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Future Technologies:Deployment Issues

Brian Kelly Email Address

UK Web Focus B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk

UKOLN URL

University of Bath http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/

UKOLN is funded by the Library and Information Commission, the Joint Information Systems Committee of the Higher Education Funding Councils, as well as by project funding from the JISC’s Electronic Libraries Programme and the European Union. UKOLN also receives support from the University of Bath where it is based.

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Contents• Introduction• Barriers to Deployment• Revisiting Data Formats:

• HTML and XHTML• CSS

• Where Are We: Four Case Studies• Entry Points• Search Engines• 404 error messages• Web Gateways

• Metadata• Browser Issues• Content Management Systems• Deployment Issues• Conclusions

Aims of Talk• To consider barriers to

deployment of new technologies

• To address implementation models for new technologies

• To look at case studies in a number of areas

Aims of Talk• To consider barriers to

deployment of new technologies

• To address implementation models for new technologies

• To look at case studies in a number of areas

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Barriers to Deployment

What barriers can you think of?

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Your Concerns

I know that CSS, XML, HTTP/1.1, RDF, etc. are good ideas.

But:• I don't want to be at the leading edge• I want to be at the leading edge and have

to convince by boss• I want to stick with the Web circa 1996• We've only got Netscape 3 browsers• You can't do much in FrontPage 97

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The Scale of the ProblemNote: Analysis aborted after 15,315 pages

Off-site links not checkedAnalysis files over 160Mb

Note: Analysis aborted after 15,315 pagesOff-site links not checkedAnalysis files over 160Mb

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HTML XHMTL

XHTML:• Future-proofs your HTML• Has beneficial side-effects:<p>closed papa</p> - CSS rendered correctly

• Example of why you need valid HTML resources

Deployment:• Much XHTML support provided by authoring tools• <br / > is a problem• Problem with vi, Notepad, etc.• Tidy utility for retrospective conversion – see

<http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett/tidy/>

Caveats:• Still a Proposed Recommendation

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HTML CSS

CSS:• Preferred way of defining document appearance

Problems:• Netscape has very poor support of CSS• Netscape and IE have incomplete support

Deployment:• Should be used today• For manually-created CSS consult list of safe CSS

at <http://www.webreview.com/guides/style/>• Modern authoring tools may produce safe CSS• User-agent negotiation may be used • See also Core Style Sheets at

<http://www.w3.org/StyleSheets/Core/>

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Case Studies

"It can be dangerous and expensive to be at the leading edge. There are also dangers in being left behind"

How is the UK HE community addressing:• Institutional Home Page• Searching institutional web service• 404 error messages• Web gateways

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Case Study 1: Home PageView a tour of Yorkshire University home pages at <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/seminars/brad-web2000/web-tour/>.

What do you notice? How does Bradford compare?

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Case Study 2: Searching

View a tour of Yorkshire University search interfaces at <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/seminars/brad-web2000/web-tour-search/>.

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Case Study 3: Gateways

View a tour of Yorkshire University web gateways at <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/seminars/brad-web2000/web-tour-gateway/>.

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Case Study 4: Home Page

View a tour of Yorkshire University home pages at <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/seminars/brad-web2000/web-tour-404/>.

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Workshop"Institutional Web Management: The Next Steps" workshop:

• Held at Goldsmith College on 7-9 Sept 99• Third in series of annual events aimed at

institutional web managers• Key themes:

– Resourcing (John Slater),– Personalisation (Joe Passmore, Ulster)– E-Business (David Christmas, OU)– Content Management (Stephen Emmott, KCL and

others)– Multimedia (Greg Newton-Ingham [UEA] and Michael

Wilson, RAL)

• See workshop report (and links to materials) at <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue21/web-focus/>

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Metadata

Metadata is growing in importance:• Resource discovery• Web site administration• B2B (business to business) applications

Dublin Core:• Standard for resource discovery metadata• Not yet supported by search engine vendors• Growing importance in specific communities

(e.g. UK HE for national searching, HE Mall?)• Metadata management an issue

Metadata: Structured information for use by applicationsHTML: Unstructured information for viewing by people

Metadata: Structured information for use by applicationsHTML: Unstructured information for viewing by people

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Metadata ExampleThe Exploit Interactive web magazine uses Dublin Core metadata to provide enhanced searching locally.The metadata can also be used by third party applications

You are unlikely to be motivated to use metadata (for example) unless there is are clear benefits.This enhanced search service will encourage information providers to provide the metadata

