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Advances In Web Technologies

Brian Kelly

UK Web Focus

UKOLN

University of Bath

B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/

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Contents• About UK Web Focus• End user developments:

• browsing• searching

• Developments for information providers• document management• metadata• structured documentation

• Technologies• HTML• HTTP• Java

• Will it Take Off In Our Community?

Aim of this talk:• To outline major developments

on the web• To explain why they are important• To identify possible barriers to

their use

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UK Web FocusUK Web Focus:

• National web coordination post for UK HE community

• Based at UKOLN, University of Bath

• Responsibilities include:– Technology watch– Information dissemination in variety of ways:

– Workshops (national, regional)– Presentations at conferences and seminars– Online

– Coordination activities– Representing JISC on W3C

• Brian Kelly appointed on 1st November 1996– Involved with web since January 1993– Previously worked at University of Newcastle, Leeds,

Liverpool, and Loughborough

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Web VisualisationVisualisation of a web site to aid end user navigation

Why: To make navigation easier for end usersTo provide tailorable views (e.g. only show "personal home pages")

Barriers: Lack of standards. Proprietary, licensed software.

How: Web Collections

Familiarisation: MAPA, NetObjects Fusion See also WebCutter at

http://www6.nttlabs.com/HyperNews/get/PAPER40.html

See also WebCutter at http://www6.nttlabs.com/HyperNews/get/PAPER40.html

http://www.dynamicdiagrams.com/

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Light-weight Browsers

Light-weight browsers such as Opera and Lynx are available

Why: To support low spec PCs (e.g. 386 SX with 8MB and Win 3.1)

Barriers: Costs ($10 for 100-500 copies), use of proprietary HTML

How: Opera, Lynx, Bobcat

Familiarisation: Free evaluation

http://opera.nta.no/http://www.operasoftware.com/

http://lynx.browser.org/http://www.fdisk.com/doslynx/

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Better Searching (1)Why: Time wasted in

searching

Barriers: Lack of metadata standards. Lack of tools

How: Dublin Core

Familiarisation: Read UKOLN resources at http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/

Take part in pilot

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Better Searching (2)

Application of heuristic techniques in searching

Why: Time wasted in searching

Barriers: Lack of organisational guidelines

How: Heuristics.Consistency in URLs across institution

Familiarisation: Ahoy!

http://ahoy.cs.washington.edu:6060/

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A Manageable Web (1)Use of metadata for site management

Why: Site metadata on authoring tools, authoring methods, document types, ..

Barriers: Lack of standards

How: Dublin Core, PICS, XML,...

Familiarisation: UKOLN metadata work, UCISA-TLIG work

Metadata to assist with following requests:

• Find all pages created using Internet Assistant v1

• Find all pages which use Jscript

• Find pages where author = {find author from departed-staff}

Metadata to assist with following requests:

• Find all pages created using Internet Assistant v1

• Find all pages which use Jscript

• Find pages where author = {find author from departed-staff}

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Development of a Metadata Architecture

Metadata - the missing architectural component from the initial implementation of the web

Metadata

PICS, TCN,

MCF, DSig,

DC,...

AddressingURL

Data formatHTML

TransportHTTP

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Metadata Components

PICS, Digital Signatures, Transparent Content Negotiation, resource discovery, website administration are all related to metadata

ExampleImagine you make your University prospectus available on the web.

What metadata may be required?

Use Of MetadataPICS Resource accessible to users in

Middle East, which ban unrated sitesDSig Description of course is a legally

binding agreementTCN Resource can transparently be

accessed in HTML or PDF formatWeb Collections

Print resource as single documentResource Discovery

Search for Bath prospectus finds itWebsite Administration

Use of review-by to find out-of-date material

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A Manageable Web (2)

Use of server side management techniques

Why: Single copy to minimise maintenance

Barriers: Performance, cost of software, Unix

How: Server side includes,

Familiarisation: MS Active Server Pages, Netscape SuiteTools, PHP/FI, ...

<If useragent=netscape1.1 thenelse if useragent= …>

<P>This resource is copyright ...

