Blackmoor Vituperative

Sometimes the best communication is visual. This is true even when you are trying to communicate the structure of an XML document. Using the power of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), a programmer can create a graphic representation of any XML document. This download shows you how it works and provides several code examples to get you started on the right path.

(from TechRepublic, Create a graphic representation of any XML document using SVG)

This sample chapter from How to Break Web Software: Functional and Security Testing of Web Applications and Web Services describes the most common and notorious attacks to help developers and testers assess a Web application’s vulnerability:

…sample chapter…

A New York applied research center today released its first version of an online toolkit designed to help government agencies use Extensible Markup Language for managing Web sites.

The product, called the XML Toolkit, can be found at www.thexmltoolkit.org. Researchers at the Center for Technology in Government (CTG) at the State University of New York at Albany have been formally investigating and assessing the use of XML to replace HTML. HTML is the predominant language used to define and structure the layout of a Web document.

The center formed a partnership with the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations and the Office of the Chief Information Officer for a test project. In January, it presented results of the project in which five participating state government agencies established business case analyses and prototype Web sites using XML. The results led to the development of the online toolkit.

Using XML can improve workflow and decrease the time, effort and costs related to Web site management, according to CTG officials. The center converted its Web site to an XML format several years ago and dramatically reduced the effort necessary to manage the site, officials said. The site expanded from 1,300 pages to 5,000 pages in five years.

The toolkit offers a library of resources needed to manage a Web site with XML. It provides tips on how to create Web pages using XML, different approaches to setting up XML on a Web server and examples of codes for specific functions and results.

It also provides useful tools for XML development, publications related to the task and other hints. A feedback section enables visitors to comment on the library and provide their own resources, code samples and tips.

(from Federal Computer Week, Center unveils online XML toolkit)

I haven’t tested this yet, but I plan to. It sounds really interesting, but I have a feeling that for someone of my skills, it’s not any simpler than simply creating a XHTML/PHP site the way I currently do.

Are you looking to simplify AJAX code? Bruce Perry has some help in “Prototype: Easing AJAX’s Pain,” which introduces the “Prototype” library. Prototype introduces a number of development-easing shortcuts for JavaScript authors. Further, “Prototype also wraps the functionality of XMLHttpRequest with its own Ajax.Request and related objects, so that you don’t have to bother with writing code for instantiating this object for various browsers.”

eWeek has a head-to-head review of Apache Jetspeed-2 and JBoss Portal. The last time I was reviewing open source, standards-based Java portals (which was a little less than two years ago), neither of these was ready for prime time. At that time, the two main contenders (in my opinion) were Liferay and Exo. At the time, I selected Liferay for the project I was working on, because its security model and architecture was more compatible with my project.

It looks like Liferay and Exo are still going strong, but if I were evaluating Java portals again today, I’d probably take a good hard look at Jetspeed-2. It supports portlets written in other languages, which helps transition legacy systems into the portal framework, and it plays well with other Apache products most of us are already using.

One portal system I have not examined at all is Plone, although I keep hearing nice things about it. The next time I need to evaluate open source, standards based Java portals, I guess I will have to add that to the list, as well.

Domain name squatters are scum, regardless of the domain suffix. They occupy a niche between spammers, virus writers, and head lice. Re-selling domain names for any price should be explicitly forbidden, period. The sooner ICANN makes that a policy, and starts enforcing it, the better off all of us will be. It’s long overdue, in my opinion.

Jim Rapoza at eWeek takes FEMA to task for creating a non-standard web site that is not accessible in standard browsers.

…a surprising number of people respond to my missives against non-compliance with a “Who cares?” attitude. If Web developers want to build sites that only work with Internet Explorer, so what? If people don’t want to use Internet Explorer or are using a non-Windows operating system, they don’t have to do business with that Web site. I mean, come on, it’s not like it’s some kind of life-or-death emergency.

But what if it is a life-or-death emergency?

(from eWeek, FEMA’s IE-Only Form: Just What Katrina Victims Don’t Need)

It turns out the the FEMA aid application form is not accessible to standards-compliant web browsers. In fact, it appears to only be accessible to Internet Explorer (which no one should be using, including FEMA). Not only is this embarassingly bad web design (which is bad enough), it’s also a violation of Section 508, the accessibility law that applies to Federal agencies.

This isn’t 1999. Section 508 isn’t new. Web standards aren’t new. It does not matter whether this was done by federal employees or by contractors: the contract should have stated (and probably did state) that the site would have to adhere to both Section 508 design guidelines and to applicable web standards. Just about every government web contract in the last six years has had those requirements.

This is nothing less than another blatant, avoidable, ridiculous screw-up at FEMA.

One of my recent projects will be using JavaScript, DOM, XMLHttpRequest, and a few other techniques in order to provide close-to-real-time feedback to the user. While doing some research on the subject, I ran across a re-reaction to the negative reaction that some folks have had to the name by which this technique has recently come to be known: “Ajax“.

On the one hand, I can certainly sympathize with people who are vexed by the creation of a new buzzword to describe something that has been known by other names for years (“carjacking”, for example, has always irked me, and “splatbook” still causes me to twitch involuntarily every time I hear the word). On the other hand, I had never bothered working with XMLHttpRequest in my projects, mainly because I didn’t know much about it and didn’t realize how nifty it was. It was only when someone at work mentioned using “Ajax” for a project that I started to look into it. So, was a new term needed? No. But has the creation of a new term aided awareness and proliferation of the technique? In my experience, it has, and I can’t argue with that.

Sometimes I get called a pessimist. Yes, it’s true. But once in a while, I am given reason to hope. For example, this article in eWeek, Good Web Design Pays Dividends. It’s nice to see a relatively mainstream IT publication espouse simplicity, usability, and standards compliance as goals of good web design. It’s also refreshing to hear someone other than myself say that a commercial web site should support an actual business purpose, rather than serve as a ridiculous flashing do-nothing whirligig for some graphic artist’s resume (most web sites for movies, and nearly all Flash-based web sites, fall into this category). Combined with the unexpected but much-welcome popularity of Mozilla Firefox, I am positively ablaze with hope for the future.

So, for this moment, I am optimistic.

Speaking of Firefox, check out How Firefox Works. Isn’t learning fun?

I think compliance with standards is important. It is quite possibly one of the most important issues in web design and development today. Some web developers agree with me; some do not. Most do not know enough to even have a worthwhile opinion. One of those who has a worthwhile opinion, but who does not agree with me (despite his being a talented and intelligent designer) is Mike Davidson. I ran across an interesting entry on his blog concerning this subject. I disagree with much of what he says, but you may find the blog entry and the resulting comments interesting. Let me know what you think.

Much of my own work, both on Black Gate and at RPG Library, is not even close to being standards compliant, by the way. It’s horrible, and I know it, and I intend to fix it. When I have time.