You are unlikely to be motivated to use metadata (for example) unless there is are clear benefits.This enhanced search service will encourage information providers to provide the metadata

http://www.exploit-lib.org/http://www.exploit-lib.org/

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Metadata Example (2)Exploit Interactive uses ASP to manage server-side includes. As well as including standard navigational aids, the SSIs transform the metadata

<meta content="DC.description" value = "<%=description %>"

<meta content="description" value = "<%=description %>"

article.asp dc-metadata.ssi

Title="foo"Description ="xxx"..<! include dc-metadata.ssi)>

<! include article.htm>..<! include footer.ssi)>

Stored in neutral format, which helps reuse

Storing metadata in neutral format and transforming it will enable it be transformed into new formats (e.g. RDF)

Storing metadata in neutral format and transforming it will enable it be transformed into new formats (e.g. RDF)

article.htm

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Browser Issues

The web was designed to be evolvable and backwards compatible

Unfortunately this isn't the case, due to:• Proprietary extensions which do not coexist with

standards• Authoring tools which make it easy to propagate

proprietary extensions and poor markup (cf. MS Word)

• Pace of web development• Browser bugs• Difficulties in getting rid of (flawed) old browsers

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Browser Issues

Issues:• Should organisations adopt a browser management

policy (cf. operating systems, word processors, etc.)?

• Which browser / browser version to choose?• What about specialist browsers (PDAs, Lynx,

Opera, etc)?• Need for browser management kit to minimise

maintenance

Talk by Brett Burridge on this topic. See <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-sep1999/materials/browser-management/>

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Browser IssuesEven with a browser policy, you still have to consider support for other browsers (esp. for public web site):

Client-Side Browser sniffing:• Javascript in all HTML pages• Maintenance problem

Server-Side Browser sniffing:• In server-side language (e.g. ASP / PHP/FI)• Could be used to deliver safe CSS (e.g. see

<www.disinhe.ac.uk> in Netscape and IE)

Protocol Developments:• Support for PDAs, WebTVs, etc• Transparent Content Negotiation and CC/PP• One for the future

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Content Management Systems

Approaches such as external CSS files, SSI for managing reusable fragment, etc. are usefulBut:

• Still a file-oriented view• Help manage a web site aimed at human use• May be difficult to manage server and client-side

code

Content management systems• May have a database or object-oriented view• May help manage a web site which can be re-

purposed• Likely to have backend XML data store

and use XSL to transform to HTML / CSS

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Is it time to move on from using authoring tools to manage files to content managements systems which manage objects and enable resources to be re-purposed?

Is it time to move on from using authoring tools to manage files to content managements systems which manage objects and enable resources to be re-purposed?

Deployment IssuesMore sophisticated deployment techniques can be adopted to overcome deficiencies in simple model

HTML resource

browserWeb server

Web server simply sends file to clientFile contains redundant information (for old browsers) plus client interrogation support

browser

Client proxy

Original Model

Sophisticated Model

HTML / XML /

databaseresource

IntelligentWeb server

Backendprocessing

Server proxy

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Cultural Issues

University "culture" may influence directions of web developments

How did you address need for Help Desk tracking software:

• Make decisions internally or liase with other institutions?

• Buy an off-the-shelf shrink-wrapped package• Write an MS Access database application• Take a C compiler and Linux server

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What Next For Bradford?ConservativeStay as you are.

If so, make this a deliberate approach, and be aware of strength and weaknesses

ConservativeStay as you are.

If so, make this a deliberate approach, and be aware of strength and weaknesses

Change (1)Introduce new innovations.

Make use of off-the-shelf solutions

Change (1)Introduce new innovations.

Make use of off-the-shelf solutions

Change (2)Introduce new innovations.

Make use of open source solutions and home-grown approaches

Change (2)Introduce new innovations.

Make use of open source solutions and home-grown approaches

What should you do next?

A Fourth Way Are there alternative approaches?

A Fourth Way Are there alternative approaches?

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Collaboration

You can't do it all on your own

Mailing lists:web-supportwebsite-info-mgt…

Events:Annual Institutional Web Management workshops…

JISC:JTAP projects and reportsJISC reports Other Institutions:

Relevant web resources

Regional Events:Yorkshire (and beyond?) events?

Working Together

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Conclusions

To conclude:• Standards are important• Implementation requires much thought• More sophisticated architectures can help

avoid human errors in managing web sites• You will need to decide on an open-sources

vs. shrink-wrapped solution• You can't to it all on your own