Adding code / text to static HTML resource:

• complex• difficult to maintain

Adding code / text to static HTML resource:

• complex• difficult to maintain

<#If useragent=netscape1.1 thenelse if useragent= …>

<#include copyright-1.txt>

Server side management tools:

• HTML resource clean• easier to maintain

Server side management tools:

• HTML resource clean• easier to maintain

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<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"><!-- Hide this from JavaScript-challenged browsersvar FirstSlide = 1;var LastSlide = 17; var CurrentSlide = FirstSlide;var ImageWidth = 708 - 8;var ImageHeight = 520; var CurImageWidth = ImageWidth; var CurImageHeight = ImageHeight;/* This function concerts numbers to strings */function CvtNtoS(iNum){return ("" + iNum);}/* This function prefixes strings with the correct # of 0's */function ZeroFill(iNum, iDigits){ var sNum = CvtNtoS(iNum); while (sNum.length < iDigits) sNum = "0" + sNum; return sNum;}/* this function handles the setting the navigation buttons. The name of navigation control is used here so change it if it is renamed */function ItemClicked(iIndex, iNoteOnly){var sIndex = ZeroFill(iIndex, 3); var sNoteHref = "note" + sIndex + ".htm"; var sSlideImage = "img" + sIndex + ".htm"; if (!iNoteOnly) // not active X, update image and nav btns frames["SlideImage"].location.href = sSlideImage; frames["Notes"].location.href = sNoteHref; CurrentSlide = iIndex;}

<STRONG>Demise of Tags</STRONG>

Demise of text editors for authoringWhy: HTML will be too

complex

Barriers: Inertia. Too many tools!

How: Recommendations on authoring tools

Familiarisation: Front Page, Netobjects Fusion, ...

<HTML><BODY ><A HREF="JavaScript:parent.ItemClicked(1, 0)"> An Introduction to Metadata </A><BR><A HREF="JavaScript:parent.ItemClicked(2, 0)"> UK Web Focus </A><BR><A HREF="JavaScript:parent.ItemClicked(3, 0)"> Early Days of the Web (1) </A><br>

HTML><BODY ><base target="_top"><A HREF="JavaScript:parent.OutlineExpand(0)"><IMG SRC="collapse.gif" BORDER=0 ALT="Collapse"></A><A HREF="JavaScript:parent.OutlineExpand(1)"><IMG SRC="expand.gif" BORDER=0 ALT="Expand"></A>

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HTML DevelopmentsEnd user control over layout, better printing, ...

Why: Increased functionality

Barriers: Lack of standards

How: CSS, HTML 4.0 (Cougar)

Familiarisation: IE 4, Netscape 4, HTML 4.0 proposal, CSS 2 proposal

HTML 4.0 and Related Work

• Forms:Improved forms

• Printing:Better control over printing

• Layout:Absolute positioning of HTML elements, layering, etc.

• Scripting:Standard mechanisms for scripting.

• Document Object Model (DOM): APIs (application program interface) for HTML/CSS elements. Provides a programming interface for HTML (hooks for Javascript, etc.)

HTML 4.0 and Related Work

• Forms:Improved forms

• Printing:Better control over printing

• Layout:Absolute positioning of HTML elements, layering, etc.

• Scripting:Standard mechanisms for scripting.

• Document Object Model (DOM): APIs (application program interface) for HTML/CSS elements. Provides a programming interface for HTML (hooks for Javascript, etc.)

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The SGML / HTML philosophy is to use HTML to define the document structure

Netscape / Microsoft wars have broken this

Companies are now supporting CSS:

• Ease of maintenance

• Richer functionality (e.g. filter effects as in Powerpoint)

• Network friendly

• Accessibility

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Increasing Use Of JavaExpect to see increasing use of Java:

Why: Provide extra functionality on client; Minimise support load for desktop applications

Barriers: Performance concerns (real and imaginary - cf XMosaic)

How: Standard web browser

Familiarisation: http://www.gamelan.com/

Z39.50 clients are being developed using Java

Z39.50 clients are being developed using Java

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An Accessible WebWeb resources accessible to people with disabilities

Why: Equality. Spinoffs for "temporarily able-bodied persons"

Barriers: Lack of standards, lack of awareness, misuse of HTML

How: WAI, Institutional policies

Familiarisation: WAI pages

Technologies

• Style sheets: control over appearance needed by designers, but with end user ability to change appearance (not achievable with images)

• Aural style sheets: e.g. <STRONG> rendered as LOUD voice, or pause before phrase, <DT>, <DD> rendered using male / female voices, columns in tables using left and right stereo channels

Technologies

• Style sheets: control over appearance needed by designers, but with end user ability to change appearance (not achievable with images)

• Aural style sheets: e.g. <STRONG> rendered as LOUD voice, or pause before phrase, <DT>, <DD> rendered using male / female voices, columns in tables using left and right stereo channels

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A Customisable Web

End user choice of preferred formats (HTML or PDF, GIF or PNG), features (frames or tables), languages, etc.

