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Writing the Web / The Story of Fluffy

Explore different options to create a website for Joe's dog, Fluffy, discussing advantages and disadvantages of various methods from online platforms to coding from scratch.

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Writing the Web / The Story of Fluffy

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  1. Writing the Web / The Story of Fluffy Alon Levi Anders Smestad Dominic Metzger

  2. Overview / Who is Fluffy • Fluffy is Joe Shmo’s dog

  3. Goal • Joe Schmo wants to create a website for his dog, Fluffy. • So, what are his options? How would you do it?

  4. Post Online • Wikis, Blogs, Forums, SAKAI, Myspace etc… • Advantages: • Easy to use • Quick return • Disadvantages / Limitations: • Low control • Lack of dynamic content • Lack of flexibility • Format is fixed (set of options at best)

  5. Create Online • Building web pages online in your browser • Advantages: • A bit more control over format • Simple to use • Quick turnaround • Get your own URL • Disadvantages: • Low control • Lack of dynamic content • Lack of flexibility • Format is limited to certain options

  6. Example • Fluffy on pages.google.com: • http://fluffy.schmo.googlepages.com/home

  7. Create From Scratch • Design: • Photoshop / ImageReady • GIMPShop • WYSIWYG: • Dreamweaver • Frontpage • Nvu

  8. Create From Scratch • Advantages: • WYSIWYG • Existing tools • Disadvantages: • Ugly code • Less flexibility • Limited dynamic content • Tweaking can be difficult

  9. Write From Scratch • Writing the code • Advantage: • Flexible • Complete Control • Disadvantages • More difficult • Have to know programming concepts • Cross platform compatibility • Time consuming

  10. Client-side Scripting • Code is embedded into HTML pages using the SCRIPT tag and storing the code in comments [1] • client-side scripts are run by the viewing web browser

  11. Client Side - Examples • CSS • ActiveX • JavaScript • Adobe Flash • Ajax • (Google Web Toolkit) GWT

  12. Server Side Scripting [1] • Scripts are run on the web server • Generate dynamic HTML pages • Interactions with database • highly customizable responses based on the user's requirements, access rights, or queries into data stores.

  13. Server Side • CGI • Ruby on Rails, PHP, ASP, JSP

  14. Behind the scenes In your browser, you type: “fluffy.is-a-geek.org”

  15. You see:

  16. What just happened? • Browser sends a request to the server named fluffy.is-a-geek.org (actually http://fluffy.is-a-geek.org/index.html) • The server sends back content corresponding to the request to be displayed in the browser <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html> <head> <title>Fluffy's Web Store</title> <link href="/stylesheets/fluffy_style.css?1161474328" media="all" rel="Stylesheet" type="text/css" /> </head> <body id="store"> <div id="banner"> &nbsp; </div> <div id="columns"> <div id="main"> <h1>Fluffy's Favorite Toys</h1> etc...

  17. Where is the server? • All computers online identified by IP • IP is the address of the computer http://66.102.7.147/ • DNS, the domain name to IP directory • fluffy.is-a-geek.org --> 169.231.15.203

  18. What is a webserver? • A program that runs on a computer • Designed to answer requests and send responses, according to the http protocol GET /index.html HTTP/1.1 • Sends back the response: <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html> <head> <title>Fluffy's Web Store</title> <link href="/stylesheets/fluffy_style.css?1161474328" media="all" rel="Stylesheet" type="text/css" /> </head> <body id="store"> <div id="banner"> &nbsp; </div> <div id="columns"> <div id="main"> <h1>Fluffy's Favorite Toys</h1> <div id="products"> <table> <tr> <td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="image"> <img src="http://f3c.yahoofs.com/shopping/mcid8_3238/simg_t_t71xgf4xcjpg70?rm_____DNqevM8Xz"/> </td> <td> <b> Product: Dog Lips Chew Toy<br/> </b> Price: $15.00<br/> <a class="product" href="http://tracking.searchmarketing.com/click.asp?aid=17263475">Buy</a><br/> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td> </tr> </table> </div>

  19. Webserver extensions • when you want serverside dynamic content • cgi php asp coldfusion java ... • (postgres mySQL, MSSQL, Oracle ...) • application server or a webserver module • important when choosing hoster or installing

  20. Hosting your Content • Considerations. What do you want? • static or (server) dynamic? • technology preferences? • disk space • traffic • load • speed

  21. Someone else hosts it • Various hosting services available: • Free: http://www.doteasy.com • Advantages: • Don’t worry about maintenance • Automatic backups • Accessibility – HIGH speed connections • Disadvantages: • Costs • Limitations

  22. Hosting it yourself • Advantages: • Flexible • utilize old hardware • extra disk space is cheap • Disadvantages: • Accessibility • Maintenance is your responsibility, backup, upgrades, power failures • line speed is expensive • legal issues?

