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Thread: Evaluation of HTML editors/generators
Number of posts in this thread: 3 (In chronological order)
From: Jill Lenz
Date: Mon, Nov 11 2002 4:55PM
Subject: Evaluation of HTML editors/generators
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My college is considering a switch from Dreamweaver, which is supported
campus wide, to a form based program written in Cold Fusion by some
folks at MSU. Basically, switching from a static model to a data driven
model, see http://www.aace.org/pubs/etr/issue2/foley.cfm for a timely
article, esp the "architecture" section.
The thought from the higher-ups is that this will make life easier for
the novice designers - they won't have to get their hands dirty with
HTML, just fill out an online form and their process time will be
reduced. I'm rather doubtful and hesitate to switch to a non-supported,
non-standardized product.
Any thoughts or formal evaluation tools for deciding on HTML editors?
I already have a brief checklist to review what it generates:
1) Manual review of code - is it clean or junky?
2) Does it validate with W3C, HTML Help, A Prompt, Bobby AAA, etc.?
3) Can accessibility be built-in up front in the templates?
4) Does it still require manual intervention in the code to such things
as summaries to tables, titles to links, etc.?
Also, anything to add on the topic of training and support? Any comments
would be appreciated.
Thanks, Jill
--
Jill Lenz
CVMBS Dean's Office
Instructional Technology
Anatomy/Zoology W3
Colorado State University
970-491-6585
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From: Joel Ward
Date: Tue, Nov 12 2002 12:41PM
Subject: Re: Evaluation of HTML editors/generators
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> My college is considering a switch from Dreamweaver, which is supported
> campus wide, to a form based program written in Cold Fusion by some
> folks at MSU...
Hi Jill,
I think it could be a more accessible site by using the home-grown "content
management system" instead of an editor like Dreamweaver or FrontPage. If
they write the backend program well, it can check for accessibility issues
and ensure that the rules are applied correctly. And it allows
non-technical users to more easily add and edit content. Plus, it might be
easier for all users to add content as they no longer need a proprietary
application to install on their local systems.
However, you are right to be concerned about a non-supported and
non-standardized product. Your questions are good. There is a lot that
needs to go on in the backend. Alternately, they could buy an off-the-shelf
content management system, which would then be supported and standardized.
There are some free or low cost solutions out there.
In any case, they'd need to make sure that the system validates code like
you mentioned (question is, to what standard), and maybe have a workflow
system that builds-in a manual accessibility check, as some issues cannot be
confirmed by a computer. Workflow in general may require a lot of work to
define properly.
Also, they may need to disable the ability for end-users to insert HTML, to
prevent rogue code from infiltrating the site. That could cause problems,
as formatting needs to be added in some way (e.g. by a rich-text web form,
like Ektron eWebEditPro; simple proprietary tags; DHTML, etc.).
The end-users would need to be trained on the system and how to properly
enable accessibility, and good contextual help or some sort of documentation
could supplement that training.
Just some thoughts...you probably thought of most of this already.
We moved one of our client's site from 1) FrontPage to a 2) database-driven
ASP system to 3) Microsoft Content Management Server over the past two
years, and I feel that it has helped make the site more consistent, the code
cleaner, and accessibility in better shape.
Joel
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From: Jill Lenz
Date: Fri, Nov 15 2002 11:11AM
Subject: Re: Evaluation of HTML editors/generators
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Thanks for your thoughts. You are right that defining the workflow will take
some time. It was nice to hear from someone who has been through this before.
Joel Ward wrote:
> > My college is considering a switch from Dreamweaver, which is supported
> > campus wide, to a form based program written in Cold Fusion by some
> > folks at MSU...
>
> Hi Jill,
>
> I think it could be a more accessible site by using the home-grown "content
> management system" instead of an editor like Dreamweaver or FrontPage. If
> they write the backend program well, it can check for accessibility issues
> and ensure that the rules are applied correctly. And it allows
> non-technical users to more easily add and edit content. Plus, it might be
> easier for all users to add content as they no longer need a proprietary
> application to install on their local systems.
>
> However, you are right to be concerned about a non-supported and
> non-standardized product. Your questions are good. There is a lot that
> needs to go on in the backend. Alternately, they could buy an off-the-shelf
> content management system, which would then be supported and standardized.
> There are some free or low cost solutions out there.
>
> In any case, they'd need to make sure that the system validates code like
> you mentioned (question is, to what standard), and maybe have a workflow
> system that builds-in a manual accessibility check, as some issues cannot be
> confirmed by a computer. Workflow in general may require a lot of work to
> define properly.
>
> Also, they may need to disable the ability for end-users to insert HTML, to
> prevent rogue code from infiltrating the site. That could cause problems,
> as formatting needs to be added in some way (e.g. by a rich-text web form,
> like Ektron eWebEditPro; simple proprietary tags; DHTML, etc.).
>
> The end-users would need to be trained on the system and how to properly
> enable accessibility, and good contextual help or some sort of documentation
> could supplement that training.
>
> Just some thoughts...you probably thought of most of this already.
>
> We moved one of our client's site from 1) FrontPage to a 2) database-driven
> ASP system to 3) Microsoft Content Management Server over the past two
> years, and I feel that it has helped make the site more consistent, the code
> cleaner, and accessibility in better shape.
>
> Joel
>
> ----
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or view list archives,
> visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/
--
Jill Lenz
CVMBS Dean's Office
Instructional Technology
Anatomy/Zoology W3
Colorado State University
970-491-6585
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
http://www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/intech/lab/
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