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Producing a Website
The project team are currently developing an Open Source Software website production system for use by CSOs.
The Appropriate Website Factory implements many of the best-practice design features distilled by this research, as described in the section
Design Guidelines.
This website has been produced using the AWF System.
You will find a summary explanation of the technology below. For further information visit http://www.appropriatesoftware.net/AWF/ or send a short message to either jon.taylor@appropriatesoftware.net or john.bywater@appropriatesoftware.net
Appropriate Website Factory
The Appropriate Website Factory is a tool for producing websites that automatically produces webpages according to the requirements of a client. The system has four components: an Editor, a Factory, an Installer and a Server.
To create a website the client manipulates Appropriate Website Factory Mark-up Language using the AWF Editor. This generates a unique website definition document, which structures the content of websites subsequently produced by the Factory. The webpages produced are then automatically installed onto a host server.
The AWF System separates the physiology of a website into three dimensions of concern, namely: Style, Logic and Content. Each dimension of concern can be addressed independently within the system.
Style refers to the layout, colour and formatting of a webpage. The Style of a website is stated in a set of element templates within the Factory, which control the particular look and feel of the website to be produced. For instance, if a user wants to make text into a hyperlink, by choosing the element 'Link' all features of Style for that element will be automatically attributed.
The Logic of a website refers to the way in which each webpage interconnects. Website Logic concerns the mechanisms for navigation and other functionality within the set of element templates. This includes the dynamic rendering of page titles and hyperlinks, or the automatic production of a link within the page header.
Content is the message carried by the website. Using the AWF System, text can be written or pasted directly into the Editor and is incorporated into a set of element templates for automatic rendering as HTML.
Because each dimension of concern can be addressed independently changes to one dimension can be introduced without affecting the integrity of the other concerns within the system.
This gives clients the option to develop a particular aspect of their website by increments, without having to re-start the development process from scratch.
Moreover, new functionality, such as registration forms or an email-to-web facility can be seamlessly incorporated, since the subsequent Logic and Style of the website will be reproduced and rendered automatically.
Because important features of a webpage (such as the date of last production) are reproduced consistently throughout an AWF website, the factory effectively implements good website practice; without it being a necessary concern of the client.
Appropriate Website Factory Mark-up Language
The requirements of a client are expressed in AWFML. AWFML is an XML-based vocabulary that has distilled the components of existing basic-websites into a series of core elements.
Further AWFML extensions, modelling specific processes existing within International Development are anticipated.
SDRML (Social Development Research Mark-up Language) will model the requirements of a website designed specifically for the dissemination of development research findings.
We intend to add further elements to AWFML in response to additional expressions of need made by clients. In this regard, AWFML constrains clients by imposing a standard for communicating requirements, rather than any absolute restrictions as to what functionality they can or cannot have in their websites.
To use an analogy borrowed from linguistics, AWFML equips the user with a set of terms in which to 'speak websites'. To be understood the user must only use those terms contained within the 'AWFML dictionary'. As the Internet evolves and new words are required with which to speak websites, then the content of our dictionary can be revised.
We expect this process to represent a sophistication of AWFML, since the fundamental elements have already been defined.
AWFML contains three generic element categories: elements of Content, elements of Function and elements of Structure.
Content elements allow a client to declare that their webpage will contain features such as documents to download, hypertext or an image.
Functional elements allow a client to specify the inclusion of particular web functionality, such as mail-lists, community directories, or message boards.
Structural elements, meanwhile, allow a client to organise both Content and Functional elements into groups; groups into pages; and pages into hierarchical relationships.
Each AWFML element can be readily selected and manipulated by the client using the AWF Editor. A chosen element will then be automatically incorporated into the set of production templates for instantaneous rendering. So, for example, by selecting the element 'Title', a user can insert the title for a section of their webpage, knowing that it will be reproduced throughout the site as a stylised section heading and as a functional part of the navigational sidebar.
This means that an individual or organisation with few computing resources can have the capacity to produce a top website. The work involved in maintaining a professional website is minimised.
We intend to capture the benefits of any incremental evolution of the AWF by institutionalising a notion of collective inheritance throughout the system's client base.
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