Transcript Presentation

The Quest for Compliance
Using W3C Standards on Existing and New
DOE Biological Research Web Sites
Kim Nylander, Sheryl Martin, and Marissa Mills
Human Genome Management Information System
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Launch Internet Explorer Browser.lnk
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Sponsored by the DOE Office of Science Genome Programs
HGMIS Web Sites
Human Genome Management Information System
(HGMIS) maintains several DOE sites:
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DOE Human Genome Project Information,
http://www.ornl.gov/hgmis/home.html
DOE Genomes to Life,
http://www.doegenomestolife.org
DOE Genomes, http://www.doegenomes.org
DOE MSD Advanced Biomedical Technology,
http://www.doemedicalsciences.org
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The Problem
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Three sites with unique requirements
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DOE Genomes.org was on a tight deadline
ABT required extensive content creation
GTL was an established large site moving
from a table-based layout to newer
standards
Three developers with different levels of
experience
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GTL Site Considerations
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Genomes to Life (GTL)
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Original site: A large site (~340 MB)
originally designed with a table layout.
Goal: Redesign the site so information is
easier to find.
Requirements: Extensible eye-catching,
design with good cross-browser
compatibility. Must be easy to incorporate
into existing code.
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Existing Sites: GTL
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Problems
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Must tie-in with non-compliant sites
Legacy material time-consuming to convert
Both existing and new sites had to be kept
up-to-date during redesign
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ABT Site Considerations
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Advanced Biomedical Technology (ABT)
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Original site: One or two project pages on MSD
site with basic information. Table-based layout.
Goal: Create a new, in-depth Web site with project
summaries, sidebars, links to related material, and
coherent organization.
Requirements: Extensive content creation. Build
site from scratch and obtain project updates from
MSD staff and principal investigators. Consistent
look and feel. Accessibility.
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DOE Genomes Site Considerations
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DOE Genomes Umbrella Site
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Original site: No umbrella site to tie together the
DOE Genome program Web sites.
Goal: Create an umbrella site for the Human
Genome Project, Genomes to Life, and Microbial
Genome Program Web sites.
Requirements: Simple layout with most popular
links from each site readily available. Consistent
look and feel that can be added to sister sites with
minimal real estate.
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Challenges
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Why should we use World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) standards?
Could we comply with Oak Ridge National
Laboratory recommendations and W3C
standards?
Which browsers would we support? Would we
need browser detection?
What were the practical reasons for and
against converting an existing site to W3C
standards?
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ORNL Recommended Practices
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Minimum system requirements were
listed
Accessibility requirements (Section 508)
Links to required privacy, credits, and
copyright notices
Quality control standards
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Decision: Use W3C Standards
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Because it’s the right thing
to do
Extensible and forwardcompliant
Long-term cost savings
Better browser compliance
Accessible
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On-the-fly Redesigns
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CSS Zen Garden
CSS Zen Garden: A site
where redesigns happen on
the fly by selecting a new
style sheet.
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Browser-Specific Problems
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Positioning problems: Netscape, Mozilla,
and Internet Explorer lovingly unique
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Main GTL CSS serves positioning two
different ways to get around browser
implementation differences
Background graphics placed by CSS not
fully supported
No known OS-specific browser problems
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GTL Design
Internet
Explorer
6.0
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GTL Design
Netscape
Navigator
4.79
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ABT Design
Internet
Explorer 6.0
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ABT Design
Safari, Mac OS X
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ABT Design
Mozilla 1.5
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ABT Design
Netscape
Navigator
4.79
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DOE Genomes Design
Same in
almost any
browser
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Did We Finish the Quest?
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ABT: “Yeehaw! Party on, Garth.”
GTL: “Well, we kinda, sorta got there,
but you should have seen the one that
got away!”
DOE Genomes: “G’luck. Here’s five
dollars.”
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Lessons Learned
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Browsers have creative implementations
of W3C standards
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Microsoft is not a “Standards” body
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CSS can be used even 4.x browsers
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Real world usage of W3C standards,
instead of blind adherence
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Further Information
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Making A Commercial Case for Adopting Web Standards,
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Netscape DevEdge: Standards Case Studies,
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W3C Cascading Style Sheets, http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/
http://www.maccaws.org/
http://devedge.netscape.com/central/strategy/2003/case-studies/
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W3C XHTML Specification, http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/
W3C Scaleable Vector Graphics,
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CSS Zen Garden, http://www.csszengarden.com
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http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/
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