Why: Choice for the end user, deployment of new features

Barriers: Lack of standards, misuse of HTML

How: TCN, Cookies

Familiarisation: http://tips.iworld.com/

Replace this with use of cookies or transparent content negotiation

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Maths

Mathematical formulae on the web.

Why: Needed by scientists, images of formulae are slow and have no semantics

Barriers: Lack of standards

How: MML, XML, Java, ActiveX

Familiarisation: http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Math/

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A Quicker Web

More effective use of scarce bandwidthWhy: The web is too slow!

Barriers: Limitations of protocols (HTML, HTTP)

How: Caching, HTTP/1.1, HTTP/NG, Education, Charging!

Familiarisation: Monitoring web pages, Internet magazines, attending workshops

Technologies

• Caching: Essential!

• HTTP/1.1:New protocol is more cache-aware, and avoids problems (e.g. stale information) which have occurred in the past

• HTTP/NG:Proposal for new protocol

• Style sheets:Avoids need for large images for design effects

• Scripting Languages / Java:Exploit processing power at client

Technologies

• Caching: Essential!

• HTTP/1.1:New protocol is more cache-aware, and avoids problems (e.g. stale information) which have occurred in the past

• HTTP/NG:Proposal for new protocol

• Style sheets:Avoids need for large images for design effects

• Scripting Languages / Java:Exploit processing power at client

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Collaborative ToolsUse of collaborative and conferencing web tools.Why: Provide rich

collaborative tools

Barriers: Lack of locking, notification systems, HTML deficiencies

How: WebDAV work, Cougar

Familiarisation: Amaya, http://union.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HyperNews/get/hypernews.html

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Structured Documentation

Store web resources in a rich structured open master format

Why: To overcome HTML deficiencies

Barriers: Lack of standards. HTML provides little structure

How: XML

Familiarisation: Jumbo browser

See also http://www.textuality.com/xml/

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Richer Hyperlinking

Richer forms of hyperlinking

Why: Increased functionality

Barriers: Lack of standards

How: XML, Javascript

Familiarisation: SoftQuad HiP, http://www.w3.org/XML/

XML-Linking

Multi-way links

Link destination:• Replaces existing

document• Included inline in

document• Displayed in new

window

Resolve link at:• document load• user action

XML-Linking

Multi-way links

Link destination:• Replaces existing

document• Included inline in

document• Displayed in new

window

Resolve link at:• document load• user action

See further instructions

ReferenceTutorial

EnglishFrench

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Push Technologies

Use of push technologies

Why: Push information, teaching and learning services to end users

Barriers: Lack of standards, bandwidth concerns

How: CDF, ...

Familiarisation: PointcastIE 4, Netscape

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Will It Take Off In UK HE?

Barriers to use of new technologies:• Lack of knowledge• Lack of tools• Inertia• Concerns over costs

Solutions:• Education, information, discussion, …• UCISA-SG WebTools group

Commercial pressures• Enthusiasts• Monitoring usage

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UKOLN's WebWatch ProjectWebWatch:

• 1 year post funded by British Library (BLRIC)• Will develop set of robot tools for analysing UK

web resources:– Usage of emerging web technologies, such as HTML 4,

style sheets, Java, metadata, XML, etc.– Usage of file formats (e.g. PDF, Shockwave, …)– Web page profiles (typical nos. of links, images, size, etc)– ...

• Analysis of log files (e.g. user agents)

• Results to be made available to various communities (institutions, national bodies, etc.)

• Feedback on project welcomed

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Conclusions• The web is still developing rapidly• Conformance to standards is important• Institutions will have to continually monitor new

developments (regional workshops, seminars?)• The deployment of new technologies in a timely

manner is a challenge (need for workshops, case studies?)

• There is a danger that the costs will increase when exploiting new developments

• There is a need to monitor developments and to advise the community