HTML 5: Could it kill Flash and Silverlight?

HTML 5, a groundbreaking upgrade to the prominent Web presentation specification, could become a game-changer in Web application development, one that might even make obsolete such plug-in-based rich Internet application (RIA) technologies as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and Sun JavaFX.

The World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) HTML 5 proposal is geared toward Web applications, something not adequately addressed in previous incarnations of HTML, the W3C acknowledges. In other words, HTML 5 tackles the gap that Flash, Silverlight, and JavaFX are trying to fill.

The rich promise of HTML 5 "HTML 5 is really the second coming of this Web stuff -- of the Web," says Dion Almaer, co-founder of the Ajaxian Web site and co-director of developer tools at Mozilla. The specification boasts capabilities covering video and graphics on the Web, as well as a slew of APIs, Almaer notes.

HTML 5 technologies such as Canvas, for 2-D drawing on a Web page, are being promoted by heavyweights in the Internet space such as Apple, Google, and Mozilla. (Although Microsoft itself has given a thumbs-up to certain aspects of HTML 5, it has not backed Canvas.)

"HTML 5 features like Canvas, local storage, and Web Workers let us do more in the browser than ever before," says Ben Galbraith, also co-founder of the Ajaxian Web site and co-director of developer tools at Mozilla. Local storage enables users to work in a browser when a connection drops and Web Workers makes "next generation" applications incredibly responsive by pushing long-running tasks to the background, he says.

Web applications will become more fun, says Ian Fette, project manager at Google for the Chrome browser: "They're going to be faster and they're just going to provide overall a better user experience and make the distinction between online apps and desktop apps blurred."

HTML 5 features already appearing in browsers After five years of work, a draft of the HTML 5 specification was released in 2008. Parts of it are showing up in browsers, but the complete HTML 5 work won't be done for years.

"For example, video support is new in HTML 5 and new in Firefox 3.5," notes Vlad Vukicevic, technical lead of the Firefox project at Mozilla. Google's new Chrome browser also has some capabilities, including video tags, derived from the HTML 5 specification. And Microsoft has several HTML 5 features in Internet Explorer 8, such as local storage, AJAX navigation, and mutable DOM prototypes.

Source:[computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=development&articleId=9134422&taxonomyId=11&intsrc=kc_feat]

Outsourcing Advanced Web Site Design and Development with Flash Animation to the Philippines

The world wide web is the new arena of competition where businesses vie for the attention of online visitors. A company's web site is its online office and storefront, carrying the company's image and reputation. Good web site design is, therefore, not good enough anymore. To really attract more visitors, convince them to stay and entice them to return again and again, a company’s web site design needs to be a cut above the rest, especially in its landing pages. In today’s online battle for supremacy, this calls for the use of flash animation.

Flash animation is achieved with the use of Adobe Flash, considered one of the most advanced graphic designing tools available today. It enables website designers to create more dynamic pages that have more visual appeal, enhanced with animated logos, banners, interactive movies, games, business presentations and other creative animations. It can even be used to make each visit a unique experience for the visitor. Undeniably, a web site with flash animation will have greater impact on a visitor and will leave a more positive impression about the company it represents.

Advanced web site design
and development, especially when enhanced with flash animation, is not something that can just be done in the office unless there already are experts in this field among the company’s employees. Otherwise, the company will have to hire programmers and designers who are experts in php, mysql, JavaScript, Adobe Flash and other programming languages and tools, as well as in the correct use of flash animation. It must be borne in mind that when used inappropriately, flash animation can actually even backfire on the company and turn off visitors. It can cause slow loading of the company web site pages, prompting visitors to leave. It can look like cheap advertising and be ignored. Only true web professionals will know how to avoid these mistakes.

Aside from hiring web developers, the company will also have to purchase the equipment they will need to develop the web site and to maintain it. The whole thing will be a considerable investment. To cut costs without sacrificing the company's need for an excellent web site, the solution is outsourcing.

There are many good reasons why a company should choose to outsource its advanced web site design and development with flash animation to the Philippines. On the matter of design, the Philippines can boast of top artistic talent. The best web designers can draw up original and highly aesthetic looks appropriate to a web site and pleasing to its online visitors. Skillfully implementing such design plans is also a challenge that Philippine web site developers have already had much experience with, and have long been known for.

One BPO company in Manila that can be trusted to meet your needs in advanced web site design and development with flash animation is Web Dot Com Website Development Philippines, Inc. It has ten years of experience in serving clients in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Korea, the British Virgin Islands and the Philippines, providing low cost advanced web site development and business process outsourcing packages.

These packages can cover advanced interactive database driven web site development, advanced portal development, heavy web based programming, web application development, content management systems, website design, graphic design and multimedia components including flash animation development, e-commerce site solutions including a shopping cart using osCommerce, website maintenance and support, search engine optimization, search engine marketing and social media marketing. Web Dot Com Website Development Philippines, Inc. is also a web hosting provider that can help with domain name registration.

