Blog Questions for Week 9

How could you advise a visually disabled friend to complain about a website they couldn't access?
Visually disabled people who come across a website that is difficult for them to access should try to contact the author of the website by phone or e-mail to complain. If the website remains unchanged after the author has received complaints legal action should be taken against them as they are in violation of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).
The World Wide Web Consortium website contains a set of accessibility guidelines under the Web Accessibility Initiative which all people should follow when designing websites.

Here is an example of a legal case concerning website accessibility:
In Australia in June 1999, Bruce Maguire lodged a complaint under the DDA against the website of the Sydney Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG), which Maguire alleged was inaccessible to him as a blind person.
On 24 August 2000, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission released its decision and supported Maguire’s complaint, ordering certain access provisions to be in place on the Olympics.com site by 15 September 2000. SOCOG ignored the ruling and was subsequently fined A$20,000.

There are a number of solutions which could help visually impaired people when accessing websites:

• Some websites contain accessibility options that allow users to modify the size of text or different colours to make pages easier to read
• People could use screen readers that will read out text aloud to them
• Special keyboards are available where buttons and text can be larger or Braille can be used

References

Information on DDA
http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-accessibility/uk-website-legal-requirements.shtml

Information on WAI
http://www.w3.org/WAI/gettingstarted/Overview.html

Legal Case
http://www.contenu.nu/socog.html

Blog Questions for Week 8

What are the advantages and disadvantages of 3-Tier Architecture in Web development?
A 3-Tier client-server architecture contains three components: a web server which contains pages where data is presented to the user, an application server which contains the business logic or calculations and a database server where data can be sent or retrieved from, updated or deleted.
There are several advantages to using a 3-tier architecture:

• Reduces the number of required concurrent client licenses
• Enables any internet connected node to run client processes
• Insulates client from changes in the database schema
• Enables client applications to be coded in any language
• A more scalable approach

However there are disadvantages to a 3-tier architecture:

• Works in a more complex environment
• Maintenance is more complicated
• The separation of application servers and datbase servers may affect performance

References

http://members.tripod.com/ChannuKambalyal/NTierArchitecture.pdf

http://www.dotnetfunda.com/articles/article71.aspx

http://learninformationtechnology.blogspot.com/2007/12/3-tier-architecture-implementation-for.html

http://d0server1.fnal.gov/projects/OfflineCalibAlign/Calibration/DB_Browser_Workshop/DB_Server_Concepts.ppt#256,1,Database Server Concepts and Possibilities

Blog Questions for Week 7

What advice would you give to next year's students about preparing for the A1W group presentation?
A suitable amount of research into the subject is important when giving a presentation to people. Researching will allow you to gain an understanding of the topic and provide your presentation with information.
Communication between other members of your group is also an important part of preparing for your presentation. You should attend meetings with your group, to discuss topics regarding the presentation, such as what information should be included, what resources could be used, the structure of the presentation etc. and these meetings should be held on a regularly basis. You should also keep in contact with your group outside of the classroom via phone or e-mail.
The presentation should be completed well before the date that it is to be given, to allow for enough time to rehearse it. Rehearsing the presentation with your group will allow you to point out any flaws in the presentation or how it could be improved. This will in turn build up your own confidence and prepare you for the real thing.

Blog Questions for Week 6

Describe THREE typical functions performed by the Apache HTTP Web Server?
Apache is used to serve both static content and dynamic web pages on the world wide web.
Apache is capable of virtual hosting, a method that web servers use to host more than one domain name on a computer. Virtual hosting allows one Apache installation to serve many different websites.
Apache also contains a rewrite engine, a piece of software that modifies a URL's appearance.

Compare the similarities and differences between the terms ‘Static’ and Dynamic’ Web sites?

• SIMILARITIES - Both static and dynamic pages manage and store web content. Without static pages and dynamic pages there would be no world wide web.
• DIFFERENCES - With static web sites, requests for pages are handled by a web server delivering the content of these HTML files. They are called static because they don't change very often. With dynamic web sites there is a difference. For each request, the page (the HTML) is constructed from information stored in files (such as images), information stored in databases (textual content) and programming logic (both server side such as PHP, Java, ASP etc and with "Web 2.0" more client side - Javascript). Dynamic web sites are constantly changing and the content is dependent on what the site visitor actually asked for.

References

Apache HTTP Server: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_HTTP_Server

Static/Dynamic: http://www.purpleoar.co.nz/static-v-dynamic