  23. Your domain name • Buy one, get what you want ... • Get one for free, • fluffynet.tk (Tokelau) • Changing ip address • dyndns.org • fluffy.dyndns.org • fluffy.is-a-geek.net • fluffy.shacknet.com

  24. Client Side Scripting • CSS • ActiveX • JavaScript

  25. Cascading Style Sheets [1] • Describe rules of how HTML documents should be rendered • Rules consist of property:value pairs • Embedded or in a separate file • Identified by DIV (blocks, defining logical divisions), SPAN (inline content) elements and the “class,” “id,” “style” attributes • CSS rules used to modify elements

  26. Examples • Simple Fluffy example • Fancier examples: • http://www.csszengarden.com

  27. JavaScript [1] • Java != JavaScript • Scripting languages used to implement dynamic behavior in web pages • Introduced by NetScape • Interpreted and executed by Web Browser • Restricted to browser

  28. Example … <body> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- var a = 'fluffy@do'; var b = 'g.com'; document.write('<a href="mailto:'+a+b+'>'+a+b+' <\/a>'); //--> </script> </body> </html>

  29. ActiveX Controls [1] • ActiveX controls are binary programs that are downloaded and executed in the context of a web page • ActiveX controls are supported only by Windows-based browsers • The code is signed using the Authenticode mechanism • ActiveX controls are similar to Java Applets but: • ActiveX controls have full access to the Windows operating system • Applets run in the context of the web browser

  30. Problems with ActiveX Controls • Users authorize ActiveX control from non-trusted web page • Common means of distributing for malware (adware, spyware, etc)

  31. Server Side Examples • Ruby on Rails • CGI • Ajax

  32. Server Side Scripting Example • Ruby on Rails using Yahoo’s Web Service • http://developer.yahoo.com/shopping/V1/catalogListing.html • Web Services • Software system to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network • Often use: REST (Representational State Transfer) • Is a architecture style of networked systems • Calling a remote service by passing parameters using a URL

  33. Examples: • http://www.programmableweb.com/apilist • Facebook, eBay, Amazon, Yahoo, Flickr, SecondLife, …

  34. Common Gateway Interface (CGI) [1] • Mechanism to invoke programs on the server side • Program output is returned to the client • Input parameters can be passed • Using the URL (GET method) • Advantage: The query can be stored as a URL • Using the request body (POST method) • Advantage: Input parameters can be of any size • Example: • http://www.foo.com/cgi-bin/prog.pl/add/info?query=bar

  35. CGI Programs [1] • Can be written in any language • Input to the program piped to the process’ stdin • Parameters are passed by setting environment variables

  36. What is AJAX? • Asynchronous JavaScript + XML • XMLHttpRequest Object • A marketing term • Rich Internet Applications with JavaScript

  37. Why is it popular? • Google helped popularize, and legitimize it in GMail • Increase Usability of Web Applications • Rich Internet Applications without Flash • Save Bandwidth • Download only data you need • Faster interfaces (sometimes)

  38. Why is it bad? • Breaks back button support • URL's don't change as state changes • Cross Browser Issues can be a pain • JavaScript may tax older machines CPU • Can't access domains other than the calling domain • May be disabled (for security reasons) or not availiable on some browsers

  39. Flash vs AJAX • No plugin for AJAX • Flash development tools cost money • Flash typically has slower page load time • Flash can work on older browsers • ActionScript doesn't havea cross browser issues • Flash can access other domains if there is a crossdomain.xml file

  40. References [1] Giovanni Vigna. “Web Applications.” Slides for CS176b, UCSB, Spring 2005. [2] Pete Freitag. “Ajax Presentation Outline.” http://www.petefreitag.com/item/514.cfm

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