Web Site Creation: Good Practice Guidelines

Standards For Project Web Sites

Brian Kelly

UK Web Focus

UKOLN

University of Bath

UKOLN is supported by:

EmailB.Kelly@ukoln.ac.ukURLhttp://www.ukoln.ac.uk/

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Standards, Architectures, Applications, Resources

The NOF-digi Technical Advisory Service aims to reach agreement on standards and be agnostic on the applications and architectures used to implement the standards, provided services are interoperable

Architectures: models for implementing systemsArchitectures: models for implementing systems

Applications: software products used to implement systems

Applications: software products used to implement systems

Standards: concerned with protocols and file formatsStandards: concerned with protocols and file formats

Open standards vs. Proprietary HTML / XML vs. PDFCSS / XSL vs. HTML

Which standards are applicableNT / UnixFile system / database applicationHTML tools / content management

Apache / IISFrontPage / DreamweaverOracle / SQLServer / MySQLColdFusion vs ASP vs JSP

Development vs. Migration costsUse of in-house expertiseIn-house vs. out-sourced Licensed vs. open source

Resources: financial and staff costs needed to implement systems

Resources: financial and staff costs needed to implement systems

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The GoalBefore the WebAccess to resources typically required use of software vendor’s software – which was only available on limited no. of platforms. Often the software would be licensed.The goal of the Web was to provide universal access to resources. Who could argue with this goal?

Need for standards to provide:• Platform and application independence• Avoidance of patented technologies • Flexibility and architectural integrity• Long-term access to data

Ideally look at standards first, then find applications which support the standards. However it can be difficult to achieve this ideal!

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Advantages In Use Of Standards

Advantages

Use of open standards

formats is free

Standardisation process should provide architectural integrity

Standardisation process should provide interoperability

Standardisation process should address accessibility issuesStandardisation process

may be informed by a broader vision (e.g. W3C and Tim Berners-Lee’s vision)

Standardisation process should avoid ownership / patent problems

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Disadvantages And Problems

Disadvantages

Open standards may be slow in arriving due to length of process

The market place may provide a better forum for driving innovation

Proprietary formats likely have relevant tools

Open standards may fail to be adopted

Early adopters of open standards may find that the standards change or are superseded

“If there’s a need for a feature the market place will provide it”

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Different Perspectives

Different groups will have differing views on the importance of standards

FundersLikely to insist on standards

ContentProviders

May be persuaded

Users:Disinterested

Developers:What’s in itfor them?

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Nightmare Scenarios

Too FlashA Flash-based Web site is developed which looks impressive but:

• Doesn’t work on digital TVs (discovered after Tony Blair announces digital TV access to E-Government)

Too MicrosoftA Web site is developed which uses proprietary Microsoft software but:

• It doesn’t work on Apple Macs, Palm PDAs or Unix systems

• Microsoft is split into separate companies and the Web company decides to charge to use its reader software

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The Holy GrailA NOF-digi Web site is developed using open standardsChange Of OS

For financial, security and performance reasons it is felt that the service should move from a Microsoft platform to Linux. This is achieved with little effort due to avoidance of MS-specific features.

Support For New DevicesFollowing growth in use of Palms PDAs and Digital TVs, access by these devices is achieved by adding a simple transformation script to transform from a neutral XML master.

Integration With E-Government and NGfLFollowing audits of e-government resources, only compliant resources are permitted. The NOF-digi Web sites satisfies the e-government requirements.

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Our Perspective

From the point of view of the NOF-digi Technical Advisory Service:

• Standards are of particular importance to a publicly-funded programme

• Standards are of particular importance in the digitisation of cultural heritage in which long term access is important

• Accessibility (for people with disabilities and from a wide range of devices) is important

• However it is recognised that there are areas in which:

Open standards may not be mature Projects will be facing challenges with timescales,

resources, expertise, etc.

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A Standards Culture

NOF-digi projects will be expected to:• Develop solutions which are informed by the

standards-based culture of the programme’s Standards and Guidelines framework and seek to use them whenever possible

• Ensure that the key deliverables comply with accessibility guidelines

• Fully document occasions when use of open standards is felt not to be possible:

Research into open standards alternatives and documents pros and cons

Develop migration strategy for move from proprietary format to open standards

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Migration Strategy

If proprietary formats are to be used projects should provide a migration strategy which:

• Provides evidence of research into open alternatives and why they are not suitable

• Documents integration of the proprietary format with an open solution (e.g. Flash interface which reads XML data)

• Documents how the interface will appear to non-standard browsers (e.g. old browsers, browsers on PDAs, offline browsers, search engines, etc.)

• Describes migration to an open alternative when/if one becomes available, including

Resource implications Model for migration (emulation, software

transformation, re-digitising) Possible funding streams for the work

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Further Information

For further information on standards see:• W3C Web site at <http://www.w3.org/>• Web Standards Project at

<http://www.webstandards.org/>• Diffuse Project Home Page at

<http://www.diffuse.org/>• WDVL: Specifications and Standards at

<http://www.wdvl.com/WebRef/Standards/>Or use Google to search for “Web standards” “standards for digitisation projects”, “standards for digitization projects”, “standards for digital library projects”, etc.

Any questions?Any questions?