pages on the server to create web pages.
Quality of code
The quality of coding should be decent so that there will be no failures when the web pages are
running. Poor coding of web pages will cause a crash while running the website.
Propose and justify the tools and techniques of your choice that you would recommend to
use for the development of a custom built website
I have personally used Dreamweaver to create websites because it is an easy to use software if you
know the programming language and once you understand on how to use the software and how to
publish your website it becomes a user-friendly software
What is Dreamweaver?
Adobe Dreamweaver is a programming editing software for designing web pages. The software
delivers a ‘What-you-see-is-what-you-get’ interface for users to generate and edit web pages in a
much more user-friendly environment. Dreamweaver supports quite a number of coding
languages, including HTML, XML, CSS, and JavaScript. It also supports quite a number of spoken
human languages such as English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, and many more.
Dreamweaver was originally made and published by Macromedia in 1997, after that Adobe bought
Macromedia in 2005 and sustained the development of Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver features
make it a very adaptable web developing tool, it can be used for creating complex or simple
websites.
Pros and cons of Adobe Dreamweaver
Pros:
1. It highlights your coding so that it can be quickly scanned.
a) When you are coding, the highlighting of what is happening to your code can
make it easier to know whether the code you are putting is what you want or not
so you can change it if it doesn’t suite you. This goes across all types of coding
language weather you’re doing JavaScript, HTML, PHP, or CSS. If you are using
dynamic languages this really benefits you.
2. It helps beginners understand what the coding actually does for a website
a) It doesn’t matter if you don’t have an intensive knowledge in coding if you have
basic knowledge it is enough, the color coding highlights what specific command
is doing for the template or page. This will make the learning process stress-free.
3. Users receive code suggestions
a) Another benefit to the beginners is that if you are not sure what you can do with
one of the images, fonts, or a color, Adobe Dreamweaver can give you
suggestions with a pop-up menu directly on the code. All you have to do is click
on one of the suggestions and it replaces it for you.
4. You don’t have to switch screens.
a) In Adobe Dreamweaver you can easily see what is happening with the codes you
are putting, you don’t have to go around switching screens to see the process, it
shows you all in one screen and the sidebar lets you navigate the process.
The Cons of Dreamweaver
1. Adobe Dreamweaver isn’t browser-based
a. The coding done in Adobe Dreamweaver can be different from how the browser
will interpret the code that has been entered
2. It take time to learn the interface
a. When you just start coding through Dreamweaver it can look quite intimidating
because of just the way the software looks when you first start coding.
3. Your automatic coding options are non-specific.
a. Dreamweaver is designed to meet as many needs as possible for the user. This is
why most of the code suggestions you’ll find are quite lengthy. For example when
the validation of a field might just take up 15 lines of code.
4. Most users aren’t going to need a system that is this comprehensive.
a. Since Dreamweaver is designed to help as many users as possible, a lot of people
will find that there are features in the Dreamweaver that they never use.
Evaluate the impact of common web development technologies and frameworks with
regards to website design, functionality and management
Web development roughly refers to the tasks related with developing websites for hosting via
intranet. The web development procedure includes web design, development of web content, and
client/server-side scripting and lastly network security configuration between tasks.
Review the influence of search engines on website performance and provide evidence based
support for improving a site’s index value and rank through search engine optimization
There are many ways on improving your websites ranking, they include:
1. Publish Relevant Content
a. High valued content created precisely for your intended users will increase your
websites traffic, which will then gain your site popularity.
2. Update Your Content Regularly.
a. Update your content regularly because content is viewed as one of the best
pointers of a site’s relevancy.
3. Have a link-worthy site
a. Create relevant links within the text, as an alternative of having “click here” links,
try putting the name of the destination. For example: Click here will have no
search engine value beyond the attached URL, and if you put “Fifa world cup
2018 results” you will improve your search engine rankings as well as the ranking
of the page you are linking it to.
4. Paying search engines
a. You can also pay the search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Opera, etc. to
promote your website like put your website on top of the list when someone
searches a related link
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