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Site Management & Design:
Trends and Implementing Technologies
Ian GrahamUniversity of Toronto & GroveWare [email protected]
Outline of Talk
Functions and reasons for Web sites
Evolution of site designs Evolution of editors, content-
management systems Linkage between last two points
Likely future trends and technologies
Why these subjects?
Functions/Reasons Help explain why we got where we are
History of site design and tools Illustrate how tools follow the the
functions/reasonsLinkages
Help explain possible future trends
Part 1: Website Functions
Social Arena Distribute
information, entertainment
Distribute goods Develop community Support
collaboration Personal
productivity
Business Arena All functions at left
(marketing, customer support, advertising) plus:
Make money Sell goods, services
Mediated communication
User Perspective
Entertainment -- Sports, hobbiesInformation -- Medical, educational Communication -- personal,
communityCommercial -- buy and sell, product
researchProductivity -- Webmail, personal
calendar
Outline of Talk
Functions and reasons for Web sites
Evolution of site designs Evolution of editors, content-
management systems Linkage between last two points
Likely future trends and technologies
Part 2: Site Design
Goal: To understand the dynamics that drive
the development of editing tools and Web site management/development software.
Site Design: A History
1. Content-based information sites static information (text, images, other) searchable content (text index) Issues
hand-maintained (labour-intensive)link reliability, maintainability, commercial
modelseditorial control, distributed management
First-Generation Tools:
HTML/Graphics Text editors
(vi, notepad,...)
HTML-mode editorsBBedit, HTML
Assistant
Various graphics apps
image editor, transparency tool, imagemap tools
Server Interaction P.D. CGI scripts
hundreds (email forms, imagemap, etc.)
some for database access (SQL, etc.)
Full-text databasesWAIS, othersP.D. CGI scripts
Site Design (Cont. 2)
Large “Rich” sites Wired, NCSA, others
Dynamic Content server-side includes;
CGI-generated
Search Tools Yahoo, Lycos, etc. Searchable indexes
of Web resources
Issues Tools for large-scale
site maintenance Web too big for
effective indexing Non-specific indexes Commercial models
for site profitablity Cost of site operation
vs. revenue
Second-Generation Tools
HTML/Graphics Text-format editors
HotDog, HomeSite
WYSIWYG editorsFrontPage, PageMill,
Composer
Web-graphics utilities
Lots ‘n’ lots
maintenance toolsLink/HTML validators
Server Interaction page scripting
SSI,PHP/FI, HTMLscript
CGI “scriptlet” libraries
Webbots
Compiled-in server modules
NS/IS-API
Integrated databases Commercial dbms’s
Site Design ... (3)
Web Access Portals Yahoo, Netscape, Microsoft, Lycos,
AltaVista Guidance/info centres for Web access searching and pre-organised indexes
Business Models Advertising, cross-marketing
Site Design … (4)
Business/Commerce Sites Specific products (amazon.com,
cdnow.com) Easy purchasing model Community building
user feedback, discussion groups, “Web” reseller (cross-marketing) programs, personalised searching, ‘event’ notification [mail, pager …]
Site Design … (5)
Commerce/Access Portals Personalised news, information Personalised info management
(calendar,...) Software, other product sales
Customer Issues Personal information on commercial site Limited scope for products, information
Basic User Components
Content permanent material indexed (searchable)
Dynamic Content News, sports, etc. from databases,
external data streams
Community tools Chat, forums
Personalised views info, notification,
calendars, etc.
Commerce Module product sales &
support tools
Local Integration PalmPilot, PIMs, etc.
Basic Site Components
Content management Indexing/searching
Chat, forums, etc. Dynamic content
generate/manage
Personalization tools Integration with
personal systems PC, PalmPilot, etc.
Product sales interface, backend
Advertising placement plus metering
Site usage metrics User visit analysis
Integration with internal systems help desk, etc.
Driving Forces
Technology Integrating disparate
information sources Integration with user
systems Integration with
backend systems Distributed information
repositories Extensibility,
upgradeability
Site Owners Cost of
maintenance Flexibility of
redesign, reuse Distributed
management Defined points of
control
Current Generation Tools
Site Management HTML editing Link/HTML validation content management,
revision control templates, style
sheets Webbots for basic
scripted functions FrontPage, HoTMetaL,
Trellix, others.
Dynamic Content HTMLscript, Allaire
Cold Fusion, others. Application
development tools (Sapphire/Web, WebSphere, etc.)
Most Popular Editor
BBedit Over 50% of commercial publishing
Web sites use simple text-based editors
Web editors are too constraining
Ongoing Problems
Expensive, difficult to create and maintain
Content Management Need to separate content from site design Need to still allow distributed editing
Applications management Need standard way to integrate apps into
content (and vice versa.)
Outline of Talk
Functions and reasons for Web sites
Evolution of site designsEvolution of editors, content-
management systems Linkage between last two points
Likely future trends and technologies
Solutions / New Tools
User Components Editors that separate
content from layout Standard language
for integrating content with applications
Standard language for metadata
Backend Standard tool for
integrating data with code
Portable/mobile coding
Distributed codingCORBA-ish
Current Tools
Content Editors Front Page, Trellix,
Others
Backend WebSphere,
NetFusion, ...
Problems Non-standard data
formats No easy separation
of content & presentation
No easy integration with other tools, systems
Next-Generation: XML
Standard Language Combines rendering features of HTML with
“typing” of SGMLIntegration Tool
XML data can be distributed, with standard APIs for processing it
Special XML Data Types Provide necessary tools for distributed
data
XML Advantages
Standard Language For data / text
markup
DTDs, Schemas To constrain input,
validate content
RDF Standard format for
metadata
XPointer, XLink For linking between
data, referencing Linking to related
methods
Namespaces For defining
semantics of content
Metadata
Data
Database of XML objects
Method
Method
HTML out
Applet out
XML out
Style sheet
Common Language For
Database Storage XML “objects” to store data, structure,
and method referencesData transport
For sending data to external storesData Input
XML editors for input -- XML data can define allowed structure, rules, for input
ApplicationServer database
(XMLplus code)
Interface design
Data broker
External data Sources
XML
Content input
Content input XML
User
Otherapplication
Next-Generation Tools
XML database Stores content,
content rules, and commands
Distributable XML can migrate with
or without relevant “methods”
Data Broker For external data
input
XML Content editor XML style sheet to
control input Data entered natively
as XML
Style Sheet Layout Site design controlled
by style sheets repurpose-able
Ian GrahamUniversity of Toronto & GroveWare [email protected]
Site Management / Design:
Social Trends and Implementing Technologies
Website Perspective
Social Arena Public service
(government, non-profit, NGO)
Community building (informal, distributed)
Personal communication (about me and my interests)
Business Arena Public service
(customer support, product support)
Community building (advertising, marketing)
Personal communication
Profit generation
Site Components
content search productsale
advert.
productplacement
personalservices
Site design
comm-unity
partnerservices
Site Implementation
info index databaseinterface
x
x
managelinks
Site implementation
managecontent
