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Web Operational Management Group

Minutes of the Meeting of April 24, 2001
2:00 - 4:00 pm, Porter Conference Room

Present: Chris Gray, Esther Millar (Recorder), Marina Wan (Facilitator) Charles Woods
Regrets: Linda Hastings, Bill Oldfield

  1. Approval of minutes from the meeting on April 10, 2001
    Approved as distributed.

  2. Agenda review
    Add:
    • Chris Gray - Web Development Role
    • Charles - EZProxy

  3. Web development role
    Chris will be taking on a web development role on a half-time basis until the end of December. Details are yet to be worked out, but he described briefly the kinds of responsibilities he will have in this new role.

  4. EZproxy
    While at the VUGM meetings last week, Charles attended a session on EZproxy. Enhancements have eliminated some of the earlier problems associated with the program, and those in positions providing proxy support noted that it has dramatically reduced the number of problems reported by their users.

    Bill had reviewed EZproxy a while ago, but at that time did not recommend its use. Based on the positive reports it now received at the session, the group would like to take another look at the program. Discussion will continue at our next meeting when Bill can be present as well.

  5. Standards and procedures in web maintenance
    1. URL, breaking links and redirects
      Chris had referred us to a page by Jakob Nielsen that cautions web maintainers not to break any URLs.

      For our standards and procedures, we will emphasize that web maintainers should think very carefully before they place a file into a particular directory and what name they give to the file. A new file should be considered a permanent file. A generic file name such as hours.html will always remain appropriate, whereas hours_2001.html will become dated and need to be changed. Therefore, use the generic file name whenever possible.

      We recognize that there are times when a file must be renamed, moved, or deleted. If it is a major file (e.g., index.html), one that is likely to be bookmarked, a redirect page should be created and remain in place for at least 3 months.

      Some sites have created a customized 404 error page that directs the user to a site index or site map to help them find what they are looking for. Chris and Charles will research how such a customized page is created.

    2. HTML 4.01 DTD and error report
      Esther ran the HTML 4.01 Transitional DTD on the entire htdocs area and published the results for the group to view. Chris feels that it is not finding all the errors and would like to check the results against those picked up by HTML Tidy. He will do this for our next meeting.

    3. Informing the webmaint group
      Esther will complete the revisions discussed and then send out the URL to the webmaint-l group with a note that this is still a work in progress. She will also link the page to the Web Site Maintainers page.

    4. E-mail addresses on web pages
      (Re: memo from Susan Routliffe on behalf of ISMC)
      Marina will contact Doug about the procedure that allows the inclusion of e-mail addresses so that they cannot be easily harvested by people who want to spam..

  6. Dreamweaver 4
    1. Problem reports, etc.
      Numerous staff are encountering problems in redefining their site after Dreamweaver 4 is installed on their system. Esther will provide 1-on-1 help. Chris will speak to Systems staff and they will let Esther know who currently has Dreamweaver 4 installed on their system and will notify her as others are installed. Esther will make contact with those staff and ask if they would like assistance in getting their system set up again.

    2. Manuals and reference books
      Chris will order 7 copies of Dreamweaver 4 : Skills & Drills (The Essentials) for: Porter Library Office; Porter ISR; Davis ISR & Library Office; Systems; UMD; Porter User Services; and Davis User Services.

    3. IST Courses
      IST is offering courses in Dreamweaver Advanced Features and Dreamweaver Advanced Site Management. In the past we have cautioned staff against using those advanced features of Dreamweaver that use javascripts (e.g., mouse rollovers) until we could investigate the quality of javascript produced. Chris will do this investigation and report back to the group.

      During our discussion we realized that we need to establish criteria or guiding principles that we can use when we have decisions to make regarding the use and capabilities of Dreamweaver and HTML. We realize these criteria must be geared to the nature of our site, the level of expertise of our web maintainers, the tools web maintainers are using, future HTML trends, etc. This is an item for discussion at a future meeting.

  7. UNIX Netscape 4.73
    Unfortunately, Chris was not able to meet with Pat. Item deferred.

  8. Statistics requirements
    For now, Chris will summarize the responses received and provide a response, outlining what is possible and what is not possible.

  9. TUG web issues
    Deferred.

  10. Next Meeting
    Tuesday, May 8, 2-4 pm; Porter Conference Room 428
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July 15, 2005