1 The Quest for Compliance Using W3C Standards on Existing and New DOE Biological Research Web Sites Kim Nylander, Sheryl Martin, and Marissa Mills Human.

Presentation on theme: "1 The Quest for Compliance Using W3C Standards on Existing and New DOE Biological Research Web Sites Kim Nylander, Sheryl Martin, and Marissa Mills Human."— Presentation transcript:

1 1 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 Sponsored by the DOE Office of Science Genome Programs

2 2 HGMIS Web Sites Human Genome Management Information System (HGMIS) maintains several DOE sites: 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

3 3 The Problem Three sites with unique requirements 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

4 4 GTL Site Considerations Genomes to Life (GTL) 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.

5 5 Existing Sites: GTL Problems 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

6 6 ABT Site Considerations Advanced Biomedical Technology (ABT) 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.

7 7 DOE Genomes Site Considerations DOE Genomes Umbrella Site 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.

8 8 Challenges 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?

9 9 ORNL Recommended Practices Minimum system requirements were listed Accessibility requirements (Section 508) Links to required privacy, credits, and copyright notices Quality control standards

10 10 Decision: Use W3C Standards Because it’s the right thing to do Extensible and forward- compliant Long-term cost savings Better browser compliance Accessible

11 11 On-the-fly Redesigns CSS Zen Garden CSS Zen Garden: A site where redesigns happen on the fly by selecting a new style sheet.

12 12 Browser-Specific Problems Positioning problems: Netscape, Mozilla, and Internet Explorer lovingly unique 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

13 13 GTL Design Internet Explorer 6.0

14 14 GTL Design Netscape Navigator 4.79

15 15 ABT Design Internet Explorer 6.0

16 16 ABT Design Safari, Mac OS X

17 17 ABT Design Mozilla 1.5

18 18 ABT Design Netscape Navigator 4.79

19 19 DOE Genomes Design Same in almost any browser

20 20 Did We Finish the Quest? 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.”

21 21 Lessons Learned Browsers have creative implementations of W3C standards Microsoft is not a “Standards” body CSS can be used even 4.x browsers Real world usage of W3C standards, instead of blind adherence

22 22 Further Information Making A Commercial Case for Adopting Web Standards, http://www.maccaws.org/ Netscape DevEdge: Standards Case Studies, http://devedge.netscape.com/central/strategy/2003/case-studies/ W3C Cascading Style Sheets, http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/ W3C XHTML Specification, http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/ W3C Scaleable Vector Graphics, http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/ CSS Zen Garden, http://www.csszengarden.com