Abstract

This introductory lecture gives the motivation for the course, some information about the people involved and the organization of the course, a high-level overview of the course's topics, and an overview of the assignments which are an important part of the course program.

What is Architecture?

What is an Architect?

• Star Architects are not typical
  • they sell brand names and deliver high profile results
  • most architects are more modest and less visible
• Architects must understand how things work
  • a reasonable understanding of the disciplines involved
  • an excellent understanding of disciplines have to interact
  • negotiating between specialists for a good overall design
• Architects are guides
  • they provide guidance for going in the right direction
  • they can tell why this direction is the right direction
  • they can tell why a wrong direction is wrong

How to become a Web Architect?

• Understand Web technologies and their dependencies
  • no need to become an expert in all of the areas
  • the important part is understanding the dependencies
• Understand how to compare application architectures
  • there is no best solution for any given problem
  • every solution must be evaluated in terms of various constraints
• Next steps for your career in Web architecture
  • understand how the back-end plumbing (a.k.a. XML) works in detail
  • take a closer look at back-end architectures
  • take a closer look at delivery architectures
  • get involved in real-world projects in the ISD Clinic

Course Setup

• Broad overview of core Web technologies
  • this is not a Web design or Web programming course
• Assignments working with various Web technologies
  • how to setup and configure a Web server
  • how to deliver client-specific content
  • how to design client-specific styles
  • using Ajax for creating more dynamic Web pages
  • repurposing existing content for syndication
• Final project looking at a real-world case study
  • apply a Web architecture view o a Web application architecture
  • come up with an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

Closed World Assumption

If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.

Abraham Maslow

• People, and thus content creators, typically are lazy
  • developing content and code for diverse users and clients is hard
  • by making assumptions, this job can become considerably easier
• Tools often hide complexity and/or take away freedom
  • they are good if tool users know what they are doing
  • tool users should know alternatives and when to switch tools
• Tool makers provide support for lazy people
  • built-in simplifications of the tool's target technology
  • pre-packaged excuses why it is appropriate to use the tool

Poorly Equipped Developers

Popular Screen Resolutions

Your Tax $ @ Work

• How to apply for NSF grants
• Over $400 billion in grants each year
• PureEdge is required as the technology to fill out grant forms
  • acquired by IBM and now called IBM Workplace Forms
• All of this probably looked nice for the final demo …
• Web forms do not provide all the features required by the specification
  • offline editing of applications is not possible, Web forms work online only
  • there is no built-in signing of form contents, but there are technologies for it

Version 1: Go IE or Go Home

• Well, but not if you are using Vista …
• PureEdge is an IE plug-in for filling out forms online and offline
  • plug-ins are specific for the browser for which they are developed
  • plug-ins are specific for the OS on which they run

Version 2: Buy a Virtual Computer

• Government authorities are (usually) concerned about accessibility
  • restricting $400 billion of grant money to IE users only seems a bit restrictive
  • is there a reasonable argument to be made for this restriction
• Grants.gov recommended to get a virtual PC to access the portal
  • users have to buy virtual PC software
  • users have to buy Windows to run on the virtual PC

Version 3: Use a Virtual Computer

• Grants.gov set up a Citrix server for grant applicants
  • Citrix server licenses are not cheap to buy
  • applicants still have to install the Citrix client (which is free)
  • running a Citrix server farm is pretty expensive

Version 4: Crash your Computer

• After some time, PureEdge for Mac was released, features include:
  • occasional crashes and subsequent loss of any unsaved data
  • inability to run on Mac OS version prior to 10.4.6

Classical Lock-In

• Companies usually sell products, not just solutions
• Lock-in happens quickly and is very hard to escape from later
• Lock-in usually carries a pretty high price tag
• Lock-in solutions can be good, but it is a very important decision
• Standards-based solutions may lack some sophistication
  • but very often they may still be good enough to solve a problem
  • being able to change the platform easily is a very valuable asset

Tax on Taxes

• The I.R.S. perspective
  • electronic filing saves money and should be encouraged
  • processing a paper version: $2.65
  • processing an electronic submission: $0.29
• The company perspective
  • have a monopoly for 2005-2009
  • taxpayers paid $1.01 billion for submission fees
  • the servers could not handle the load
• The taxpayer perspective
  • IRS saves money, but taxpayers are charged
  • electronic filing must go through a company

About Me

• Computer Science at Technical University of Berlin (TUB) (88-91)
• Ph.D. at ETH Zürich (92-97)
• Post-Doc at ICSI, Berkeley (97/98)
  • book on Technical Foundations of the World Wide Web
• Various activities back in Switzerland (98-06)
  • teaching at ETH Zürich and FHNW
  • working as independent consultant (training, courses, consulting)
  • research in various XML-related areas
• Visiting Assistant Professor at the School of Information (since fall 2006)
  • technical director of the Information and Service Design (ISD) program

About this Course

• Course Web page: http://dret.net/lectures/web-fall07/
• Course mailing list: subscribe at majordomo@ischool.berkeley.edu
  • no subject (leave blank)
  • body of message: subscribe i290-3
• Letter grade based on assignments, mid-term exam, and final project

About these Slides

• Generated from XSLidy XML
• Designed for online presentation and use (lots of links!)
  • for printing, use a (all slides), and then s (smaller font) a couple of times
• A good real-world example for Web-based publishing
  • Slidy is useful, but there is no support for structures and hyperlinking
  • XSLidy adds these features by adding an XSLT transformation
  • XSLidy is useful, but there is no interface (XML editing only)

Additional Resources

• My Online Glossary at http://dret.net/glossary/
  • suggestions, updates, corrections are very welcome (really!)
  • another exercise in how to use XML and XSLT for information management
• My bibliography at http://dret.net/biblio/
  • suggestions, updates, corrections are very welcome (really!)
  • produced by an XML-centric system for managing bibliography data
• The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
  • headed by Tim-Berners Lee, inventor of the Web (with Robert Cailliau)
• The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
  • mainly Internet standards, but also responsible for URIs and HTTP