Welcome to a Gilles Tabary web page [Deliberately simple] Index – The Galway Circus Project Web site

January 2004 I worked on an IT Project: The Galway Circus Project Web Site


In January 2004 I designed and created the first web site for the Galway Circus Project. Please visit the site itself for what is the GCP. I explain here my motivation and technical choices.

GCP web site was an interesting “short time” project. It pushed me into a real learn & use & put in production curve. No abstract or non measurable result. Obviously I enjoy giving help to the GCP which has a good degree of rightness in it's goals: community building, free service. The fact of circus is especially good for it does not rely on the common but destructive competition/race pattern.

Key words: XSL, XSLT, HTML, JavaScript, FireBird, MacOS, cheep, simple for site owner, PhotoShop, graphical design, web design, Eclipse IDE, Xalan.

Time scale
Project Start date: 4th of January 2004
Project: End date: 18th of January 2004

Personal goals in this project
  • Learn XML and XSLT
  • Put this new skill in real production
  • Use known technologies like HTML, JavaScript, CSS.
  • Keep a brain activity in terms of IT
  • Within a few weeks have a finished live deliverable.
Constraints
  • Poor server side features: no PHP, no JSP no CGI, no power to customize server.
  • End-user poorly IT literate. Solution has to be simple.
  • Very tight budget.
  • Tow weeks
  • Web site targeted audience: circus tutors, young people, institution.
  • Web site style: must be serious looking because professional activity, but also must provide a "fun" feeling because of young audience targeted.
Technical choice motivation
  • XML language is more than an emerging language for content management. It's portability and relative readability makes it a choice for Web site. I used it during my IONA involvement in the OSB project. ( See my CV )
  • XSLT is a way to transform any XML document into... an XML doc. This means one can generate XHTML easily based on XML doc. It is really powerful because, unlike CSS one can generate any code just with a filter, without using JavaScript or any server feature.
  • XML and XSLT actually provide absolute separation between content and format. This makes it exceptionally simple for newbie to maintain content.
  • Having content as XML document is a better investment rather than in HTML. Because such a content can be used on the long term. We can immagine an automatic transformation into a DB.
  • Because XML is completely up to the user, one can make a document really meaningful. Have a look at classic html content: for a poorly IT literate user it is horribly cryptic. An other point to ease maintenance.
  • I used JavaScript as a "fun feature" help. Actual information do not relly on JS. I developped an "interactive rainbow" on pages. The rainbow is one of the aspects in Karin's work in her Pipparela show. So this feature emphasises a web site identity and coherence.

Discussion – Cons.
  • XSLT filtering is a rather recent feature in web browser. ( Only Netscape 5.7 and IE 6 supports it properly at project completion). So why chose that? Won't it make the site un-browsable for many users ? That is a good point. The answer boils down to my goals in this project. Now, technically I dumped a pure HTML copy of the site, therefore anyone is able to see the information. The communication goal of the web site is reached.
  • I used the Xalan java module in order to generate HTML code.
  • Note that use of free, open source browser like Mozilla or FireBird gives an immediate solution for UNIX/Windows/Mac. So the problem is not impossible to solve!
  • Why not use an IDE like Dreamwaver or FrontPage...? Answer: I wanted to learn the technology XML not to have it done (by the way, poorly) by a tool. Also I don't know if any of those IDE actually generates XML code. Also note that for FrontPage / Netscape / OpenOffice, the generated HTML code is a nightmare: non compliant, unreadable and most important, those tools do not give me exact controle on what I do. I always end up with Nedit or Notepad. In this project I used Eclipse IDE which is a software development environement, not a web site creation tool.

Project achievements.
  • Learned XML and XSLT.
  • Learned graphical design skills (Tool: PhotoShop)
  • Handed over the project fully blown with live web site at http://homepage.eircom.net/~GCircusProject
  • Trained web site owner for maintenance.
  • Tow weeks work + 1 week self-training on XML/XSLT tutorials

Gilles Tabary - 26th of January 2004

Contact: see home page.