1. Authoring Web Sites in XHTML Darlene Fichter darlene.fichter@usask.ca University of Saskatchewan Library Canada Internet Librarian International 26 March, 2003 Birmingham, UK

2. Overview Frameworks Portlets Why use XHTML? XHTML syntax How XHTML differs from HTML XHTML and CSS XHTML tools

3. Yesterday

4. Today

5. Computer - Device

7. Static HTML hand coding HTML Tag Editors HTML, Forms, Client Side Scripts WSIWYG & Management Tools Distributed Authoring Dynamic / Database SQL & Perl/PHP/ASP Portals & Personalization “My Library” Objects - XML Portals & Portlets Web Services XML, SOAP Web Page Web Site Web Services CMS Authoring & workflow

8. Content Challenges in 2003: Document Collections Storage & Management Content Structure Work Ease of use Ease of creation Good retrieval

9. Service Challenges Just in Time Repackaging Over the Long Term Preservation Migration

10. HTML Simple, general-purpose document markup language Simple hyperlinking Designed for collaborative authoring Combined authoring and viewing roles

11. HTML Strengths Open standard Lots of tools and applications Easy and cheap Rapidly adopted

12. HTML Weaknesses Not extensible Supports only “simple” document types Mixes presentation and structure Cross-browser wars

13. XML More meaningful searches Flexible web applications data from disparate sources/applications client processing multiple views granular updates Open standard Unicode Hope --> good for web delivery

14. What is XHTML? Called “Next generation” HTML HTML that conforms to XML standards Will eventually support integration with other XML applications Device independent web access

15. Why use XHTML? Most documents on the Internet are in HTML – this is the logical next step Simpler than XML for most authors XHTML documents are XML compliant, which allows you to use XML tools such as XSL Future -- XHTML easier than HTML with the next generation of browsers

16. Why do We Need XHTML? Both HTML and SGML have major drawbacks. XML’s use for encoding web documents is still at early stages of adoption

17. Benefits of Adoption Easier to develop software handle specialized information distributed over the Web Process data using inexpensive software Allows greater end-user control of information display stylesheets Metadata for resource discovery

18. XHTML - What does it take? All documents must have a doctype declaration The transitional doctype declaration-- Head and body Syntax

19. XHTML – 3 Variations Strict http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/strict.dtd Used when CSS is used for all your formatting Transitional http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/transitional.dtd Frameset http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/frameset.dtd

20. Syntax: Lower case Case matters HTML: or or XHTML:

21. Syntax: Attributes Attributes must be quoted HTML XHTML

22. Syntax: Close Elements All tags must be closed HTML: Le chien dort. La chat joue. XHTML: Le chien dort. La chat joue.

23. Syntax: Empty Elements Empty elements must be terminated HTML: XHTML:

24. Elements Must Be Nested

25. Scripts and tags must be marked as CDATA <!-- <![CDATA] (script) ]]> - -> Tip: Place your scripts in a external file.

26. Use entities for all ampersands

27. Style Sheets & XHTML The use of external style sheets is recommended The type attribute is mandatory for tag – text/css Enclose inline styles with

28. Find Out More: XHTML syntax W3C http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/ XHTML: le web devient coopératif http://www.xhtml.net/ XHTML.org http://www.xhtml.org Darlene Fichter. “Web Authoring in XHTML”. ONLINE Magazine November/December 2002 www.findarticles.com

29. What about conversion? HTMLTidy http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett/tidy/

30. Resources for Conversion Converting HTML documents to XHTML by Bejoy Alex Jaison http://www22.brinkster.com/beean dnee/techzone/articles/htmltoxhtml. asp http://www22.brinkster.com/beean dnee/techzone/articles/htmltoxhtml. asp Roy Tennant. XML for Libraries. Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2002.

31. XHTML Validators Validator http://validator.w3.org/

32. Typical Web Author XHTML is available in standard tools Macromedia Dreamweaver HTML-Kit Macromedia HomeSite 5 NoteTab Pro

33. Content Provider Usually authoring in Word Import in Dreamweaver Run it through a program like HTML TIDY

34. New York Public Library www.nypl.org/styleguide/

35. Major Project Consider the value of the content over the long term Likelihood of delivery to “appliances” If there is an XML “dialect”, use it If not, use XHTML (ideally XML rendered as XHTML)

36. Example: Law Cases 1994 527 law cases edited, and formatted as HTML rigourous coding rules, poor validation Cost: $150,000 2001 converted to XML, DTD creation, enhanced, rendered as XHTML Cost: $15,000 Future Cost < $300 http;// library.usask.ca/native/cnlch.html Canadian Native Law Cases

37. Developers Repackaging, reuse, migration, archiving Code How long will this content be around? Always wise to separate presentation from content Decision/Balance Short term pain/effort vs. long term gain?

38. XHTML & You XHTML will make your life a little more challenging XHTML will make your computer happier (eventually)

39. Silver Bullets? XHTML / XML No! In fact, these new choices just raise some interesting challenges Only certainty is change Content will outlive devices!

40. Thank you! Darlene Fichter darlene.fichter@usask.ca University of Saskatchewan Library