There are many ways for implementing this concept. More than that, since the introduction of technologies such as CGI, ASP, and PHP that allow web developers to generate dynamic web pages, a lot of companies have found creative ways to develop their website applications using this concept as their foundation.

Over the past few years, the internet community has been trying to create a set of standards for creating web sites. A new technology called CSS or Cascading Style Sheets has been introduced. There is nothing actually new in the way CSS handles a web page’s presentation. CSS allows the developer to define a style for each html tag element. This is similar to the method developers (programmers) used in the old days when they attached a variable to each html tag defining its style. The major difference is that CSS style definitions can be interpreted by most of the existing browsers available while in the older method the dynamic web page engine performs the interpretation.

The internet standards organization W3C has encouraged the use of CSS by enhancing its ability to control the web page’s look and feel. New style options have been added to the CSS specifications that have not been added to the HTML description language. There’s no doubt that this was a smart move. It has induced the web developers to use CSS to achieve an attractive web page that also supports the principle of content separation. Unfortunately CSS did not find its way into the internet mainstream easily because of compatibility issues with most web browsers. These days CSS is widely supported by most of the major web browsers, while CSS2, an enhanced version of CSS still has serious compatibility issues.

Obviously, the separation of content from its presentation deals not only with the styling aspects, but also with browser compatibility issues. The styling aspects were the first to be handled by web developers and web designers. As the complexity of information technology (IT) systems become increasingly more difficult to maintain, the internet community is looking for a solution that will become a standard so that content can be easily be managed. One goal for this standard is to define a “language” that IT systems can “talk” with each other and exchange information. Large corporations have historically used many different software platforms in their networks to conduct business. Internet based applications can provide a single platform that can act as an intermediary between all of these different systems and allow communication between them.

XML (Extensible Markup Language) has been adopted as a standard to present the content itself. OFX (Open Financial Exchange) is a close relative of XML that has been widely used by financial institutions who have been using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) systems to transmit orders and invoices over private networks, intranets and the internet for several years.

The need to present the content in a standard way that separates it from any design elements was so urgent that for the first time in software development history all the three major players (SUN, IBM, and Microsoft) actually agreed with each other and XML become a standard almost overnight and was adopted by many content providers and news agencies.

Yet the concept was not fully implemented. CSS handles the styling aspects while XML handles the document content. What about the webpage layout? New websites are been published each day by thousands. Every day millions of new web pages are being added to the internet’s global database. Webmasters have found that changing the page background color or the font color might not be enough to keep their website fresh and polished to compete with other new websites. However, changing the website layout can sometimes involve a lot of effort because it involves modifying the web page source code. XSL was introduced to solve that issue. Consider XSL a set of rules that can describe a web page layout. Combine it with XML (and optionally with CSS) you will get a valid html file.

XSL is very similar in its mechanics as any other dynamic web page generator. Beside the fact that XSL is platform independent, its biggest advantage is that it can be processed on the client side. The web server sends the client the content using XML format and the layout definition using XSL format. By doing that, the load on the web server’s CPU is reduced allowing it to perform other tasks more quickly. However, XSL was not adopted by all the major web browsers. So unlike XML, XSL has not found its way to the market easily.

Before you run back to your desk and start redesigning your website according to these magnificent standards, you should be aware that those technologies are really not needed most of the time. In fact, using them unnecessarily can cause performance problems. CSS usually will not cause your system to slow down. Just try to keep your CSS file as small as possible. Many web developers maintain large CSS files with lots of unused style definitions. Deciding to work with XML is a serious decision. If your website generates dynamic web pages supported by databases like MySQL, adding additional XML functionality will definitely reduce your website performance. Sometimes you won’t have a choice and will need to upgrade your hardware to maintain your website’s performance. There is no rule of thumb for this issue. The decision should be based on each system and its engineering demands. Try to predict what kind of future services your website will be providing. Plan your website properly at stage one and save yourself lots of effort later.

Watch the video related to Web Browsers Introduction

From Learn To Program dot TV (LearnToProgram.TV) this is lesson one of our HTML / XHTML course. In this tutorial, the basic document structure is introduced as well as how to write an HTML script, and display the results in the browser. To learn HTML you need a web browser and a text editor– both of which come with any Windows or Macintosh Machine. This course is part of the larger Introduction to HTML course. You may purchase a High resolution video and the exercise files and …

Help answer the question about Web Browsers Introduction

About Author

Head SEO, Marketing at AIT India

You’ve built a Web site, you’re getting a decent amount of traffic, but you aren’t getting the kind of response that you had anticipated. Perhaps you’ve reviewed your Web site statistics and have found that nearly all of your visitors leave after viewing your home page. Asking your nephew to design your company Web site may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but there are several simple mistakes that many inexperienced developers make that can drive visitors away in droves, ultimately defeating the purpose of your Web site.

The scary news is that these problems are currently running rampant on many small-to-medium-sized companies’ Web sites, but the good news is that these can all be solved quite easily and inexpensively.

1.) Problem: Multimedia Abuse

Multimedia abuse occurs when animation, video, or audio hampers the ability of visitors to properly view your Web site. There’s no doubting the fact that the use of multimedia can engage visitors in a way that plain text and images cannot, however, poor design or improper implementation of good design can place a virtual “No Trespassing” sign on your Web site’s front door.

Your audience is vast and diverse. Not everyone has the same browser, plug-ins, connection speed, and screen resolution that you have in your office. What does this mean? Your Web site needs to address the “lowest common denominator” for all four requirements. Your main Web site navigation should be presented in text or simple images, not in a Flash (animated) movie. Imagine visiting your Web site and seeing nothing but red X’s all over the screen, with no navigation provided. Sure, downloading Flash is easy and fast – but it’s even easier to find your competitor’s Web site.

