Web Site Creation and Maintenance
General Web Site Philosophy
- I intend for this web site to display correctly with as many different browsers and computer platforms as possible. As a result, I try to keep my HTML code as pure as possible, meaning that I refuse to use any Netscape-, Internet Explorer-, or other browser-specific HTML extensions, Java, JavaScript, or any other functions that are only usable by a limited audience. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)'s HTML/XHTML/CSS Specifications help identify which HTML tags are part of proper HTML and how they can be used.
- I also try to make sure my HTML code validates as proper HTML, so that the site's appearance does not depend on the specific way that one browser implements a particular feature. The W3C's online validator can be used to validate pages and to identify improper HTML code, as can the built-in validators in BBEdit and iCab.
- While I occasionally use graphics on my pages, I limit the graphics to GIF and JPEG images that can be displayed on any graphical browser, and I never require that the graphics be visible for site functionality (at one point I used to check all of my pages using Lynx on a black and white, 1990-vintage Macintosh Classic, just to make sure.)
- Finally, in 2006 I made some tweaks to the site so that each page would open and display well with devices other than standard computers. Specifically, I added a separate CSS stylesheet for handheld devices such as PDAs and smartphones, which displays much better on these devices than the standard stylesheet that is seen by all other devices. I still don't recommend using handheld devices for browsing this site or other similar sites on a regular basis, because the small screen size is still an important limitation no matter what stylesheet is used (and the pages on this site are generally larger downloads than would be ideal for the slower connections still used by most handheld devices), but these tweaks make the site much more useful on devices like a Palm Treo.
Specific Tools Used for This Site
- This web site is created and maintained using an Apple PowerBook G4 and Power Mac G4 Cube, running the latest version of Mac OS X; all of the software listed below uses OS X. The site is hosted on the mainframe at Florida State University, where I work.
- All HTML files are written by hand using Bare Bones Software's indispensable shareware BBEdit, the premiere text editor for the Macintosh platform. Occasionally, I will translate course syllabi to HTML using a word processor, but I heavily edit the resulting HTML files with BBEdit for consistency with the rest of my site.
- Graphics files are converted or manipulated with Thorsten Lemke's shareware Graphic Converter.
- File transfers and file management are done with Panic Software's shareware Transmit, which I consider to be the best FTP/SFTP client available on the Mac platform.
- All new pages are tested using BBEdit's built-in HTML syntax checker, as well as the W3C's Validator. I try never to upload a file until it checks out as completely valid HTML (or more recently, XHTML and CSS).
- When possible (which is not very often, given the number of pages and links on the site), the integrity of links on pages on this site is verified using the W3C's Link Checker. BBEdit is also used to check local links and anchors, although it will not check links to external sites.
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Files
All downloadable or viewable academic papers on my web site are provided in Adobe's Portable Document Format, which offers cross-platform capabilities that keep the page appearance consistent across numerous computer platforms and printers. Adobe offers a free Acrobat Reader that allows users to view or print PDF files on nearly any computer, including Macintosh, Windows, and leading flavors of UNIX. All PDF files on this web site are created using either Adobe Acrobat for Macintosh or the built-in PDF capabilities in Mac OS X.
Compressed Files
Downloadable data files on my web site are generally compressed to save bandwidth, using Aladdin Systems' DropStuff (for .sit StuffIt files) and either Aladdin's DropZip or Tom Brown's ZipIt (for .zip PKZip or WinZip files). StuffIt files can be decompressed using Aladdin's freeware StuffIt Expander (available for the Mac, Windows, UNIX, and Solaris platforms), which -- when paired with its shareware twin DropStuff with Expander Enhancer -- offers the ability to decompress, unzip, or unstuff such formats as StuffIt (.sit), ZIP (.zip), UUencoded (.uue), BinHex (.hqx), and MacBinary (.bin) files, among others. Zipped files can be decompressed with the above-mentioned StuffIt Expander or ZipIt, as well as with software like PKZip or WinZip; one of these programs should be pre-installed on most Mac or Windows hard drives.
<LINK> Tags
Modern web browsers are beginning to use <LINK> tags to assist users in site navigation. These tags, part of the W3C's HTML specification, allow the site creator to build in linkages between different documents or pages on a site. Unfortunately, this capability is not available in even most recent browsers; it is standard on Lynx, iCab, and some versions of Opera, and can be installed as an optional Link Toolbar extension for Mozilla and Firefox, but it is not usually enabled by default. As more users and site creators become familiar with these tags, though, more browsers should begin to add this functionality. Sander Tekelenburg has posted a discussion of the value of link tags, which should give the reader some sense of how useful these tags can be.
The official specification for these tags is available at the W3C's site, along with a list of approved link data types. Each browser currently implements this specification slightly differently; for example, the following link documents iCab's implementation. Fantasai has compiled a list of all known link types that have been proposed (not all of which have made it into the official specification), and Subotnik has compiled a page of links to all known link tag specifications and implementations. Mozilla and Firefox appear to have the best implementation of these tags (which is enabled with the Link Toolbar extension as mentioned above), covering the most tag values. iCab includes several other valuable features, such as the ability for the page author to substitute more descriptive titles for each tag (see the "title" attributes in the examples below). To maximize the value of these tags, on this site I use the following tags, each of which is handled appropriately by both iCab and Mozilla/Firefox:
- link rev="made" title="Email Author" href="mailto:phensel@garnet.acns.fsu.edu": a reverse link (note the "rev=" in place of the usual "rel="), offering an email connection to the author of the page
- link rel="author" title="About the Author" href="prh.html": a link to a page about the author
- link rel="top" title="Top of Site" href="index.html": a link to the top of this web site (the author's home page)
- link rel="contents" title="Site Contents" href="index.html": a link to the table of contents for this web site (the author's home page)
- link rel="search" title="Site Search" href="search.html": a link to this site's search page, which allows the user to search both this site and the entire Web
- link rel="help" title="Site Help" href="tools.html": a link to this site's help page (the current page), which describes how the site was built and how to access the various types of files available on the site
- link rel="copyright" title="Site Copyright" href="copyrt.html": a link to this site's copyright page, which emphasizes the author's copyright to the HTML code on the site (the result of several unethical web "designers" who stole entire pages of my site and re-labeled the pages as their own)
- link rel="up" title="..." href="...": a link to the next page up in this site's hierarchy; depending on the page, this might link to the FSU poli sci home page (from the top page in the site), the site's home page (for the first-level pages on the site), my teaching, research, data, or other first-level page (for second-level pages on the site), or the primary page for one of my course syllabi (for lower-level pages in each syllabus)
<META> Tags
Numerous <META> tags exist, following the general pattern established by the W3C's specification, but their permissible values have not yet been established by the W3C; as a result, many different META tags have been added by web site creators and by HTML generating software. I choose to use only three of these many options, to provide the most useful information about my pages without adding too much clutter (and file size) to each page:
- meta name="author" content="Paul R. Hensel": self-explanatory; this tag is used to identify the creator of the page.
- meta name="keywords" content=...: this tag is used to identify keywords for the page in question, which will help search engines list it when appropriate.
- meta name="description" content=...: this tag is used to give a brief (1-2 sentences) description of the page. Some search engines display this description in their results page rather than simply listing the first line or two of the page, which is generally much more useful because many pages (including all of mine) begin with a general header that does not indicate much about the page's contents.
http://garnet.acns.fsu.edu/~phensel/tools.html
Last updated: 24 April 2006
This site © copyright 1996-present,
Paul R. Hensel. All rights reserved.