Creating a Winning E-Business

Second Edition

Understanding Web Technologies

Chapter 9
 Learning Objectives
 Identify Web site and Web page development
tools
 Explain the importance of Web site testing
 Define Web site benchmarking
 Describe ways to measure Web site ROI using
Web analytics
 Identify Web analytics software and service
providers
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Second Edition, Chapter 9
 Web Site and Page
Development Tools
 Tools a programmer or developer might use to
create Web pages
– Markup languages
– Text editors
– HTML/XHTML editors
– Web authoring software
– Multimedia tools and scripting languages

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)
 Markup languages
– Set of rules or tags embedded in an electronic
document
– Describe data or define layout and formatting

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)
 Markup languages (continued)
– Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML)
• The ISO standard on which markup languages for
the Web are based, including
– Extensible Markup Language (XML)
– Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
– Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML)

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Second Edition, Chapter 9
Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)
 Extensible Markup Language (XML)
– Streamlined subset of SGML
– Developed in 1996 by the XML Working Group at
the W3C
– Used to describe data in documents transmitted
over the Web
– XML tags are customizable and can identify any
data—the sender and receiver must agree on
what the tags represent

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)
 Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
– Originally developed by Tim Berners-Lee
– Created to lay out and format documents for the
Web
• Headings, text, tables, bulleted or numbered lists,
images, links, and other style issues
– Became an SGML standard in the mid-1990s
– Tags are predefined

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)
 W3C sets the standards for HTML
– Adds or deletes predefined tags and properties
– Current standard is version 4.0.1
• More strict coding standards
• All tags now in opening/closing pairs
<img> and </img>
• Tags written in lowercase
• Properties (attributes) used to define formatting
being deprecated in favor of cascading style
sheets
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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)
 Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML)
– Reformulation of HTML 4.0.1 into XML
– Current W3C standard for Web pages
– Benefits of XHTML
• Stricter coding rules to help eliminate coding errors
and omissions
• Better structured documents that display in a browser
more quickly
• Flexibility of custom tags

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Second Edition, Chapter 9
Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)
 Basic text editor software
– Used to create Web pages by manually typing
tags and their properties as well as text content
– Lacks special features common to word
processors
• Windows Notepad

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)

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Second Edition, Chapter 9
Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)
 HTML/XHTML editors
– Software designed specifically to create HTML or
XHTML documents
– Special features that make inserting tags and
properties easier
• TextPad
• BBEdit
• HomeSite
• HTMLPad

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)

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Second Edition, Chapter 9
Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)
 Web authoring software
– WYSIWYG environment
– Similar to creating a document in a word processor
• Menu commands
• Toolbar buttons
– Automatically inserts HTML/XHTML code as user
inserts and formats text, images, links, and other
elements

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Second Edition, Chapter 9
Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)
 FrontPage
– Similar to working in Microsoft Word
– Familiar working environment that shares common
features with Microsoft Office products
– Easy to learn and use
– Inexpensive
– Offers design templates and multiple working views
and sub-views

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)
 Dreamweaver
– “Industrial strength” version of Web authoring
software used by professionals
– More complex and perhaps more difficult to learn to
use for a novice
– WYSIWYG environment
– Multiple working views

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)
 Tools used to create and edit multimedia content
– Photoshop and Fireworks
• Create and edit animated GIFs
• Draw vector graphics
• Edit bitmap (raster) graphics

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)

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Second Edition, Chapter 9
Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)
 Tools used to create and edit multimedia content
(continued)
– Flash
• Originally designed to provide animation for vector
graphics
• Used to create Web page ads or online product
tutorials
• Used to create interactive Web sites
• Viewer must have Flash player plug-in installed

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)
 Tools used to create and edit multimedia content
(continued)
– FreeHand
• Graphics design program
• Used to plan the layout of any document that contains
graphics
– Brochures
– Product catalogs
– Web pages

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)
 Tools used to create interactive Web page
elements
– Java applets and servlets and ActiveX controls
• Small programs that execute at the server or in the
browser when a Web page is served
• Control interactive Web page elements, such as
clickable buttons and scroll bars

