Creating a Course Web Page

(Aptana Studio 3 version)

 


Starting Aptana

Aptana Studio 3 is open source software, so you can download it to your own computer from http://www.aptana.com/. When you first start up Aptana, it will want to create a "Workspace" directory. If you are working on your own laptop, the default directory is probably fine, or you can choose to have it use a different directory if you prefer.

The next step is to create a project. You may be prompted for this automatically (in which case, choose "Create Project" and then "Web Project"), or you may need to go to the "File" menu and select "New" -> "Web Project". When asked about a template, choose "Basic Web Template". You will also be asked to give your project a name; an appropriate name might be something like "COMP102 [or COMP 103] Web Pages". Initially, your newly created project will contain a single file named "index.html". The editor window should show the contents of that newly created file. You can preview what the page will look like in a web browser by clicking on the icon at the top of the editor window that looks like it has an eye on it. (It is to the rght of the icon that looks like a house.) Now try changing the text inside of the <H1> tags, save your file, and again preview the page. You should be able to see your changes. You will find yourself going back and forth between the editor and preview windows frequently as you develop web pages.

TIP: Web Page Filenames

If you haven't already, create a folder in which you will save the web pages you create for this class.

By default, web browsers look for files called index.html, so that is a good name to use for the "home" page of any project; in this case, the "home" page for your work in this class. If you create other files in this directory (as you probably will), you will want to give them other names, such as project1.html. It is best to avoid spaces and special characters in your filename (e.g., COMP Lab #1 is not a good filename for a web page).

Save Early and Often

Save your file periodically as you work.