Sunday, December 21, 2008

Web template

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(Redirected from Blog Templates)


A web template is a tool used to separate content from presentation in web design, and for mass-production of web documents. It is a basic component of a web template system.

Web templates can be used to set up any type of website. In its simplest sense, a web template operates similarly to a form letter for use in setting up a website.



Contents[hide]

1 Template Uses

* 1.1 Effective separation

*1.2 Flexible presentation

*1.3 Reusability
=)1.3.1 Open source templates

2 Notes and references

3 See also
*3.1 Examples

4 External links


[edit] Template Uses


Web templates can be used by any individual or organization to set up their website. Once a template is purchased or downloaded, the user will replace all generic information included in the web template with their own personal, organizational or product information. Templates can be used to:

*Display personal information or daily activities as in a blog.

*Sell products on-line.

*Display information about a company or organization.

*Display family history.

*Display a gallery of photos.

*Place music files such as mp3 on line for play through a web browser.

*Place videos on-line for public viewing.

*To setup a private login area on-line.


Effective separation

A common goal among experienced web developers is to develop and deploy applications that are flexible and easily maintainable. An important consideration in reaching this goal is the separation of business logic from presentation logic.[1] Developers use web template systems (with varying degrees of success) to maintain this separation.[1]

One difficulty in evaluating this separation is the lack of well-defined formalisms to measure when and how well it is actually met.[1] There are, however, fairly standard heuristics that have been borrowed from the domain of software engineering. These include 'inheritance' (based on principles of object-oriented programming); and the 'Templating and Generative programming', (consistent with the principles of MVC separation).[2] The precise difference between the various guidelines is subject to some debate, and some aspects of the different guidelines share a degree of similarity.[3]


[edit] Flexible presentation

One major rationale behind "effective separation" is the need for maximum flexibility in the code and resources dedicated to the presentation logic.[2] Client demands, changing customer preferences and desire to present a "fresh face" for pre-existing content often result in the need to dramatically modify the public appearance of web content while disrupting the underlying infrastructure as little as possible.


The distinction between "presentation" (front end) and "business logic" (infrastructure) is usually an important one, because:

*the presentation source code language may differ from other code assets;

*the production process for the application may require the work to be done at separate times and locations;

*different workers have different skill sets, and presentation skills do not always coincide with skills for coding business logic;

*code assets are easier to maintain and more readable when disparate components are kept separate and loosely coupled;[2]



Reusability

Not all potential users of web templates have the willingness and ability to hire developers to design a system for their needs. Additionally, some may wish to use the web but have limited or no technical proficiency. For these reasons, a number of developers and vendors have released web templates specifically for reuse by non-technical people. Although web template reusability is also important for even highly-skilled and technically experienced developers, it is especially critical to those who rely on simplicity and "ready-made" web solutions.

Such "ready-made" web templates are sometimes free, and easily made by an individual domestically. However, specialized web templates are sometimes sold online. Although there are numerous commercial sites that offer web templates for a licensing fee, there are also free and "open-source" sources as well.

[edit] Open source templates

The rise of the open source design movement has seen a slow but steady rise in the community of open source designers. Some sites offer open source templates in addition to other content.

As of this writing there are over 4000 unique templates available for modification and use by anyone under various open source licenses.[citation needed]

Blogger Service History

Blogger is a blog publishing system. It was created by Pyra Labs, which was bought by Google in 2003. Although its website is http://www.blogger.com/, the blogs it hosts are all subdomains of http://www.blogspot.com/.

Contents[hide]
[edit] History

*On August 23, 1999, Blogger was launched by Pyra Labs. As one of the earliest dedicated blog-publishing tools, it is credited for helping popularize the format.

*In February 2003, Pyra Labs was acquired by Google under undisclosed terms. The acquisition allowed premium features (for which Pyra had charged) to become free. About a year later, Pyra Labs' co-founder, Evan Williams, left Google.

*In 2004, Google purchased Picasa; it integrated Picasa and its photo sharing utility Hello into Blogger, allowing users to post photos to their blogs.

*On May 9, 2004, Blogger introduced a major redesign, adding features such as web standards-compliant templates, individual archive pages for posts, comments, and posting by email.

*On August 14, 2006, Blogger launched its latest version in beta, codenamed "Invader", alongside the gold release. This migrated users to Google servers and included some new features.

*In December 2006, this new version of Blogger was taken out of beta.

*By May 2007, Blogger had completely moved over to Google operated servers.

*In October 2008, Turkey blocked access to Blogger. [1][verification needed]

Blogger was ranked 16 on the list of top 50 domains in terms of number of unique visitors in 2007. [2][dated info]
[edit] Redesign



As part of the Blogger redesign in 2006, all blogs associated with a user's Google Account were migrated to Google servers. Blogger claims that the service is now more reliable because of the quality of the servers.[3]

Along with the migration to Google servers, several new features were introduced, including label organization, a drag-and-drop template editing interface, reading permissions (to create private blogs) and new Web feed options. Furthermore, blogs are updated dynamically, as opposed to rewriting HTML files.
[edit] Integration

*The Google Toolbar has a feature called "BlogThis!" which allows toolbar users with Blogger accounts to post links directly to their blogs.


*"Blogger for Word" is a free add-in for Microsoft Word. This add-in allows users to save a Microsoft Word Document directly to a Blogger blog, as well as edit their posts both on- and offline. As of January 2007[update], Google says "Blogger for Word is not currently compatible with the new version of Blogger", and they state no decision has been made about supporting it with the new Blogger.[4] However, Microsoft Office 2007 adds native support for a variety of blogging systems, including Blogger.


*Blogger supports Google's AdSense service as a way of generating revenue from running a blog.
*Blogger offers multiple author support, making it possible to establish group blogs.


*Blogger offers a template editing feature, which allows users to customize the Blogger template.[5]


*Windows Live Writer, a standalone app of the Windows Live suite, publishes directly to Blogger.


References

1. ^ a b "Blogger.com Banned in Turkey", advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org (2008). Retrieved on 1 December 2008. "A Turkish court has blocked access to the popular blog hosting service Blogger (Blogger.com and Blogspot.com owned by Google), from Friday, October 24th, 2008." The ban was lifted on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008."

2. ^ "Top 50 Domains - Ranked by Unique Visitors"” September, 2007.

3. ^ Blogger Buzz: The New Version of Blogger

4. ^ http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42497&topic=8931

5 .^ Customize Blogger templates

6. ^ "Google’s Gatekeepers", New York Times (2008). Retrieved on 1 December 2008. "Over the past couple of years, Google and its various applications have been blocked, to different degrees, by 24 countries. Blogger is blocked in Pakistan, for example, and Orkut in Saudi Arabia."



[edit] External links


*Blogger website

*Blogger list of third-party Apps (includes posting clients)

*Meg Hourihan interview (in MP3 format), summarized here, from IT Conversations

*Summary of 2004 redesign, from the Blogger website

My Idea: my blog

My Idea: my blog