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Web Site and Page Development
Tools (continued)
 Tools used to create interactive Web page
elements (continued)
– JavaScript, JScript, PHP, CGI, and ASP
• Scripting or programming languages used to embed
run-time instructions in a Web page
– Build Web pages “on the fly” from elements stored in
databases
– Update databases with information from Web-based forms
– Open pages in pop-up windows

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Second Edition, Chapter 9
 Web Site Testing
 Test all Web page features and functions before
they are published to a final destination server
– Links work correctly
– Data submitted by visitors on Web-based forms
updates databases correctly
– Dynamic or interactive elements function properly

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 Web Site Testing
(continued)
 Web site should also undergo a “stress test”
– Ensure that the site can function properly with a
heavy load of customer/visitor activity
– Hire outside testers, if necessary

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Second Edition, Chapter 9
 Evaluating Web Site
Performance
 Measure the performance of a “live” site on a
regular basis
– Establish measurable performance benchmarks
– Evaluate actual performance against the
benchmarks
– Learn from the experience and make necessary
changes

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 Evaluating Web Site
Performance (continued)
 Measure the performance of a “live” site on a
regular basis (continued)
– Revisit performance benchmarks and make
changes, if necessary
– Begin again

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 Evaluating Web Site
Performance (continued)
 Benchmarks
– Performance-based goals
– Developed by observing actual performance of
similar e-businesses or reviewing industry averages
– Typically include sales goals
– Typically include evaluation of visitors’ actions at the
Web site

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 Evaluating Web Site
Performance (continued)
 Web analytics
– Used to help determine Web site return on
investment (ROI)
– Identifies and measures visitor behaviors and
actions
• Visit or session measures continuous requests for
pages by a single visitor’s Web browser for a specific
period of time

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 Evaluating Web Site
Performance (continued)
 Web analytics (continued)
• Unique visitors measures the number of individual
visitors to a site
• Repeat visitors measures unique visitors who return to
the site
• Page views or impressions measures the number of
times a specific page is viewed
• Page views per visitor measures how deep a visitor
goes into a site

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 Evaluating Web Site
Performance (continued)
 Web analytics (continued)
• IP addresses identifies origin of unique visitors
• Referring URLs indicates how visitors reached the
site
• Browser type identifies which browsers visitors are
using
• Click-stream analysis shows the path visitors take
from page to page at the site
• Conversion rate indicates the rate at which visitors
become customers

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Second Edition, Chapter 9
 Evaluating Web Site
Performance (continued)
 Web analytics (continued)
• Shopping cart abandonment indicates how many
customers fail to complete their purchase
 Web analytics measurement tools
– Server log analysis
– Page tagging

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 Evaluating Web Site
Performance (continued)

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 Evaluating Web Site
Performance (continued)

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Second Edition, Chapter 9
 Chapter Summary
 Markup languages are a set of rules or tags that
are embedded in an electronic document:
SGML, HTML, XML, and XHTML
 Text editors are used to manually create Web
pages by typing HTML or XHTML tags and
properties as well as typing text and inserting
pictures.
 HTML/XHTML editors provide tools for quickly
inserting tags
Creating a Winning E-Business 48
Second Edition, Chapter 9
 Chapter Summary
(continued)
 Web authoring tools provide a familiar
WYSIWYG environment with toolbars and
menus
 FrontPage, Dreamweaver, Flash, FreeHand,
Photoshop, and Fireworks are popular Web
authoring and multimedia tools
 Java applets, servlets, ActiveX controls, PHP,
JavaScript, JScript, CGI, and ASP provide Web
page interactivity
Creating a Winning E-Business 49
Second Edition, Chapter 9
 Chapter Summary
(continued)
 Web pages must be thoroughly tested before
they are uploaded to a live Web server
 Web site performance must be monitored by
setting benchmarks and evaluating actual
performance against those benchmarks
 Web analytics is a system of Web site
performance measures based on server log
analysis and page tagging

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Second Edition, Chapter 9