An Introduction To PageSection

This is the first official blog page that is meant to serve as an introduction to why, what and how we will operate and the products and services we aim at providing to you the end-user. Also kindly visit our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page for more commonly asked questions that you might be interested in.

First off, thank you for choosing to visit (and hopefully use) this website and any of its products or services. PageSection, originally a website for storing user-created-collections, has been in our control and operation since February 2020, and was “renovated” in Jan-Feb 2021 so as to provide a more web-app experience targeting specific needs of web developers and other web users. We plan to create more applications that can provide specific functions and value for our users. Our plan of action; develop a single web-application which if successful will help us gain capital, users and momentum to develop other web-applications. This initial application (post 2021) is what we (are to) call PageSection::Host, a simple way to host and link web projects (for example html, css, js, and many more) and receive a web link without the need of setting up or configuring a web server or domains.

Why

Because we as web developers always deal with multiple projects, sometimes simultaneously, and there is a need to show or share the project’s progress with others. Be it clients, superiors or fellow programmers, there is a constant need to see what has been created in action.
While we may depend on the use of localhost, it is limited to a single local machine which will need extra networking to share it with other machines. So how about a client who is not interested in extra networking, how can the project be presented in a more convenient way.
The internet exists and is a readily available network in most locations on earth. The internet is how most people view websites and is therefore how most people would EXPECT to view a web project. So why not use exactly that.

What

By web project, we mean something (anything for example a website, app, design, image, multimedia, computer program or system) that you want to work on the web. This might be an html website, css (cascading style sheet), js program, png/jpg/svg image, a font file, and many others.
So let us consider that you are working on a web project, and you would like to show it off to someone else;

1. Most programmers will either send screenshots or some other type of “mock-up” data to represent the project and or progress to other involved parties. This works and is very common, but it is not ideal as something’s are better viewed in action, for example interactivity. It may also make it difficult to identify certain errors when using mock-ups, for example mobile responsiveness.
2. Others may record video, or even live stream it to the client, so as to show the project in action. This may solve a few issues like represent interactivity.
3. Another (much better) solution is to simply host the web project on an already available server that can be accessed by both the programmer and the other viewer(s). This involves setting up a sub-domain for the project(s) or creating a special folder within an existing domain. As you may imagine, this easily gets complicated sometimes as it may even damage other existing projects on the server for instance when .htaccess rewriting has to also be updated so as to allow access to a new URL. It is also tiresome and repetitive to manually change files and settings on a server.

So how do we solve this repetitive task, how do we allow people create, host and link to multiple web projects (or files) without dealing with multiple web-hosting packages, server reconfiguring and other complexities.

How

A few important problems, and common questions, that we aim at solving include;

• How do I deliver sites and project files to clients?
• How can I show a live website to a client?
• How can clients preview a website?
• How do I present a website to a client without domain names?
• How do I present a website to a client without hosting?
• How do I send an HTML page to a client?
• How do I host websites for students?
• How do I host websites for a class project?
• How do I host temporary websites?
• And in summary, where do I host the websites that are being developed?

Solution

For (HTML) websites: Zip the project, upload the (project) zip file and get a working web (URL) link. Share the link and let others view it naturally, by accessing the internet and clicking the link viewed within a web browser.
For other web files: Upload the file and get a link to it. For example css, js, png, jpg, svg, and other file types that you need to link for your web project.
It’s that simple. That is our solution to that problem.
We will charge a subscription fee so as to account for various costs and maintenance. Later on, we might create more web-applications to solve other problems which we believe can have simplified solutions. Hopefully, you find our solutions valuable to your workflow. Also if you want to upload a certain file type that may not be allowed, for example PHP, let us know through our support email.

Cheers.