Dreamweaver Level 1
XHTML, CSS and CSS-P

Course Aims:

Everyone believes they can build a webpage these days, and it's true that with a little knowledge, it's not difficult to get something up on the web.

However, there's a huge difference between this and professionally designing and developing a site which is servicable, works well in search engines such as Google, and is accessible to all users, whether on a phone, a browser, or read out aloud by a screenreader to visually impaired users. These are only a handful of the many challenges faced by a professional web designer/developer.

On this course, you'll learn to understand this difference, as well as being able to explain the benefits of a well-developed site to a client. 

You'll never look at a web site in the same way again!

Curriculum Outline:

• Dreamweaver CS5 overview and new features
  
• The HTML skeleton and common tags
• Website inspiration and critique
• Site management
• Synchronisation
• Version tracking
  
• Templates for code reuse and concistency
  
• CSS styling
• CSS-P (CSS page layout)
• CSS starter pages
• Firefox, Firebug and the Web Developers' toolbar
  
• Incorporating graphics
• Incorporating rich media (video, Flash)
• When and when not to use Tables
• Forms and Form Elements
  
• Making forms work - CGI and dynamic scripts
  
• Javascript fundamentals, behaviours, Ajax and Spry components
  
• Web standards and Dreamweaver CS5
  
• Accessibility Standards / Section 508 compliance
• ...amongst other topics
  

Dreamweaver Level 2
XHTML, CSS-P, DOM, JavaScript, Ajax and Server-Side Scripting

Course Aims:

This course expands on the Dreamweaver Level 1 curriculum into areas mainly associated with dynamic web site development.

This course is your ideal next step if you want to :

• Make your contact or feedback forms actually work
• Give clients a Content Management System (CMS) for their site that they can log-in to to make their own updates.
  • Understand how to work with Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, ModX and other CMSs
• Add HTML animation, tools, user interface elements and dynamic content with Ajax frameworks
  • Understand how to work with jQuery, MooTools, Spry and other Ajax Frameworks
• Understand fundamentals of Server-Side Scripting for dynamic content using PHP

Prerequisites:

• Dreamweaver CS5 Level 1 Course
  
• Or Experience of XHTML, CSS, CSS-P, Web Standards, and Dreamweaver CS5 (or equivalent)

Curriculum Outline:

• Core concepts recap:
  • XHTML
  • CSS and CSS-P
    • CSS core concepts
    • CSS Positioning (Layout)
• Document Object Model (DOM)
  • Accessing elements, attributes and nodes
  • Manipulating the DOM
• Javascript core concepts
  • Variables
  • Operators
  • Conditionals
  • Loops
  • Arrays
  • Functions
  • Objects
• Spry Ajax framework
  • Effects and animations
  • CSS manipulation
  • User Interface (UI) tools
  • Form validation
• jQuery Ajax framework
  • DOM traversal
  • Events
  • CSS manipulation
  • Effects and animations
  • jQuery AJAX core concepts
• Server-side scripting fundamentals with PHP
• Database fundamentals with MySQL
• Setting up a local server with XAMPP
• Working with Content Management Systems
  • Such as Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla or ModX

• Languages used on the course:
  • Hypertext Markup Language - HTML 4.01
  • Extensible Hypertext Markup Language - XHTML 1.0
  • Cascading Style Sheets - CSS2 and CSS2.1
  • HTML DOM
  • JavaScript
  • Spry & jQuery
  • PHP & MySQL fundamentals