Web Dot Com Website Development Philippines, Inc. is your One Stop Shop Internet and Contact Center Solutions Vendor for the Global Market.

Source:[elitestv.com/pub/2009/06/outsourcing-advanced-web-site-design-and-development-with-flash-animation-to-the-philippines]

Checklist and summary: Core guidance

Checklist

• Decide whether a discussion group is to be open or closed
• If the discussion group is to be closed, carefully control the distribution of passwords
• Publish an Acceptable Use Policy alongside the discussion group
• The group must be continually moderated
• The focus of the discussion group should be decided on before being implemented

Summary

Discussion groups can be delivered by many sources. Your website hosting service may well be in a position to offer this service, or you may have to use a separate service managed by another service provider.

Discussion groups can be volatile. However the service is delivered, it will have to be managed and moderated particularly well, especially if it is an open site available to all web users

Customer relationship management

At the simplest level, customer relationship management (CRM) means the attraction and retention of visitors by operating a user-focused strategy.

Audience attraction

Audience attraction involves offering the information and services on your website that your user base requires. To do that there must be an understanding of your audiences and their needs if you are to understand what information and services to offer. You will also need to decide if that offering will be identical for each audience segment or whether you will differentiate.

Audience retention

Audience retention involves acquiring and continuously updating knowledge about visitor needs, motivation and behaviour. Applying this knowledge through a process of learning from your successes and failures will ensure that your website is better managed around the user. The aim is to understand, anticipate and manage the needs of current and potential visitors in terms of what is offered and how it is offered.

Relationship management looks at a continuing series of transactions, rather than an individual transaction. This includes supporting your users online and offline, and satisfying them by responding to their requests for information and assistance as soon as possible.

The user-centric strategy allows the integration of people, processes, and technology systems to support the delivery of user requirements. The organisation's whole team will need to be in the business of building customer relationships, both online and offline.

Electronic CRM

With the 'all-electronic' version of CRM, customer relationships become more dynamic and interactive. The creation of a channel and product strategy will define how your organisation delivers its products and services effectively, making sure the right message gets out at the right time and through the right channel. Relevant information can be collected more easily, uploaded automatically and used more effectively.

For example, your department might build a database about its users that described relationships in sufficient detail so that those providing the service can match user needs with products, remind them of the available services and information, and even know what other online and offline transactions a visitor had used. This would provide a web manager with the information necessary to know their users, understand their needs, and effectively build relationships with them.

However, web-based CRM can mean that huge volumes of user information are retrieved, stored, processed and delivered electronically. The IT platforms used must be flexible, adaptive, and scalable. They must also be completely dependable and secure to provide the credibility that will encourage the use of online transactions and resources.

Focusing on user needs - Marketplace

It is vital to know who your target audiences are and how they will access your information. This information will determine how you design and prepare the electronic publication.

However, targeting information on a website is very different from the targeting of conventional publicity and information.

Conventional marketing is effective at getting the information to the intended audiences. Leaflets are sent only to mailing lists of the target audience, or displayed in places they are likely to visit. Advertising is placed in magazines or in TV programs that appeal to the target audience.

This leaves design and text in conventional publicity free to concentrate on the task of communication with particular kinds of people.Anyone with access to the Web can show up at your website, whether your information is for them or not. Websites have to do their own targeting by directing users to the information or services that are for them.

Some industry experts suggest that the different levels of a website should have different aims.

Information on the upper levels of a website will be targeted at a very broad general audience. The aim is to help users swiftly find what is relevant to them. or move on. Design should aim to be professional and sufficiently engaging for a broad audience. In this context Government sites should aim to:

• Make immediately plain that this is a government site.

• Make clear what the owning organisation does.

• Make clear the kind of content and services on the site.

• Build trust in the authority, accuracy and currency of the information.

• Build trust in the security and effectiveness of the transactions on offer.

• Direct regular users to content that is new on that particular site.

• Offer access to the rest of government sites.

• Send different kinds of interested users to content that is aimed at them.

Middle layers of the site can be for people with some interest in content or services. This level of the site should aim to:

• summarise information or available transactions.

• provide enough details or facts to satisfy mild interest.

• provide enough details for people with strong interest to select the detailed information that is for them or who wish to apply for the service.

Middle levels of the site can also be a good place for key messages aimed at the general public. Writing and design can in this case be more clearly targeted at the target audience.

Lower levels of the site will tend to provide the detailed information that government sites so often make available. Here the aim is to:

• secure the interested user’s agreement to read the information.

• and offer users the choice of reading onscreen or different file formats to download.

An exception to this approach is likely to be a website that works as part of a publicity campaign. As advertising is likely to be driving an interested audience to the site, there can be a greater degree of targeting.

