Friday, 6 March 2009

Setup Recordset Navigation: First, Pre, Next and Last.

A displaying function is done , now I move on next step which is to create recordset navigation. It contains 4 navigated texts such as First, Previous , Next and Last. This technique is called Recordset Paging.

A table with 1 row will be set up below multiple record displaying. In each cell, I fill in all the texts.

Firstly, I make a function for "First" navigation. My aim is when users click on the "First" navigation, they will move to the first record of database as product ID : 1.

I hightlight the text then move to Server Behavior tab, this time, I choose Recordset Paging then Move to First Record.



Applying "Move to Previous Record" of Repeat Paging to "Previous" navigation and "Move to next record" for "Next:" navigation and "Move to last record" for "Last" navigation.

The "Previous" and "Next" navigation help customers go back or go on their research on catalogue of product, the "Last" navigation help customer quickly go to the last item of database.

After setting up all functions, I preview my page for testing



However, when I am testing the page, there is a error



I check on the image path of 11th product in database, the extension of image is JPEG and the image is out of image folder. these are reasons that cause image can not be stored.

I open my database and change extension of my image from JPEG to JPG, save my database then upload to hosting. I go to my Local View, drop the image of product ID: 11 to image folder.

After fixing them, the result comes up.



for last moment now, I already finish my work on displaying multiple records and recordset navigation

Displaying Multiple Recordset and Images (Solution)





Now I apply what I achieved so far from the pictures above to my web page as product page.

First of all, I create table and apply binding technique to the table in the web template, then drag and drop diffrent selected entities in each table cell.



To display multiple records at the same time, I highlight a whole table instead of table cells, then move on to the Server Behavior tab of Application Panel, drop down a menu to choose Repeat Region again. This is done for displaying multiple record at a time.

Next, in the image cell, I use Insert technique which I got from online forum.




After selecting Image from Insert menu of Dreamweaver, a box will come up to choose image path.



For purpose of displaying images from my database, I tick on Data Source and see a list of my tables coming from database. I choose image entity then click OK to finish.



Finally, the actual image will appear in image cell of my table in Design View.



The last step now is to preview my actual work on the web browser.
http://cctmdev2.londonmet.ac.uk/vhp0003/coursework1/product.asp



My work is done perfectly. At the moment, I am searching how to do recordset navigation such as First, Previous, Next and Last.

Thursday, 5 March 2009

Designing My website Template.

Firstly, I design my logo following a hint with http://aodaitrang.net, a simple line to draw up A style rich in image.

at Photoshop CS 2, I used the pen tool to draw lines in order to create an image of human. The yellow color which I had defined already before I drew.



Adding horizontal texts as longdressvn



Finally, I filled a background color to the image.



Secondly, I created a font page for my website with font page design in photoshop



Creating new file for enter button.



After adding some decoration for my page, I combined them all together in font page and published on the web.



The font page of my website is done now.

Thirdly, I need to design another template for my main home page and the rest of pages.

First of all, I create a new file in photoshop again for a banner, after I decorated image on the background of banner and yellow texts, I added my logo, which I already did, to the right side of banner.

A finished banner will be looked like :



Move next, I create a new file for a font ground with color of dark red, I use this background to contains all my texts and my images. I also use this image for my footer.



and another new file for back ground with yellow color.



finally, I drag all images from photoshop files that I created so far and drop them into yellow back ground step by step.



I already finish some works for designing my layout, in my Dreamweaver, I use Draw layer function to build up my pages, once, I finish setting up, I will apply one page style to the rest of pages.

However, I lack of navigation menu so I need to build.

Coming back to photoshop, I create a new file for yellow bar which contains all navigations and search menu.



I save the image bar from photoshop file to JPG. Here, I draw a new layer on yellow font ground layer , add image bar into the new layer.

I create a table inside image bar layer with vertical rows and add text for each cell such as Home, Product, About us, Contact and a form including text field with search button.



A simple navigation menu (the style of http://aodaitrang.net ) and search menu are on same line (the style of http://www.lauraashley.com/ ) are done now.

To make the navigation menu have an effect when the users move their mouse point on, I go to Code View in Dreamweaver to do coding.

As code being :



div tag for my navigation menu layer is called submit. This is used when I do CSS
I move to head tag of HTML page and code some CSS properties.

.submit a{
font: bold 14px Arial; color: black; text-decoration:none;
}
.submit a:hover{
color: white; font: bold 20px Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-decoration:underline overline;
}

Finally, the navigation get effect when users move their mouse point on

for example, I move my mouse point to product navigation, the text which is black color with its size 14 px normally, changed to size of 20px with white color , over line and underline effect



Actually, my design for coursework 1 is done.

Research on Design Template.

I have researched on 4 websites so far, each of them give me a hint to design my template.

They are:
http://www.lauraashley.com/



Laura Ashley has simple layout but nice, it has a balance of usability and has a font page for customer visits. I like this idea either, but its adverts are relevant to flash design which slows down page loading.
The navigation menu and search menu are on the same line, this idea will be applied to my design. I also like presentation of template, which has space between font ground of template and its background., makes me feel the website tidy and clear.

http://aodaivinh.com/index.html




It is a poor design layout for the website font page, it may not attract customer when they visit, but if they really visit, and they will visit to another nice web pages such as a page called “store”.



It is a nice layout but there are too many navigation menus including some unnecessary menu.
For example: There are 2 navigation of search on the same page, one with text field and button search, another one is navigated text. This can confuse customers. Moreover, it does not give a clear message about the website banner or logo or navigation menu on the top.
However, I like a function called “Advance Search” which I may include it in my coursework 2.

http://aodaitrang.net





This website has simple navigation menu and good searching menu, besides that, the template keeps balance between colors and images.

=> This website give me a hint about navigation menu with simple texts and their affects when customer point at navigation. I also like search menu, which directs customers to the items they want, is a hint for me if I do search advance function for my coursework 2.

However, it has a big banner which gets a half of web Brower, this is not convenient for customer when they load all pages, take longer time to view their chosen items. From banner with many girls dressing long dress, it gives a feeling about my logo, a simple line to draw up a charming girl.

http://www.aodaistyles.com/





When customers visit the page, they will reach at the font page first. It is nice layout with flash. A fast introduction about the web site to customers and have some navigation menu which can drive customers to the page they want.
However, it is designed by flash so it will take some minutes in order to load all information and image.
=> This website gives me an idea for font page with clear topic about my logo and what items I sell online towards my clients. I will not use flash for my design because it take quite long time for loading, for some customers, who will not wait and pass over to another website to buy. Another reason is it can break my web fundamentals such as search function or navigation object which flash are poorly interactived with and distract web'core values, it take long time to build up something which is new or updated.(Jacob Nielsen, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20001029.html)

so from now , I have a plan to design my website layout from different hints that I have collected.

Wednesday, 4 March 2009

add URL to Google, Yahoo, MSN.

I had added my site to several search engines such as:

MSN



YAHOO





GOOGLE



ASK



SUBMIT EXPRESS

Monday, 2 March 2009

Setup URL Forwarding (Solution) and META tag

from a help in ecommerce forum, I found a solution to succeed URL Forwarding.



in @ row, I input "http://www.longdressvn.com" with RECORD TYPE as "URL Redirect"
in www row, I input "cctmdev2.londonmet.ac.uk/vhp0003/coursework1/default.asp" with RECORD TYPE as "URL Frame".



in the my web browser, after I type "www.longdressvn.com", I can preview my website with my domain name.



By the way, I aslo set up my URL Meta tag