June 8th, 2009 · Web
Most blogs, cms, forums, etc. automatically generate rss feeds. However most ‘custom-built’ web sites do not have this features. So, many pages that would be perfect candidates for the ’subscription approach’ offered by rss do not offer them. For example ‘what’s happening’ pages and today pages at companies and school districts would be perfect candidates (see e.g. http://www.bloomu.edu/today).
In these situations you can try some tools that will attempt – with more or less success depending on the coding of the web pages – to generate rss feeds from any given web page. Basically, these tools ’scrape’ the code of the pages, looking at the structure based on headers, paragraphs,… and then create the regular rss format for you.
Two such tools are Feedity (http://feedity.com/) and Feed43 (http://feed43.com/) Type in a url, go through the steps where you identify what should be part of the feed and you can sometimes create an rss feed from your pages. The feed will have a url at feedity’s and can be used like other feeds.
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May 30th, 2009 · Web
For a long time it looked like Google had the search engine competition closed up, but now there seems to be new activity. A few weeks ago a completely new search engine was released, called Wolfram|Alpha. Interestingly it seems to take a step back and use people to catalog the best information. It does not return millions of sites for a search term, but is meant to give answers to factual questions. Here is a report on it.
At the same time, Microsoft is ready to start their new search engine called Bing. I don’t know much about it yet, but both of these new entries try to address the fact that people want answers to their questions from the search engines and not just a huge list of related sites (although Google is awfully good at that).
Trying to decipher the meaning of the content of web pages (to produce better search results) is very difficult, since a search engine can mostly find words that are on the pages but not really the relationships between the terms on the page. This issue is at the heart of the semantic web, the attempt to restructure the information in web pages so that the meaning and relationships of terms are recognizable by machines. It is a very challenging task that will take a lot of time to complete, but there are some intermediate steps that can be taken now. In a future post, I will look at Microformats, which are a simple, but promising idea.
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In the assignments I mention that you should keep an asset list and a timesheet. These are two elements of the documentation of the web development process.
The asset list is a record of all the external files you added to your site, i.e. any images, sound files, … that are used. You record the source (what web site they came from, or if you took the picture,…) and where you are using it in the site. The purpose is to be able to solve any ownership questions that might arise with the site. In our case, for example, if you use an image under ‘fair use’ guidelines right now, but want to take the site public later on, you need to get permission to use the image. Usually you would not have a record of the source of the image. The asset list provides that.
The timesheet is used in companies to track the time employees spend on tasks. In your case, it also provides a guideline for the future, how long it takes to build certain features for a web site. This will allow you to determine the cost you need to charge when you build web sites for profit.
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As we talked about in Tuesday’s class, you will need some Adobe software for this class (Dreamweaver and Photoshop) and for other classes in the program. Due to the short length of the semester, you can get by with the 30-day demo versions that can be downloaded from Adobe’s web site (Wait until we use the software before you install).
If you would like to purchase the software, you can do that at student prices from the Adobe education store or other educational software resellers. Adobe asks for proof of enrollment. I am not sure, if they accept other verification, but one proof you can get is from the registrar’s web site by clicking on ‘Enrollment Verification’.
Individually, the 2 programs are $199 each. You can also buy a suit of software that includes these two and more. The comparison of the suites is at http://www.adobe.com/education/products/creativesuite/compare/
I would recommend Web Premium or Design Premium if you take other courses in our program, but you might be ok with Web Standard (I have not heard yet from others, if they still use Illustrator).
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Online class is almost ready to start.
Go to http://virtualtraining.bloomu.edu
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If you have problems with your bu email/centra/saba username or password, please contact Tina Barnes at 570-389-4618, tbarnes@bloomu.edu
For problems with the course websites, iitweb.bloomu.edu/blogs/web/ or iit.bloomu.edu/doll/login.cfm please contact me, hdoll@bloomu.edu.
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The semester is about to start!
On Tuesday night, we will meet online at http://virtualtraining.bloomu.edu/
You will need to use your BU email account information to log in: your username is ‘10′ followed by the first part of your email address, e.g. 10hd26777. The password is the same as your email password.
Since we are going to use audio, you will need a microphone and speakers or even better a headset with microphone.
You can do a system check at the web site.
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This blog will be the main course site for “Introduction to Web Site Development”, 57.570/470, a course from the Department of Instructional Technology at Bloomsburg University.
In this course you will learn web design and development skills. For details, use the ‘Course Info’ link at the top.
The course will be offered in a 6-week online format from May 18 – June 26, 2009.
Please contact Helmut Doll (hdoll@bloomu.edu, 570-389-4848) for more information.
Tags: Bloomsburg University·Department of Instructional Technology·Helmut Doll·online classes·Pennsylvania·Web Development
Helmut Doll