The aim of the site should be to add value to the campaign by such means as:

• providing more detailed information than the advertising could carry.

• reporting on progress towards the goals of the campaign.

• providing a transaction that facilitates users’ response to the call to action for the campaign.

An important aim of design will be to make it plain that the site ties in with the look and feel of the campaign. Users should be in no doubt they have come to the campaign’s site. The content and transactions on the site must reinforce the value of the brand.

Campaign sites should be revised as the campaign changes or be taken down once the campaign ends.

Understanding the terminology

Browser - is the web browser used by a visitor to access your website.

bytes transferred - the number of bytes transferred to the client's browser as a result of the request.

entry resource - the first web page viewed as part of a visit to your website.

exit resource - the last web page viewed as part of a visit to your website.

hit - a browser request for any one web resource, for example a web page or a graphic. A web page containing two graphics will take three hits to display that web page in a client's browser.

hits per visit - the number of hits occurring in a given visit to your website.

page impressions - a file or a combination of files sent to a user as a result of that user's request being received by the server. For example, one web page that contains three frames and 2 graphic files will generate one page view but 5 hits. Also known as 'page requests', 'page views' or 'page accesses'. Where service providers, search engines or other organisations cache content, page impressions served from these caches may not be recorded on the originating website.

page view per visit - the number of page accesses occurring in a given visit to your website.

platform - the operating system used by the visitor to your website, eg, Windows ME

session - A series of page impressions served in an unbroken sequence from within the website to the same user. A session begins when a user connects to a website, continues while page impressions are served in a continuous sequence from within the website, and ends when the user leaves the website.

user - this is defined as the combination of an IP address and an 'heuristic'. The user agent string is usually employed as the ‘heuristic’. Because of the use of dynamic IP number assignment, NAT, PAT, perimeter cacheing and dynamic proxying this definition may overstate or understate the real number of users visiting a website. Alternatively, websites may use cookies and/or registration Ids as the basis for identifying user numbers. Often also referred to as 'unique user'.

unique user duration - The total time in seconds for all visits of two or more page impressions, divided by the number of unique users making such visits. In order to measure user duration, a first and last page impression record must exist for each visit. Therefore, users making visits of only one page are excluded, since no interval can be established. This metric is sometimes referred to as 'website stickiness'.

user agent - the browser and platform used by a visitor when accessing your website.

visit - a series of one or more page impressions served to one user, which ends when there is a gap of 30 minutes or more between successive page impressions for that user.

visit duration - the total time in seconds for all visits of two or more page impressions divided by the total number of visits of two or more page impressions.

Downstream caching and pixel tagging

Copies of Web pages served to browsers are often 'captured' by content caching systems. 'Downstream' caching systems are typically operated by third parties such as the ISPs and other organisations through whose networks the pages travel on their route to users' computers. These caching systems are able to serve pages of which they hold copies in response to subsequent requests for them without reference to the origin server.

From an Internet-wide perspective caching content downstream close to the browsers is a good thing: serving content to topologically nearby browsers is quicker and consumes less network resource than transmitting it from the origin servers. It also reduces the load on the origin servers.

In order to have a website inter-operate properly with downstream caches (for example, to avoid out-of-date pages being served to users), it is important that appropriate cache control directives are included in the HTTP headers of the content that it serves. Getting this right normally involves having your server administrator configure the web server software appropriately. Note that it is not appropriate to attempt to control downstream caches by using HTML mark up elements because the special purpose appliances typically used for caching only act upon HTTP directives in the content headers.

There is an important consideration with regard to website traffic measurement arising from the increasing deployment of downstream caches on the Internet. Typically, there will be no record of pages served from downstream caches in your traffic log. As downstream caches are increasingly deployed on the Internet, standard origin web server logs tend to underestimate the number of your pages that have actually been viewed by users.

The pixel tag approach

One way of achieving a more accurate page view counts in origin web server logs is to ensure that every page contains a content element whose HTTP headers mark it as non-cacheable. This can be achieved by including a tiny transparent image referred to as a pixel tag in each HTML page. This pixel tag is typically served from a directory the contents of which the web server has been configured to serve out with HTTP headers marking the content as non-cacheable.In a pixel-tagging regime, page impressions served (including those served from downstream caches) can be estimated by counting the number of pixel tags served. If more detailed information is required about which pages have been served, then all or a part of the page's own URL can be included as a query string on the end of the pixel tag.

Examples of pixel tagging

A basic pixel tag could be generated by including the following image element in HTML pages (conventionally just before the closing tag):


In this example, the directory named 'nocache' resides at the root of the web server. The web server would be configured to include HTTP headers marking any files served out of the 'nocache' directory as non-cacheable. The file named 'trans.gif' would be a one pixel square transparent GIF image.

If it is required to track actual pages visited by users. In this case, the pixel tag for example, in the file at:

http://www.e-envoy.gov.uk/insideoee/index.shtml, would be: