Re: A summary of key points on dynamically generated web pages

Scott,

sorry, I was not attempting to suggest that there was no place for
dynamically generated content - I use such sites all the time for thinks like
live commentary on the cricket. Just that the use of template and database
programming extends far beyond the situation where content needs to be
generated dynamically, because of the efficiency that can be gained from the
technique.

And I agree that there are optimisations that can be done to make sure
templates are structurally linked, or that there is sanity checking that can
be automatically performed across different templates. However each of these
things also adds complexity to the system. (I am a self-taught programmer,
and I have happily used dynamically generated and database-generated pages
for different purposes in the past. But I am not currently looking for
software ;-)

I am not trying to demolish the validity of your approach - there are times
when it provides a superior service. owever I feel that in general creating
different versions of a page is an optimisation that can sometimes overcome
some implementation-specifc limitations, and that as a rule it is better to
provide the same structure to all users and let them select which parts are
relevant.

Cheers

Charles McCN

On Mon, 22 Nov 1999, Scott Luebking wrote:

  Hi, Charles
  
  I believe your analysis is not very complete.  For example, results of
  search engines cannot be generated before the search query is specified.
  Or a web page which has the most recent article from some set of web sites
  listed in a user specified profile.  Or web pages which are stored at a
  central repository and generated on demand depending on the university
  which is the subscriber.  Or a web page listing descriptions of
  items in a shopping cart. Or a web page which does a comparison of
  long distances costs depending on a user's calling pattern.
  
  In terms of templates, you're making certain assumptions which aren't
  necessarily true.  Templates can have multi-layers of flexibility when
  structured proerly.  You're assuming that the templates must be discreet
  from each other.    In a well architected system, it is very easy to
  specify structures which can be shared among templates.  This allows for
  a single change to be easily propogated.  This approach can actually
  allow for multiple formats outside of 2.  The trick is to think
  abstractly about the attributes.  (If you're a programmer, I can show
  you software which does that.)
  
  Scott
  
  > Actually there is no need for the document to be generated at request-time:
  > there are significant benefits in speed from generating a ste from a database
  > and making it a static collection, even with multiple formats.
  > 
  > The generation of only 2 forms does not avoid the problem of compromising the
  > accessibility of a page for a person with low vision who requires on both a
  > structured page and visual cues to the structure (and does not address the
  > needs of people who have mobility impairments, etc.) In fact to support this
  > approach multiple combinations are required. The amount of work generating
  > mulitple combinations from a database is in effect the amount of work to
  > multply the templates, and the amount of work maintaining consistency across
  > multiple templates when there is any change required is substantial, and
  > anecdotal evidence suggests it is not done well.
  > 
  > Charles
  

--Charles McCathieNevile            mailto:charles@w3.org
phone: +1 617 258 0992   http://www.w3.org/People/Charles
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative    http://www.w3.org/WAI
MIT/LCS  -  545 Technology sq., Cambridge MA, 02139,  USA

Received on Monday, 22 November 1999 21:52:40 UTC