| Question 1 |
Describe the difference between an XML Sitemap and a HTML Sitemap. List the benefits and disadvantages of using each. |
| Both xml and html have their distinct advantages for sitemaps. Xml provides better mapping for crawlers, allowing for better SEO and indexing for search engines. However this can make it harder to read. Html provides better human readability, but loses the SEO advantage provided by xml. |
| Question 2 |
Evaluate three IDE’s (Integrated development environments) and provide a brief summary on the positive and negative aspects of each. Also, in your own words include how it would suit an entry level trainee code developer. |
- Visual Studio Code
- Visual studio code, also known as VScode, is a highly popular IDE. It provides a simple interface that still has effective features for development. VScode has a simple way to add langauge support, with a large volume of plugins also available to customise it. It is also a free tool, which has largely contributed to its success. Being a free tool, however, means that users may lose out on some features provided by paid environments. Overall VScode is an excellent choice for entry level developers due to its easy to use, customise nature.
- IntelliJ IDEA
- IntelliJ Idea is an IDE that is also relatively popular. Intellij is more feature dense in comparison with VScode, and as such is more difficult to get the hang of. Intellij provides much more advanced tools out of box, with a more indepth debugging and analyising toolkit. Intellij provides a free community edition, which does not come with the full feature set of the IDE. Overall I would say Intellij is for developers who are slightly more advanced, and is not as suited for entry level programmers.
- PyCharm
- PyCharm is a less popular IDE in comparison with the aforementined. PyCharm provides very indepth out of box python support. PyCharm is designed for use with python, meaning that to take full advantage of its toolkit, you need to be coding in pytho. Similar to IntelliJ, pycharm provides a community edition, with a professional version available. I would say that PyCharm is good for entry level coders who are getting into a lot of python based coding.
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| Question 3 |
Provide a brief history on web browser development and the issues encountered by web developers, specifically, the adherence to web standards. |
| HTML was created in 1991, by a man named Tims Berners-lee. He aimed to create a standard format to share information over the internet, that all computers could read. Over the years, html had many additions and alterations, to allow it to do more. As it evolved, as did the need for web standards. Different browsers that were created led to a split in development of sites, as different browsers were providing different support. As such, in 1999, the WCAG standard was created. It included 14 Guidelines to help developers unify sites and make them more accesible. Over the years the WCAG adapted, and many different parties select sections to become mandatory within their systems. The WCAg is still used today. |
| Question 4 |
What are website testing methodologies? Your answer MUST cover browser compatibility, and website functionality. |
| Website testing methodologies are a range of different methodologies to help ensure that a site is fullyFunctionality testing is important to ensure that all features of a site work as expected.Functionality tests need to take place on multiple browsers to ensure parity across the web.Pretty much website testing methodologies are a range of different tests to ensure that a site is functional, secure, compatable, useable and can perform well.Overall they ensure that a site is suitable for the web, can work on most if not all browsers, and does the functions the developer needs it to, whilst staying secure. |
| Question 5 |
What are the endorsed requirements of accessibility for all NT Government webpages? |
| The NT Government Endorses the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines - https://nt.gov.au/page/accessibility |
| Question 6 |
How do you think it’s best to organise all the assets used for a specific webpage? Think locally on your computer AND within the root folder of the website. |
| When you have any project, you have a root level folder. As such you should be utilising this root folder as the "Base" of your project. As with anything, you should then be storing anything important within the base, and categorising other things for referencing. For example, with a website, our pages are the most important part. They provide the information. As such we generally keep our pages at the root level. Things like images, or styling(CSS), while beneficial, are not neccesarily as important, and as such get categorised into subfolders. It makes for easier management and an overall better layout. We categorise to make things easier to find and reference to. This enables others to also easily look over out projects. |