1 caida’s xml-based web publishing environment web technology forum at san diego supercomputer...
TRANSCRIPT
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CAIDA’s XML-based Web Publishing
Environment
Web Technology Forum Web Technology Forum
at San Diego Supercomputer Center, Tuesday, 25 July 2000at San Diego Supercomputer Center, Tuesday, 25 July 2000
Margaret Murray
Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA)
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Presentation Outline
Motivation for Using XML XML Strategy: Technologies, Tools,
Timing Website Features Planned Enhancements
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Motivation: Legacy Website
StrengthsStrengths Large readership Developers control
their own web content Flexible organization
WeaknessesWeaknesses Difficulty with
navigation No recognizable
CAIDA ‘look’ Consistency and
Quality Control Issues Repetitive, bloated
web coding
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Site Redesign Goals
Clean up web tree; implement consistently named directory structure
Let developers control content but not necessarily its placement
Enforce version control Reduce site maintenance
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CAIDA History with Apache
Experience: Apache web server in
use since ‘97 (on Solaris 2.5)
Apache Jserv Java servlet engine
CAIDA Java servlets available on website:
• Otter
• GTrace
New Apache Tools: Cocoon Web
Publishing Framework• 100% Java
Open source W3C standards based
(XML, DOM, XSL) Positive reviews http://xml.apache.org/cocoon/http://xml.apache.org/cocoon/
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Strategy: The Cocoon Approach
Separate content, processing, and style Content = XML files
• Parsed by Cocoon’s Xerces XML parser Processing = Cocoon processors
• Built-in processors (e.g., XSP, XSLT, SQL ) Style = XSL
• Implemented by Xalan stylesheet processor
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Key Transition Milestones Organize new directory structure Define a ‘concordance’
Write a redirect cgi script
Make it easy to translate existing HTML into XML
Develop a CAIDA-specific DTD Incorporate a new navigation paradigm
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Transition Schedule Organize directory structure and design navigation
paradigm: 1 mo Install and test Cocoon components 1 mo Develop CAIDA DTD, site-specific XSL, and
content template: 1mo Convert existing HTML to XML: 2 mos Train web page developers (cvs, tidy, xml):as
required
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Problems with Initial Deployment
ExpectedExpected Change is hard Non-programmers had
big ramp-up to learn cvs
Some missing pages Auto-redirect script not
entirely complete
UnexpectedUnexpected Discovered bad DNS
mapping for main URL Load-related errors cvs server memory
limitations restricted scope of checkouts, updates
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Solution:
XML Development XML Development site = mirror.caida.orgsite = mirror.caida.org Dynamic XML
processing http://mirror.caida.org/~username/
Developer checks in tested page
Webmaster updates main web tree
HTML Public site = HTML Public site = www.caida.orgwww.caida.org wget gens HTML file
for each XML page All non-XML files are
shared via symbolic links
No more load related errors
Fast!
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Cocoon Maintenance
Common ErrorsCommon Errors Syntax; missing end tag;
unmatched quotes Cached copy displayed
Weird ErrorsWeird Errors “Method longer than 65535
bytes” Broken image maps --> ‘?’
Daily cron jobDaily cron job (scripts by Dan Andersen)
Makefile driven xml-wget (Gnu) Rotate-dirs:
• www --> www.old, www.pre --> www
Symlinks for all non-XML files
Emergency scriptEmergency script
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Directory Structure
Emphasize easy-to-type, easy-to-say URLs All lower case Meaningful, recognizable directory names Use default index.xml; drop filename from
URL
Match to navigation paradigm
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Site DTD and Tools
Some CAIDA tags <navbar /> <footinfo (lastupdated,
maintainedby?, URL) > Page Layout Design (by
Oliver Jakubiec)
3-level navbar Site-map Color scheme
Tools tidy
• html config file
• xml config file checkbot find sed scripts
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Cocoon Install Solaris 7 jdk/jre 1.2.2 jserv 1.1 API Apache httpd 1.3.6
jserv, modperl, modssl modules
Webalizer 2.00 cvs 1.9
Cocoon 1.7.5-dev Xerces-J 1.0.4 XML
Parser Xalan-J 1.1 httpd.conf, jserv.conf cocoon.properties
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Documentation and Training
“How to Update CAIDA Web Pages” Two target audiences (programmers, non-programmers)
One-page Overview One-on-one training sessions Problems
• arcane cvs syntax
• Testing procedures
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Website Features (navbar)
In .xml file: <navbar />
location.txt contains <location section="HOME" subsection="overview" />
In root.xsl: Selects menus (3
layers) Sets up clickable
image maps Sets color scheme Adds file ‘locater’ text
to top of page
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Website Features (auto-gen URL)
In .xml file: <url> http://
<xsp:expr>request.getServerName() </xsp:expr> <xsp:expr>request.getRequestURI() </xsp:expr> </url>
XSP gets server name (www.caida.org or mirror.caida.org)
XSP gets page name XSL adds formatting;
places at bottom of page
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Website Features (tocs, sitemap)
Table of Contents List style Pulldown style Table style
http://www.caida.org/home/sitemap/
All pages at top three levels have access to sitemap
Want to automatically generate
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Planned Enhancements
Searchable databases Tools taxonomy IEC courses Internet Atlas
Context-driven contact email cvs “crutches” or substitute
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Summary
Apache XML technology holds great promise
Apache Cocoon provides an extensible website infrastructure
CAIDA is just beginning to take advantage of Cocoon’s capabilities
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For more information on XML-Apache and Cocoon: www.apache.org
Apache Server XML-Apache
xml.apache.org/cocoon/ http://mailman.real-time.com/pipermail/cocoon-users/ http://mailman.real-time.com/pipermail/cocoon-devel/
