Hey all,

I am new to this forum. From reading around, the site looks very informative.

I am currently writing a report on:
1) structure and features of an html website using templates and style sheets (how would this change using php and why would you
change?)
2) requirements of a good on line booking system for a conference.

I'm trying to document practical features that help make websites more user-friendly and overall better (i.e. expand/collapse menus with cookie memory of settings, using css for templates and to change printable web pages).

What are some of the best practical features possible with css and/or html?

cross post with http://www.webmaster-talk.com/php-fo...-with-php.html

For css, some of the best uses I have found include:

-printable web pages with css
-can fix resolution problem by using percentages (%) instead of fixed units
-less load time since css are cached i believe and html files are smaller from using css

I also find Breadcrumbs navigation an interesting topic that I may document in my report. From what I've been reading, it seems to help most sites.

Furthermore, about php from my other post I wrote

So correct me if I'm wrong but the reasons for using php instead of just html and css include:

-allows web pages to be "dynamic" and thus content can change on-the-fly
-can track individual user stats such as which pages were accessed and how many times
-give users different security levels and access levels --> content changing on the fly

Are there any other major reasons I left out?

There are a hundred/thousand reasons to use php or asp or coldfusion as far as that goes. There are many sites that need "server-side technology,"
and for many, many reasons.

For instance, a real-estate site may want to have functionality that will figure mortgage rates, and other mathematical equations.

When we try to put these things in little containers and small definitions it really doesn't clearly explain what they do..

If some one wants to see what asp can do the best way would be to read through many of the posts and see what people are using it for...!

Same goes for truly understanding the difference between asp and php, read as many posts as you can and you will start to see the differences in time.

Good example with the real-estate site. Thanks

Am I correct in saying php can be used to track individual stats such as how many times someone has accessed a certain page? Thus, you could sort your hits to see which of your pages are most accessed, etc?

If this is true, how do they track individual users - by ip address? For a large site, wouldn't this get out of hand with millions of entries?

If this is true, how do they track individual users

tracking by IP for individual users is not a 100% viable option as user IPs are often dynamic so may change each time they connect. Users from the same office would all connect from one IP and AOL users, for instance would be from a group of IPs only, because ALL AOL users worldwide, access the internet through proxies so any individual user from AOL may have several IPs during any one session.

Individual visitors to a site can be tracked by the use of permanent cookies and/or session IDs and temporary cookies.

Furthermore, about php from my other post I wrote

So correct me if I'm wrong but the reasons for using php instead of just html and css include:

-allows web pages to be "dynamic" and thus content can change on-the-fly
-can track individual user stats such as which pages were accessed and how many times
-give users different security levels and access levels --> content changing on the fly

You cannot use PHP instead of HTML and CSS. User agents (UA) such as browsers only handle HTML & CSS.

What you are doing is to use a server side technology (ASP, .NET, PHP, Coldfusion, Perl etc ) to write the HTML & CSS that is served to the UA.

Originally Posted by chrishirst

You cannot use PHP instead of HTML and CSS. User agents (UA) such as browsers only handle HTML & CSS.

What you are doing is to use a server side technology (ASP, .NET, PHP, Coldfusion, Perl etc ) to write the HTML & CSS that is served to the UA.

Sorry I worded that wrong.. I meant using PHP integrated with HTML and CSS instead of just plain HTML and CSS w/o PHP

Does anyone design their sites completely in CSS? What program(s) do you use to do it?

You CANNOT design ANYTHING in CSS

CSS is used for for styling HTML