A smorgasbord of CMS topics

Tutorials

1. Key development practices for success
It's not enough to have a good CMS framework to build upon; it's also import to have a development process that supports successful collaboration and repeatable deployment through testing into the live environment.

We believe that there are a number of key practices for successful projects. Open source tools are fundamental building blocks in enabling these practices. In this tutorial, we will outline these key practices and show how we use open source tools to enable an efficient and repeatable team-based development approach. Tool categories and practices that we will cover include

2. Handicap accessibility of sites
The Web Accessibility Initiative (http://www.w3.org/WAI/) provides a wealth of resources for making web sites handicap accessible. Unfortunately, these practices are largely ignored. When building on top of a CMS engine for automated content delivery, many steps can be taken in designing the site and content templates that will facilitate accessibility. This was a major focus of ours when we worked to build web sites for health care providers. In this tutorial, we will share our practical experience with how to create visually pleasing sites that are handicap accessible.

Presentations

1. Rapid Deployment of Searchable Database Applications
As organizations continue to expand online content, a valuable and interesting service for many sites is to publish databases for reader searches. The dataset can be for any area of interest -- home sales, crime statistics, demographics or other areas of interest for readers. Publishing this structured content often requires the development of special-purpose content management and presentation components. However, if an organization wants to publish multiple datasets, this one-off approach is too costly. This presentation will describe the requirements and implementation approaches for automating this process. Participants will understand the technical approaches and available tools to rapidly deploy search applications.

2. Separation of Content from Presentation: XML/XSLT, Presentation Components or DOM and CSS
A number of frameworks offer mechanisms for separating presentation from content. One popular mechanism for accomplishing this is the transformation of XML content using an XSLT Extensible Stylesheet Language transformation. An alternate mechanism is the creation of various discrete presentation components or widgets, and then combining these widgets into a presentation template, adding data and delivering customized content. Another standards based approach is the use of the W3C Document Object Model (DOM) API to transform XML using languages such as Java, C++, and JavaScript. Presentation is separated completely into cascading style sheets (CSS). The transformation - be it XSLT, DOM, or SAX - has nothing to do with presentation semantics. The transformation is used solely to combine and form the final content.

This presentation compares these approaches and explains why you might choose to use one approach over the other in various scenarios.

XSLT

    XML doc ------> XSL Transformation ---> HTML ----> Browser
                | 
                |
    Database ---|


Templates and Presentation Widgets

    Content logic ------> Presentation template ---> HTML ----> Browser
                |                      |
                |         widget ------|
                |         widget ------|     
    Database ---|


DOM Transformations and CSS
                                       CSS     ---|
                                  (presentation)  |
    XML doc |                                     |---->
    XML doc |-----> DOM Transformer -->  XHTML  -------> Browser
    XML doc |   |->                    (content)
                |
    Database ---|

3. Needs of continuous publishing (news) organizations
The CMS needs of news organizations are quite distinct from the average reader-published or marketing uses of CMS tools. QUOIN has worked with continuously publishing operations such as Washintonpost.com, NandoTimes.com, Sportserver.com and daily publications such as the Raleigh News & Observer (newsobserver.com). This session outlines the unique requirements that real-time new publishing organizations present, and suggests options for addressing these needs.

4. Performance testing the site
This session describes an approach for producing a performance testing suite for your site using open source tools. We outline what to consider when forming a test plan and how to implement that plan with open source tools.

5. Scaling dynamic web sites: Caching strategies and architectures
If you're planning on building a site with dynamic or database driven content, then you should consider different strategies for scaling the system to meet peak load. This session looks at why you might want a caching architecture, and how caching might be implemented. We'll explore a number of different strategies for scaling and caching, and will examine what various open source tools offer in this area.

Brad Kain, CEO
A cofounder of QUOIN, Brad is a proven information technology manager with a track record of successful development projects over the last 16 years. He has led large-scale projects as a system architect, project lead, and development manager. Brad excels at delivering projects on-time and on-schedule. His background as an analyst and developer enables a unique ability to broker technical issues with business stakeholders and technologists. These skills allow him to collaborate with a client to quickly establish and effectively manage to critical IT goals that realize a client's business objectives. Brad brings an extensive background in the development of web-based applications in financial services, health care, higher education, customer relationship management, online publishing, life sciences, and other domains.

Jean Pierre LeJacq, CTO
Jean Pierre is an expert technologist with 18 years of application development experience using leading-edge tools. Prior to immersing himself in software engineering, he was an electrical and mechanical engineer working on helicopter control systems, elevators and industrial turbines. He brings this background of rigorous engineering discipline to software development, an area where rigor is otherwise frequently lacking. A specialist in Internet and distributed object technologies, Jean Pierre is a veteran software architect with project management, requirements, design, implementation and testing responsibilities on large projects. He has extensive knowledge of a variety of programming languages, environments and tools, and offers a track record of successful implementation on complex, multi-year projects. Jean Pierre brings experience in the development of web-based applications in e-commerce, retail banking, health care, insurance, distributed information services, life sciences, aerospace, telecommunications among other domains. Jean Pierre is a cofounder of QUOIN.

Eric Meyer, Vice President
Eric brings seven years of experience, and is a proven software architect and project lead with expertise in J2EE, XML, C++, CORBA, application servers, and internet technologies. His skills cover the entire project lifecycle and a broad range of disciplines: planning and estimation, analysis and design, multi-tier architectures, databases, database mapping, and enterprise monitoring. Eric is a veteran project lead who forms highly collaborative teams, and works closely with clients to lead successful projects. He possesses the rare ability to be both hands-on in the details of implementation and engaged in the high-level technology and architecture decisions as they relate to the overall business strategy development. Eric has applied these skills in the development of web-based applications in e-commerce, distributed information services, health care, education, and online publishing. Prior to discovering software engineering, Eric was a full-time firefighter in Durham, NC.

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