HTML interview questions(41-50)

How do I change the title of a framed document?

The title displayed is the title of the frameset document rather than the titles of any of the pages within frames. To change the title displayed, link to a new frameset document using TARGET=”_top” (replacing the entire frameset).

How do I link an image to something?

Just use the image as the link content, like this:

<a href=...><img src=... alt=...></a>
</html>

Should I end my URLs with a slash?

The URL structure defines a hierarchy similar to a filesystem’s hierarchy of subdirectories or folders. The segments of a URL are separated by slash characters (”/”). When navigating the URL hierarchy, the final segment of the URL (i.e., everything after the final slash) is similar to a file in a filesystem. The other segments of the URL are similar to the subdirectories and folders in a filesystem.
When resolving relative URLs (see the answer to the previous question), the browser’s first step is to strip everything after the last slash in the URL of the current document. If the current document’s URL ends with a slash, then the final segment (the “file”) of the URL is null. If you remove the final slash, then the final segment of the URL is no longer null; it is whatever follows the final remaining slash in the URL. Removing the slash changes the URL; the modified URL refers to a different document and relative URLs will resolve differently.
For example, the final segment of the URL http://www.mysite.com/faq/html/ is empty; there is nothing after the final slash. In this document, the relative URL all.html resolves to http://www.mysite.com/faq/html/all.html (an existing document). If the final slash is omitted, then the final segment of the modified URL http://www.mysite.com/faq/html is “html”. In this (nonexistent) document, the relative URL all.html would resolve to http://www.mysite.com/faq/all.html (another nonexistent document).
When they receive a request that is missing its final slash, web servers cannot ignore the missing slash and just send the document anyway. Doing so would break any relative URLs in the document. Normally, servers are configured to send a redirection message when they receive such a request. In response to the redirection message, the browser requests the correct URL, and then the server sends the requested document. (By the way, the browser does not and cannot correct the URL on its own; only the server can determine whether the URL is missing its final slash.)
This error-correction process means that URLs without their final slash will still work. However, this process wastes time and network resources. If you include the final slash when it is appropriate, then browsers won’t need to send a second request to the server.
The exception is when you refer to a URL with just a hostname (e.g., http://www.mysite.com). In this case, the browser will assume that you want the main index (”/”) from the server, and you do not have to include the final slash. However, many regard it as good style to include it anyway.

How do I specify a specific combination of frames instead of the default document?

This is unfortunately not possible. When you navigate through a site using frames, the URL will not change as the documents in the individual frames change. This means that there is no way to indicate the combination of documents that make up the current state of the frameset.
The author can provide multiple frameset documents, one for each combination of frame content. These frameset documents can be generated automatically, perhaps being created on the fly by a CGI program. Rather than linking to individual content documents, the author can link to these separate frameset documents using TARGET=”_top”. Thus, the URL of the current frameset document will always specify the combination of frames being displayed, which allows links, bookmarks, etc. to function normally.

How do I link to a location in the middle of an HTML document?

First, label the destination of the link. The old way to label the destination of the link was with an anchor using the NAME attribute. For example:

<h2><a name="section2">Section 2: Beyond Introductions</a></h2>
 
</html>
The modern way to label the destination of the link is with an ID attribute. For example:
<pre lang="html">
<h2 id="section2">Section 2: Beyond Introductions</h2>
 
</html>
Second, link to the labeled destination. The URL is the URL of the document, with "#" and the value of the NAME or ID attribute appended. Continuing the above examples, elsewhere in the same document you could use:
<pre lang="html">
<a href="#section2">go to Section 2</a>

Similarly, in another document you could use:

<a href="thesis.html#section2">go to Section 2 of my thesis</a>

How do I create a link?

Use an anchor element. The HREF attribute specifies the URL of the document that you want to link to. The following example links the text “Web Authoring FAQ” to

<URL:http://www.htmlhelp.com/faq/html/>:
<A HREF="http://www.yoursite.com/faq/html/">Web Authoring FAQ</A>

How do I create a link that opens a new window?

<a target="_blank" href=...> opens a new, unnamed window.
<a target="example" href=...> opens a new window named "example", provided that a window or frame by that name does not already exist.

Note that the TARGET attribute is not part of HTML 4 Strict. In HTML 4 Strict, new windows can be created only with JavaScript. links that open new windows can be annoying to your readers if there is not a good reason for them.

How do I let people download a file from my page?

Once the file is uploaded to the server, you need only use an anchor reference tag to link to it. An example would be:

<a href="../files/foo.zip">Download Foo Now! (100kb ZIP)</a>

How do I create a button which acts like a link?

This is best done with a small form:

<FORM ACTION="[URL]" METHOD=GET>
<INPUT TYPE=submit VALUE="Text on button">
</FORM>

If you want to line up buttons next to each other, you will have to put them in a one-row table, with each button in a separate cell.
Note that search engines might not find the target document unless there is a normal link somewhere else on the page.
A go-to-other-page button can also be coded in JavaScript, but the above is standard HTML and works for more readers.

How can I make a form with custom buttons?

Rather than a normal submit button

(
<input type="submit" ...>),

you can use the image input type

 (
<input type="image" ...>).

The image input type specifies a graphical submit button that functions like a server-side image map.
Unlike normal submit buttons (which return a name=value pair), the image input type returns the x-y coordinates of the location where the user clicked on the image. The browser returns the x-y coordinates as name.x=000 and name.y=000 pairs.
For compatability with various non-graphical browsing environments, the VALUE and ALT attributes should be set to the same value as the NAME attribute. For example:

<input type="image" name="Send" alt="Send" value="Send" src="send-button.gif">

For the reset button, one could use

 <button type="reset" ...>

JavaScript, and/or style sheets, although none of these mechanisms work universally.

How do I specify page breaks in HTML?

There is no way in standard HTML to specify where page breaks will occur when printing a page. HTML was designed to be a device-independent structural definition language, and page breaks depend on things like the fonts and paper size that the person viewing the page is using.

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