How is your website built?

I recently had a discussion with Mhairi about a possible project. Mhairi had a client who wished to add a blog to her site and she asked if I could provide her with a quote. Unfortunately, the website was built with ColdFusion and thus I told her that I wouldn’t be able to work on it because I’m simply not familiar with that tool. Mhairi was a bit confused at first and unsure why the code should matter.

When it comes to the web, there are loads or tools out there and lots of different programming languages. Developers tend to focus on one or two tools and specialize in a language. At Bluelime Media, I specialize in table-less HTML, php and WordPress and I use a simple text editor to hand code all my sites. No WYSIWYG editor for me. If you’re looking for Dreamweaver templates which can be updated with Contribute, I’m simply not the right fit for you.

So when looking at a website, how can you tell how it was built?
In the address bar, take a look at the address bar when moving from page to page. The file extension will give you an indication of the programming language used. Here’s a quick run-down at the different types of pages out there.

• .html or .htm – simple straightforward Hypertext Markup Language
• .php – PHP programming
• .cfm – Adobe Coldfusion
• .asp – Active Server Pages
• .aspx – ASP.NET
• .cgi – Perl
• .jsp – Java Server Page Technology

You can also find out a lot about websites by looking at the source code. Here are a few things to look out for:

<http://www.domainname.com/blog/wp-content... />

Websites built using WordPress will have code peppered with wp- markers.

<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000"
codebase="http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/..."
width="149" height="378" id="NavTabs-1" align="middle">
<param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" />
<param name="movie" value="NavTabs-1.swf" /><param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#bbbbbc" /><embed src="NavTabs-1.swf" quality="high" bgcolor="#bbbbbc" width="149" height="378" name="NavTabs-1" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" />
</object>

These lines of code are a sure sign that the content is a flash file.

function MM_reloadPage(init) {  //reloads the window if Nav4 resized
if (init==true) with (navigator) {if ((appName=="Netscape")&&(parseInt(appVersion)==4)) {
document.MM_pgW=innerWidth; document.MM_pgH=innerHeight; onresize=MM_reloadPage; }}
else if (innerWidth!=document.MM_pgW || innerHeight!=document.MM_pgH) location.reload();
}
MM_reloadPage(true);

Any mention of MM of InstanceBegin indicates that Dreamweaver was used to create this website.

<meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document">
<meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive 6">

Front page and GoLive both leave their trace in the meta tags.