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Website Development Bookmarks

My Website Content Management System — PmWiki

PmWiki is a wiki-based system for collaborative creation and maintenance of websites. Even though my website isn't open for public contributions, I use PmWiki so I can easily add and update content no matter where I am or which computer I'm using. I also use PmWiki because it stores the website contents in regular files rather than a relational database; this made it much easier when I had to transfer from one website hosting provider to another.

HTML / CSS

I periodically check random pages from my websites using these official W3C validation services, to make sure my websites adhere to Markup and CSS standards:

Other useful online validators:

W3C Link Checker — check all links on a page to make sure they are still valid.
Robots.txt Validator — check the validity of your robots.txt file. Also provides links to pages that explain how to use a robots.txt file and the syntax it requires.

There are many websites providing HTML and CSS reference documentation; my favorite one is blooberry.com:

The definitive, though sometimes obtuse, documentation for HTML and CSS is at w3.org:

To display characters from other languages, mathematical symbols, and various other non-alphanumeric stuff, you can use HTML "named character references":

Named HTML Character References
- alphabetic order
- numeric order

Most fonts provide even more characters than are supported by HTML's "named character references"; you can reference those using HTML "numeric character references":

Some characters are not directly supported within URLs (e.g. a space), you can get around that by using URL encoding:

URL Encoding Chart

Color:

Here are a few websites dedicated to tips, techniques, and best practices for website design:

A List Apart — "explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices."
Creating Websites FAQ — boutell.com, purveyors of quality web resources since 1993
Position Is Everything — explains some obtuse CSS bugs in modern browsers, provides demo examples of interesting CSS behaviors, and shows how to "make it work" without using tables for layout purposes.

Here are webpages with specific information related to website design I found useful at one time or another:

PHP

According to php.net, PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML.

Documentation

PHP Manual

Third-Party PHP Libraries

Data Visualization for Web Designers

D3: “D3.js is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. D3 helps you bring data to life using HTML, SVG and CSS. D3’s emphasis on web standards gives you the full capabilities of modern browsers without tying yourself to a proprietary framework, combining powerful visualization components and a data-driven approach to DOM manipulation.”
Kartograph: “Kartograph is a simple and lightweight framework for building interactive map applications without Google Maps or any other mapping service. It was created with the needs of designers and data journalists in mind.
: “Actually, Kartograph is two libraries. One generates beautiful & compact SVG maps; the other helps you to create interactive maps that run across all major browsers.”
jQuery Sparklines: “This jQuery plugin generates sparklines (small inline charts) directly in the browser using data supplied either inline in the HTML, or via javascript.”

Interactive Data Visualization for the Web by Scott Murray (O'Reilly Books): “This step-by-step guide is ideal whether you’re a designer or visual artist with no programming experience, a reporter exploring the new frontier of data journalism, or anyone who wants to visualize and share data. Create and publish your own interactive data visualization projects on the Web—even if you have little or no experience with data visualization or web development. It’s easy and fun with this practical, hands-on introduction. Author Scott Murray teaches you the fundamental concepts and methods of D3, a JavaScript library that lets you express data visually in a web browser. Along the way, you’ll expand your web programming skills, using tools such as HTML and JavaScript.”
: The website provides a full online version of the book.