Technical: Propeller Hats Required Track (TPR)

TPR1: Aural Style Sheets: Improving Accessibility & Going Beyond

Martha Carrer Cruz Gabriel, Universidade de São Paulo, Universidade Anhembi Morumbi

Daniel Frommelt, University of Wisconsin - Platteville

Looking to improve accessibility while being Web standards compliant? Style sheet properties for aural presentation may be used together with visual properties or as an aural alternative to visual presentation. The aural rendering of documents is already accomplished through combining speech synthesis and auditory icons by converting the document to plain text and feeding this to a screen reader. However, it results in a less effective presentation than if the document structure were retained, as is the case when using CSS. Besides the accessibility advantages, there are other markets for listening to information, including early childhood education, in-car use, industrial documentation systems, and entertainment. This presentation will introduce the Aural Style Sheets concept and use, consider mixed media versus an aural alternative to visual presentation, and show a simple example of the implementation in use.

This session is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 7, from 9:45 AM to 10:45 AM.

TPR2: What's New in PHP 5?

C. Daniel Chase, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

PHP 5 brings many new capabilities, as well as changes in functionality to some old ones. There are major changes in support for object-oriented programming, XML, and enhanced database functions, plus the introduction of support for Web Services. Beware of the changes that may have backward compatibility issues with PHP 4: XML handling is significantly changed (for the better!) and some low-level functions you may have relied on in the past may have changed. If you have been using PHP 4, and are considering the move to PHP 5, then be here or be square!

This session is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 7, from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM.

TPR3: Positioning for Success with Code Libraries

Paula Yandow-Reilly, University of Rochester

Kevin Hammon, University of Rochester

In most IT departments, developers walk a tightrope between analysis and coding. On the one hand, you want a well-thought-out design, but on the other hand you need to produce it quickly. One big leg-up to mastering this challenge is to use code libraries. At the University of Rochester, developers use some central repositories for .Net class files, ASP subroutines, Javascript functions, Cascading Style Sheets, PHP, and Perl scripts. The department is in the process of crafting policies to foster code reuse. This is code that has been thoroughly tested and is in production, so developers can use it confidently, usually with a simple include statement. Not only does this make development faster, but it also positions us for success with sturdier code. This discussion will focus on how to set up the libraries centrally, and what routines are good candidates for the libraries. The presentation would also cover how the development lifecycle should work to make the most of the shared code, including code reviews and turnover processes. In the last part of the presentation, some future goals will be discussed, including code search tools via the Web, and an integrated turnover process.

This session is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 7, from 1:15 PM to 2:15 PM.

TPR4: Bringing True Interactivity to Web Applications with XML Requests

Jason Pitoniak, Rochester Institute of Technology

The Web's metaphor of "pages" works great for static data. But let's face it—when it comes to interactivity, it falls short. Submitting a form and waiting for the page to refresh isn't much more advanced than submitting your paper expense report and waiting for your bursar to send you a check through interoffice mail. For years GUI-based applications have responded to our key presses and mouse clicks and provided us with hints, shortcuts, and error checking—without refreshing the screen or making us wait. So why can't the Web be the same? This presentation will introduce you to the XMLHttpReqest object and will show you how to make your Web pages interact behind-the-scenes with server-side scripts to provide complex data validation, data lookups, and a true interactive experience for your users.

This session is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 7, from 2:45 PM to 3:45 PM.

TPR5: UWCalendar 2.3 - An Open Source Institutional Public Events Calendar

Arlen Johnson, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Mike Douglass, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

UWCalendar is an Java-based, enterprise-wide events calendar that supports both public and personal calendars. We will demonstrate UWCalendar's features and discuss new developments nearing production, including CalDav, departmental calendars, JSR-168 portlet implementation, and syncml synchronization (for Outlook, Palm, and other devices). The talk will also address our approach to Web development using XML and XSLT with an emphasis on a clean separation of roles between application developer and Web designer.

This session is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 8, from 8:30 AM to 9:30 AM.

TPR6: Maintaining Your Web Site with Lenya

Jonathan Linczak, Hiram College

This two-hour session will focus on using Apache's Lenya project to manage multiple Web sites. The session will begin with a general overview of Lenya and its capabilities, and then focus on the process of installation and configuration. Small example sites will be created using the previously discussed configuration. Lastly, Hiram College's use of Lenya will be briefly demonstrated, and a cursory glance at Lenya's future will be discussed. The end of the session will be open to questions from the floor.

This session is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 8, from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM.

TPR7: Molecules, Music, and Middleware

Renee Shuey, The Pennsylvania State University

The Pennsylvania State University is using the Shibboleth package, an open-source, Web-based, interinstitutional authorization system, to deliver academic and student life services online. Learn about how the institution is using the software, how to implement it on your campus, and what resources are available to help.

This session is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 8, from 1:15 PM to 2:15 PM.

TPR8: Web Security and Service: Finding a New Balance (Part II)

Dale B. Grady, University of Rochester

Ten years ago if your server went offline, the administration might not have noticed. Today the phone rings before the crash is complete. The deans and the president notice immediately. It must stay online! At last year's conference, we discussed the University of Rochester's solution to protecting the server and controlling access. This year, version two of the utility has been expanded to include code screening and usage advice as well as the ability to block selected code deployment. This presentation will provide a demonstration of "Deploy V2," a secure utility for moving pages and entire sites from development to production. We will describe, demonstrate, and review the technical specifications of a development/production server system implemented in a university environment and examine security issues, vulnerabilities, and solutions.

This session is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 8, from 2:45 PM to 3:45 PM.