By the end of the summer

1
By the end of the summer
2
XML in a nutshell

• Design a custom tag-based language
• Separation of Presentation and Content
• Advantages
• Easy to convert into other formats (XSLT)
• Easy to read and edit (plain text)
• Open standard
• Complements HTML

3
XML at Links

• Modules written in XML (LinksML?)
• Navigation XML (before, after)
• Pages (Ex. 1, 2, 3)
• Dynamic content (contentlist.xml)
• Applets cataloged in XML
• appletList.xml
• Many web pages automatically generated
• Applet Library
• Applet Pages

4
XML for Modules

• Content, not presentation
• New ltMODULEgt ltQUESTIONgt ltEXERCISEgt
• Old ltPgt ltBRgt ltFONTgt
• Protects content from changes to HTML
• Simple Even professors can do it!
• Ensures uniform format
• Automatic translation to HTML

5
XML Possibilities

• Translation to PDF
• Teachers Guide
• Links modulesin print!
• Website-textbook hybrid?
• Flash interface
• GUI module editor

6
Concrete Goals

• By the end of the summer

7
Website will

• Have themes / skins
• Work properly on CD-ROM
• Use less JavaScript
• Be clean and concise
• Work on many browsers
• Have an improved interface

8
Modules will

• Be written in XML
• Be automatically converted to HTML
• Have an improved interface

9
New Module Interface

• More eye-catching
• CSS-based
• Easy to apply
• Eliminates excessive JavaScript
• Status
• Mock-up done
• CSS done

10
Applet Renovation

• Java 1.1 ? Java 1.3
• Uniform interface Swing
• Much faster download times
• Sun Java Plug-in or JRE required
• Hundreds of miscellaneous fixes
• Status
• All applets compile under Java 1.3
• Lots of bugs to fix
• Demo

11
Conclusion

• Credits
• PowerPoint presentation by Maureen Duffy, Links
  Interface Designer.
• Questions?