Even if the plug-ins don’t present a problem, connection speed may. It’s very easy to turn a small animated image into a 4 or 5 MB file – meaning that anyone on a dial-up connection will have to wait 20-40 minutes for your page to completely download.

Also, make no mistake about it – video “introductions” (when a video is presented before your home page with nothing else on the screen) are not a good idea. Even with a small “skip intro” button at the bottom of the page, these videos are better placed elsewhere, so that your message is presented clearly on your home page to your visitors in the shortest amount of time possible.

Solution

If you have a Web site that uses a lot of animation, allow the user to choose whether or not they see it. If your main navigation is placed in a Flash movie or inside of any other element that requires a plug-in, either present a redundant text-based navigational area or re-do the navigational area in a more friendly manner.

An alternative solution would be to devise a method of detecting whether or not someone has the requirements for viewing the multimedia-rich Web site and diverting them to a second, non-multimedia Web site if they do not. This isn’t the best solution, because unless you’re using a system that shares content, it means maintaining two separate Web sites.

If you do not yet have a Web site but want to include multimedia, consider designing it in a way that uses multimedia gracefully. One site that NuRelm developed, http://www.harris-assoc.com, offers a good example. Notice how the video is placed in a prominent area, but does not contain main navigation, nor does it contain any of the key text on the home page. So, if someone doesn’t have Flash, the site is still functional and engaging.

2.) Problem: Adobe Acrobat Overuse

If most of the content on your Web site is contained in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) documents, your message is likely not getting out as efficiently as it could be. Even with a cable or DSL connection, launching Acrobat Reader and downloading an enormous file will take precious seconds. Then, if you do not have the proper version of Acrobat Reader, it will take even longer.

Some documents will need to be in PDF, such as anything that needs to be printed out and mailed in, but most do not. If it can be placed on a regular Web page, it should be, for speed and searchability. Yes, it’s true – anything placed in a PDF on your Web site will not be searchable by search engines.

Solution:

Move as much content from PDF documents to plain Web pages as you possibly can. If you absolutely must have most of your content inside of PDF’s, provide summaries of the documents along with the links to them.

3.) Problem: Browser-Specific Issues

A good Web design and development firm will make sure that your Web site looks and feels the same way on the most popular Web browsers on both a PC and a Mac. This may be something that you never think about – but should. If visitors who are using Mozilla, Firefox, or anything on a Mac visit your site and can’t make out what is on your Web site, they’re going to go elsewhere – and they won’t take the time to tell you.

Yes, over 90 percent of Internet users are using Internet Explorer (IE) currently, but that is changing due to critical security flaws in Active X and other components of the browser that make IE users susceptible to viruses and spyware. Instead of buying more virus protection and spyware removal products, consumers are turning to alternative browsers which employ different technology that is immune to many delivery methods of viruses and spyware. For example, at NuRelm most of us use Mozilla Firefox.

If your Web site does not function properly, or worse yet, looks completely garbled, on one of these alternative browsers, you’re turning away approximately 10-15% of your visitors.

Solution:

Download some of the more popular browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and take a look at your Web site. If you don’t have a Mac, find a friend or colleague who does and ask him/her to review your Web site. If problems exist, they’re likely easily fixed.

4.) Problem: A Home Page with Little or No Content

Your home page may be the only page that a visitor sees on your Web site before moving on, so you need to try to capture their attention as quickly as possible. If your home page only presents your logo and links to other parts of your Web site, you’re likely losing visitors who do not immediately see exactly what they want. This falls under the category of “you never get a second chance to make a first impression”.

Solution:

Find ways to add elements of each main section of your Web site to your home page. You can even get software that will “share” text from other sections of your Web site with your home page, so you will only have to update information on the sub-page and the home page will take care of itself.

5.) Problem: Stale Content

The text and images on your Web site don’t change often enough to keep repeat visitors pleased. Most visitors won’t continue to frequent a Web site that offers the same information time and time again. With a Web site, you’re not locked into the same text and images as you are with print – you CAN and SHOULD make updates often.

Solution:

Find two or three sections that you can regularly write about and publish at least one or two major changes per quarter, such as an events calendar, an industry news section, or an articles section. The rate of change may be more or less depending on your industry, your audience, and/or the purpose of your Web site. Software that can help you make the updates to your Web site without having to pay for consulting hours with your Web developer is now extremely affordable and easy to use, such as NuRelm’s NuContent.

NuContent can be delivered as part of your hosting package for a small monthly fee that is rolled into your hosting payment. This is called content managed hosting, and NuRelm was one of the first in the country to offer this highly affordable, convenient service to our hosting clients. For NuContent, no technical skills are needed. You can be up and running and changing your own Web site text/images in a matter of minutes. Since NuContent is delivered over the Web, no special software is needed and you can use any Internet connection, whether at work, at home, or on the road.

If you’ve read through this list and none of these problems seem to fit, there may be some other, hidden issues with your Web site that are very specific to you. As a free service, NuRelm provides Web site assessments to anyone who would like a critique. Our team of seasoned professionals will investigate your Web site and identify potential problems, providing helpful suggestions based on years of expertise.

Watch the video related to Web Browsers Introduction

Shows the main features of iNetDual, feature-rich web browser for iPhone/iPod touch. It supports bookmark bar, dual-view, and batch image downloading. Check the detail at itunes.apple.com

Help answer the question about Web Browsers Introduction

About Author

Heather Jewell is the Manager of Planning and Administration of NuRelm. NuRelm is a Web software and services firm that focuses on helping non-technical professionals utilize on the Web to build business. For more information, please visit www.NuRelm.com.