HTML

“Hyper Text Markup Language” is the standard markup used for creating websites and web pages. Released in 1993, HTML is an evolving language that contains just about all of the written content you see on a website. HTML also allows web developers to display images, include links, and much more.

Here is a sample of HTML:

<p>This is a paragraph with no formatting.<p>
<p>The last word in this paragraph is a <a href="https://rangemarketing.com">link</a>.</p>

CSS

“Cascading Style Sheets” is a language used to style HTML content. Within CSS documents, website developers declare fonts, colors, spacing, and sizes of the elements displayed on their website. The newest version of CSS more advanced features like animations and gradients.

Here is a sample of CSS that would customize the sizing, color, and font of the HTML example:

p {
font-size: 16px;
color: black;
font-family: Arial;
}


PHP

One of the key ways we build dynamic websites is through our use of the scripting language called “Hypertext Preprocessor” or “PHP.” Initially released in 1994, PHP has become a dominant programming language on the web. Platforms like WordPress run exclusively on the newest version of PHP and use it to provide files and chunks of code as they are needed. One of the key features of PHP is that it contains “logical operators.” This might sound confusing, but it’s actually quite simple. Within the code, our developers can use terms like “if” and “or” to determine what is shown to the visitor. A simple example of putting logic into play would be:

“If the user is viewing the homepage: show the image slider, if not: show them the title of this page.”

Here’s how that would look in the PHP code behind a WordPress site:


if (is_front_page()) {
show_slider();
} else {
the_title();
}

JavaScript

JavaScript or “JS” is another programming language we use on every website we build. Unlike PHP which runs server-side, JavaScript is a “just in time” language meaning that it begins processing when a page is loaded. JS is a great way to add things like a live chat widget. Once the page is loaded, we can use JavaScript to initialize the chat software and respond to what a user enters into the chat box. Regular HTML doesn’t have the ability to change after the page is loaded, but with JavaScript we can program the site to continually change based on user input.

Here’s an example of some JavaScript code:


if (confirm("Start Chat")) {
txt = "Welcome to our live chat. You are now chatting with Diana...";
} else {
txt = "Let us know if you have any questions. We are here to help!";
}