A Case for Web Standards

Are there any benefits to XHTML?

• More Accessible
• Eliminates silly mistakes in code
• Renders more accurately in browsers
• Backward AND forward compatible
• First step toward Web Standards

No more development of HTML! www.w3.org

A Case for Web Standards

DIVs VS Tables

• Tables can build a nice layout
• Tables are predictable

However,

• Tables bloat the code
• Can we eliminate tables?

A Case for Web Standards

Table Purpose

• “Tables should not be used purely as a means to layout document content as this may present problems when rendering to non-visual media. Additionally, when used with graphics, these tables may force users to scroll horizontally to view a table designed on a system with a larger display. To minimize these problems, authors should use style sheets to control layout rather than tables.”
• http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/tables.html#h-11.1

A Case for Web Standards

Alternative DIV Design Method

• DIVs can be an alternate to <table>
• DIVs are a container like a table cell
• CSS can position the DIV

• <div id="article">xxx</div>

• #article{
  width:250px;
  padding:5px;
  float:right;}
  

A Case for Web Standards

What About XML, CSS, DOM & ECMAScript?

• XML is a flexible text format that describes data for exchange on the Web & elsewhere
• CSS is used to control the presentation
• Separate the content from design
• One cached file controls many pages
• DOM allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update content
• ECMAScript 262 standard allows for common scripting among devices

A Case for Web Standards

What's the big deal?

• Browser support since 2000
• Pages render more accurately and consistently even in old browsers
• Supporting standards solves many Web accessibility concerns for 508 and WAI
• Standards pages are smaller in size, so less bandwidth is taken up

A Case for Web Standards

What's the big deal?

• Alternative devices can now view the Web pages (cell phones, PDA, TV, etc)
• Search Engines can find content quicker and accurately rate the pages
• Printer friendly pages can be added with one CSS file

It's the future of the web!

A Case for Web Standards

The Power of CSS

• CSS Zen Garden: The best example showing the power of CSS re-designing!
• http://www.csszengarden.com
• Web Standards don't have to be ugly!

A Case for Web Standards

The Power of CSS

A Case for Web Standards

The Power of CSS

A Case for Web Standards

The Power of CSS

A Case for Web Standards

Reasons to follow Web Standards: Backward Compatibility

• Compliant with older browser without having to make a separate set of pages
• Design fails gracefully - It's not pretty, but the information is there!

A Case for Web Standards

Reasons to follow Web Standards: Forward Compatibility

• More compliant user agents get better designed / presented information
• Not committed to one platform / browser
• Ready for what the future brings
• PDA
• Cell phone
• TV
• Screenreaders

A Case for Web Standards

Reasons to follow Web Standards

A Case for Web Standards

Reasons to follow Web Standards: Bandwidth Savings

• Using Web standards saves on bandwidth
• Code reduction with limited markup provides cleaner and simpler code
• CSS files are cached

A Case for Web Standards

Reasons to follow Web Standards: Bandwidth Savings

• UW-Platteville/Slashdot Project
• Slashdot serves 50 million pages a month
• http://slashdot.org/faq/slashmeta.shtml#sm300
• UW-Platteville Webmaster's Dan Frommelt and students Sebastian Sholl and Sean Sieg use this site to take us through the conversion process step-by-step

http://www.uwplatt.edu/web/webstandards/slashdot.html

A Case for Web Standards

Reasons to follow Web Standards: Bandwidth Savings

• UW-Platteville/Slashdot Project
• Actual bandwidth savings:
• Without caching CSS: ~2 KB per page request
• Without caching CSS: ~3.15 GB daily total


• With caching CSS: ~9KB per page request
• With caching CSS: ~14.0 GB daily total

A Case for Web Standards

Reasons to follow Web Standards: Bandwidth Savings

• UW-Platteville/Slashdot Project
• Bandwidth costs $1 - $5 per GB of transfer
• Total Savings per Year calculated at $1 per GB:
• $3,650

This is based on figures from 2000 - traffic has greatly increased

A Case for Web Standards

Reasons to follow Web Standards: Bandwidth Savings

• UW-Platteville's Experience
• Over a year ago UW-Platteville made the leap
• Saved a few KB, and thought "big deal"
• Network team PANICKED because of unexpected drop in server load
• Everyone is much happier / wiser now!

A Case for Web Standards

Why do non-Webmasters need to know?

• But I'm not a Webmaster...
• How to build with standards is the problem for the Webmasters
• But not all Web pages are controlled by the webmasters
• In order to get the full benefits, we need full support of all developers
• We also need the full support of the managers who supervise the developers

A Case for Web Standards

Why do non-Webmasters need to know?

• There are numerous problem areas:
• Web enabled applications
• Course-ware applications
• Student Administration Systems
• Content Management Systems

Any system that makes Web pages!

A Case for Web Standards

Why do non-Webmasters need to know?

• How can I help?
• For systems that generate Web pages, verify that the system uses...
• W3C standards (XHTML, XML, CSS, DOM & ECMAScript)
• Templates that can be modified to follow the W3C standards

A Case for Web Standards

In Conclusion ...

• The CWCW is encouraging all campuses to migrate toward full Web Standards compliance.
• Major benefits:
• Forward / Backward compatible
• Bandwidth savings
• Easier transitions for future updates
• Printer Friendly!

A Case for Web Standards

A big thank you to ...

Thanks to Dan Frommelt, Webmaster at UW-Platteville,
for his work in bringing this topic to light and sharing his findings!