Essential Dynamic HTML Fast: Developing an Interactive Web Site

Citation

Andrew, A.M. (2001), "Essential Dynamic HTML Fast: Developing an Interactive Web Site", Kybernetes, Vol. 30 No. 2, pp. 216-224. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.2001.30.2.216.3

This is an extremely useful book for anyone developing a Web site. It introduces the hyper text markup language (HTML) in which Web contents have to be expressed, and goes on to discuss extensions of the language that allow the site to be interactive in various ways.

There are really three ways in which Web site content can be produced, and this book will prove useful in connection with any of them. One way is to use software that generates the HTML version indirectly, and a number of word processing and desktop‐publishing packages now offer this as one of the forms in which their output can be saved. The user does not have to be concerned with the details of HTML tags and conventions. A second way is to write the HTML form directly, using a simple word processor to produce this as text. The third method, which requires little experience to produce results very quickly, is to download the content of an existing Web site and then to edit it, inserting new text, etc. as required.

The present book is relevant to each of these since it explains HTML in its basic form but also reviews available software. There are various ways in which a site may be made “dynamic” and anyone who has surfed the net will have seen some of them in action. One familiar example is the use of “frames”. The width of the screen display is divided into two or more “frames” in the form of columns, often with the leftmost providing an index. This is dynamic in the sense that the column widths are adjusted to be specified proportions of the overall width, with appropriate modification of word‐wrapping in each if the overall width is altered.

Many other intriguing possibilities are covered, including the introduction of animation and sound. A form of animation that is catered for and can be very effective is the “marquee”, in which a piece of text is made to run continuously across the page, in either direction. It is shown that the Web site author can exert more control over the fonts and styles in the display than is generally realised, including the possibility of downloading special fonts from the Web site. Ways of providing links to other sites or pages as “buttons” in a graphic display, rather than as the usual underlined text, are treated, as are ways of obtaining information (such as name) from the viewer. Such information can also be utilised immediately, for instance to address the viewer by name, and inputs from the viewer can be made to trigger changes in the display such as background colour or the position of elements within it.

Truly interactive operation is achieved when actual programs are downloaded to the remote computer from the Web site, and then allow interaction with the viewer without reference back to the source. The standard language for such programs is now Java, although the earlier Peri and some others can also be used. In the book there is a useful overview of Java, even though another book in the series is specifically devoted to it.

The book is full of valuable information, presented in a way that is not only clear but also shows the author’s enjoyment of his topic, which is after all an excellent hobbyist pursuit with aesthetic as well as technical aspects. Reading the book has increased my dissatisfaction with the drab state in which I have left the text‐only WOSC Web site and strengthened my resolve to do something about it.

In an appendix there is a useful list of Web sites, many of them relevant to the topics of the book, and others of general interest. They provide many useful leads to follow up, and the whole book is helpful and informative and stimulating.