XML-based Web Publishing and Content Management at Seattle University School of Law

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XML-based Web Publishing and Content Management
at Seattle University School of Law

• James Cooper
• Director of Technology Media Services
• jcooper_at_seattleu.edu
• Evan Lenz
• Content Management Architect
• lenze_at_seattleu.edu

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Contents

• Web site requirements and architecture
• Web site management with Cocoon
• URI design discussion
• Redhawk CMS
• An acronym you should know XSLT
• QA

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1. Web site requirements and architecture
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SU Law Web site requirements (summer 2002)

• Must include a Flash-enhanced version
• Must include an HTML-based version that
  approximates the look-and-feel and navigational
  structure of the Flash-enhanced version
• Must include a version of the site that is
  designed for accessibility
• Must employ the separation of presentation and
  content through the use of XML technologies.
  Multiple published versions of the same content
  must originate in an automatic way from the same
  source.
• The publishing framework must employ a single
  point of control over navigational structure,
  e.g. using an XML configuration file.

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Web site requirements, cont.

• Must allow an average Web developer to easily
  author new content, edit existing content, etc.
• Must accommodate the continued use of existing
  tools for authoring content, e.g. Dreamweaver.
• Particular kinds of content that have
  predictable, repeating structure should be
  converted into custom XML vocabularies to
  increase their flexibility and ease of
  management.
• The Web site must include search functionality
  integrated into all versions of the site.

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Web content strategy today

• Static pages were converted to and are stored as
  style-free XHTML (in VSS, with latest versions
  shadowed on the staging server).
• Apache Ant is invoked on the staging server to
  incrementally build all versions (Flash,
  Standard, Text-only, and crawler) of each static
  page, using the page source, as well as global
  navigation and sidebar configuration files, as
  input.
• Cocoon powers the core functionality of the site,
  including setting the users version preferences
  and serving dynamic content. All static pages and
  files are served directly by Apache.
• Dynamic content pieces are identified by URI in
  the Cocoon sitemap, which is configured to
  assemble corresponding pages on-the-fly. Dynamic
  content examples include
• Specialized content in our home-grown CMS called
  Redhawk, which provides end-user WYSIWYG
  editing of certain kinds of content
• Google search results
• Legacy ASP pages
• Traditional Web content management, e.g. WYSIWYG
  editing of all pages, is being considered, but
  not sorely missed at this time.

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Benefits of using XML

• Separation of presentation from content
• Ensures consistency of presentation across all
  pages (eliminates layout errors)
• Enables publication to multiple channels
• Content re-use
• Many commercial and open-source tools available
  for processing/creating XML
• Integration between disparate systems (including
  legacy ASP pages, Google, Redhawk, etc.)
• Great for configuration files

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Primary tools used in our Web site

• Run-time
• Apache Cocoon (Java-based)
• Apache Web server on Linux
• mod_rewrite (for rewriting incoming URLs, e.g.
  path?modeflash, to /flash-html/path.html)
• Google Appliance (for integrated search inside
  our site template)
• IIS/ASP (legacy database access scripts, e-mail
  forms, etc.)
• 4Suite, for exporting content from the Redhawk
  CMS (based on 4Suite)

• Build-time
• MS Visual SourceSafe (for versioning of static
  content)
• Samba (for mounting a VSS shadow folder on the
  Linux staging server)
• Dreamweaver MX (includes XHTML support and VSS
  integration)
• Apache Ant (for building the bulk of the site
  statically)
• 4Suite, for end-user content management of
  specialized document types, aka Redhawk

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2. Web site management with Cocoon
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Introduction to Cocoon

• Cocoon is an open-source, Java-based XML Web
  publishing framework
• Recently gained status as a top-level Apache
  project, at http//cocoon.apache.org
• Designed to enable the separation of concerns
  between content, logic, and style

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The Cocoon sitemap

• SAX-based pipeline mechanism allows XML content
  to go through a series of transformations,
  configurable by the sitemap, Cocoon's central
  point of configuration
• Each pipeline consists of
• Exactly one generator
• Produces XML content using any number of
  mechanisms reading a file, submitting an HTTP
  request, calling a database, invoking a server
  page script, etc.
• Followed by zero or more transformers
• Processes the XML, e.g. XSLT or Xinclude, for
  subsequent handling by either another transformer
  or the serializer
• Followed by exactly one serializer
• Serializes into a particular format, e.g.
  well-formed XML, browser-compatible XHTML, SVG,
  PDF (via XSLFO and FOP), rasterized images (via
  SVG and Batik), etc.

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Simplified Cocoon sitemap excerpt
ltmapmatch pattern"accesstojustice/hague/cases"gt
ltmapgenerate src"http//redhawk/?xsltg
etCases.xsl"/gt ltmaptransform
src"stylesheets/case2html.xsl"/gt
ltmapserialize type"xhtml"/gt lt/mapmatchgt
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Another sitemap excerpt

• ltmapresource name"front-door"gt
• ltmapselect type"request-parameter"gt
• ltmapparameter name"parameter-name"
• value"set-version"/gt
• ltmapwhen test"flash"gt
• ltmapcall resource"check-flash"/gt
• lt/mapwhengt
• ltmapwhen test"flash-confirmed"gt
• ltmapcall resource"set-preference-to-fla
  sh"/gt
• lt/mapwhengt
• ltmapwhen test"standard"gt
• ltmapcall resource"set-preference-to-sta
  ndard"/gt
• lt/mapwhengt
• ltmapwhen test"simple"gt
• ltmapcall resource"set-preference-to-sim
  ple"/gt
• lt/mapwhengt
• ltmapotherwisegt
• lt!-- more logic --gt
• lt/mapotherwisegt

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URI design considerations

• The URI design of the SU Law Web site was
  inspired by Tim Berners-Lee's 1998 essay Cool
  URIs don't change http//www.w3.org/Provider/St
  yle/URI.html
• Aims to follow two of the essay's suggestions
• Leave out file extensions
• Leave out topic/classification by subject

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Leave out file extensions

• Cocoon makes it easy to map external URIs to
  internal filenames or other content generators
• In the SU Law Web site, the URLs of all HTML
  pages do not include any file extensions
• Other types of content use standard file
  extensions, e.g. JPG, GIF, Flash, Word, etc.

