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Pagemaster's corner TOC:

Style Sheet

Server Side Includes

Templates

Standards

Prodecures

Quality Assurance

Pagemaster's Corner: Standards for Infodome

Following are a few easy standards for the Library and Information Access Website that will help to keep our site working, professional, and easy to maintain.

This guide includes:


Contents of Infodome
Templates
Approved editor list
File naming conventions
URL conventions
File updating conventions
Subject guide standards
Contents of Infodome

Infodome is the public face of the Library and Information Access. Contents of Infodome will be Library and Information Access materials meant for SDSU students and faculty. Internal documents should be posted on the lfolks Website; non-library-specific materials or materials meant for another audience (e.g. non-library courses; grant proposals) should be posted on Rohan (the Web server meant for faculty applications) Out-of-date material or draft documents should not be stored on the public Website and will be removed from both Infodome and the test Website, Dometest, regularly.

Comments: When the Webteam began their redesign, the old Website, Libweb, contained over 14,000 files, many of which were out-of-date or meant for internal consumption. This caused problems with maintenance, site searching, and statistical reports.

Templates

All pages on the Infodome Website will use the template described here. The template may be modified by the Webteam to suit a special need.

Comments: Usability experts recommend consistency because it signals to a user that they are still on the same site and because consistent navigation saves time. It also makes the site look more professional.

The template allows us to quickly change the site structure or look without a great effort. Not using the template compromises this flexibility.

Approved editor list

The following HTML editors are approved:
While all other editors should be approved by the Webteam prior to use, the following editors create known problems and are expressly disapproved:
  • Notepad
  • Word
  • Frontpage
  • Netscape Composer
Comments: The editor that you use to work with HTML code makes a huge difference in the quality of the code. Some editors add extra HTML code that will break our stylesheets and increase download times, while others (e.g. notepad) add extra hidden codes that cause problems with the server.

File naming conventions

Files on Infodome should have meaningful names that are less than 20 characters long, with no capital letters or any punctuation.

All files should use the .shtml extension (not .htm or .html).

Comments: In the past, files were stored in people's individual directories, which made meaningful names less important. Because we are moving to a function-based filing system, meaningful names are crucial.

Capital letters in file names cause problems with maintenance for Windows computer users, which do not recognize the difference between capital and lower-case letters. Punctuation can cause maintenance problems, as well.

URL conventions

References to other Infodome Websites will use the complete URI starting from the web root. This means that to refer to this URL:

http://infodome.sdsu.edu/about/depts/ill/ill.shtml

you will do this:

/about/depts/ill/ill.shtml

Always use the beginning slash and start with the root directory.

Comments: If URL's are named in a consistent manner, any future changes to the Website, such as a new design or moving to a new server, will be much easier to implement.

File updating conventions

All files are assigned to a particular person, as noted in the footer of the page.
  • If you are modifying a file that somebody else is responsible for, contact that person to make sure that they are not concurrently working on the file.
  • If you are modifying your own file, don't worry (if your file does not have your name in the footer, please inform the Webteam chair.)
  • If you would like to create a new file, contact the Webteam chair to find out what directory it should be stored in.
  • The Webmaster may make code changes to pages throughout the site to make sure that they meet quality assurance guidelines. For this reason, your master file should be stored on dometest and not on your hard drive, and downloaded each time it is needed.
Comments: In the past, we used a cumbersome system of renaming files while working on them. This system is easier if we maintain our file responsibility information well.

In the past, files were stored in home directories or other function-inspecific places, which caused problems with statistics, among other things. Our new Website uses a function-specific filing system. In order to maintain this, there needs to be a point of responsibility.

Note: All new images or cgi scripts will have to be sent to webmaster@libweb.sdsu.edu for transfer.

Subject guide standards

Research topic subject guides must comply with minimum standards for content and format. These are described on the subject guide criteria page.


Next you'll want to read about procedures.

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Revised 5/15/02 by Laura Hudson
Contact: Laura Hudson: lhudson@mail.sdsu.edu