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Leave out topic/classification by subject

• Difficult problem
• Design URIs such that they are meaningfully
  mnemonic and will never change, even though the
  corresponding pages may be classified into
  different topics later
• Berners-Lee "Because the relationships between
  subjects are web-like rather than tree-like,
  even...people who agree on a web may pick a
  different tree representation."

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Decouple navigational structure from URI structure

• URI structure is, of necessity, hierarchical
• Site navigation tends to be hierarchical,
  classifying pages into topics or subjects
• To help in following the original suggestion, we
  formulated the following mandate
• Decouple navigational structure from URI
  structure.
• We met this goal through the use of a custom XML
  configuration file (navigation.xml) that maps
  between the two independent hierarchies
  (navigation and URI structure)

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Excerpt from navigation.xml

• ltnavigation xmlns"http//law.seattleu.edu"gt
• ltmenu display"Welcome" sectionId"welcome"gt
• ltlink href"/" display"SU Law Home"/gt
• ltlink display"Contact Information"
  href"/contactus"/gt
• ltlink display"Directions" href"/directions"/
  gt
• ltlink href"/welcome" display"From the
  Dean"/gt
• ltlink href"/history" display"History"/gt
• ltlink href"/calendar" display"Master
  Calendar"/gt
• ltlink href"/mission" display"Mission"/gt
• ltlink href"/search" display"Search"/gt
• ltlink href"/sitemap" display"Site Map"/gt
• ltlink href"http//www.seattleu.edu"
• display"Seattle University Home"/gt
• lthidden href"/news" display"News"/gt
• lthidden pattern"/news"/gt
• lthidden href"/privacy" display"Privacy
  Statement"/gt
• lt/menugt
• ltmenu display"Students" sectionId"students"gt
• ltmenu display"Academics"gt

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The benefits of URI-navigation independence

• Pages can be moved from one section of the site
  to another by simply editing one file
  (navigation.xml)
• Navigation structure can change without needing
  to update any links or change any URIs (thereby
  rendering them uncool)
• Files do not need to be moved around just because
  corresponding pages move around the site

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XML-based configuration of the Web site sidebar

• ltsidebar xmlns"http//law.seattleu.edu"gt
• ltallButtonsgt
• ltpromotion id"laptop" img"laptoppurchase.gif
  
• alt"Student Laptop Purchase
  Program (Dell)
• href"/technology/purchase"/gt
• ltprofile id"cmhall" alt"Christian
  Halliburton Video
• movie"cmhall.rm"/gt
• ltquote id"cumbow" img"cumbow.gif"
  alt"Cumbow Quote"/gt
• ...
• lt/allButtonsgt
• ...
• ltsection id"faculty"gt
• ltprofile idref"cmhall"/gt
• ltquote idref"cumbow"/gt
• ltpromotion idref"giving"/gt
• ltpromotion idref"newfaculty"/gt
• ltpromotion idref"laptop"/gt
• lt/sectiongt
• ...

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3. Redhawk CMS
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Redhawk, home-grown CMS

• Redhawk is a specialized XML content management
  system, based on 4Suite, an open-source platform
  for XML and RDF processing
• Named after SU mascot
• Basic unit of storage is an XML document
• Supports development of custom Redhawk "document
  classes", which correspond to XML document types
  (or schemas)
• Provides basic CRUD (Create, Read, Update,
  Delete) and role-based workflow functionality
• Two types of users for each document class
  Author and Editor
• Any Create, Update, or Delete requests by an
  Author must be approved by an Editor before
  taking effect
• Pluggable WYSIWYG editing environments so far we
  have developed support for Altova's free
  browser-based XML editor, Authentic 5
• Future plans to support Microsoft InfoPath and
  Word 2003

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Create New Announcement form
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Current Redhawk applications

• Announcements and events for the Docket
  (migration from custom production application in
  process)
• Access to Justice Institutes Hague Project for
  managing Hague Convention-related case
  information (in production)

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4. An acronym you should know XSLT
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The common denominator XSLT (Extensible
Stylesheet Language Transformations)

• Used in Cocoon to assemble all pages (XSLT is the
  default type of "Transformer")
• Used in our site build process, via Ant's ltxsltgt
  task for collectively applying transformations
  over multiple files
• Built-in to 4Suite and used throughout Redhawk to
  assemble pages, create documents, and implement
  the core CMS logic (with the help of extensions)
• Used in the Google Appliance to style the output
  of search results
• Used in Redhawk in the browser to apply
  supplemental "clean-up" transformations to the
  XML resulting from Authentic editing
• Growing abundance of conformant XSLT processors,
  including IE6 and Mozilla support, as well as a
  growing number of powerful tools
• And XSLT is reaching mainstream technology
  status Microsoft Office 2003 will pervasively
  employ XSLT for the development of custom XML
  solutions, particularly in Word, Excel, Access,
  and InfoPath.

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References

• http//cocoon.apache.org
• http//4suite.org
• http//ant.apache.org
• Cool URIs don't change http//www.w3.org/Provi
  der/Style/URI.html
• Cocoon and 4Suite for Content Management The
  Best of Both Worlds at Seattle University School
  of Law - http//www.xmlportfolio.com/xmleurope200
  3/

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Questions?