WAT:Create A Project Website

So you're a webmaster for a website that doesn't exist and your first task is to create it? There are several options of getting this done within the MPDL infrastructure.

Use Cases

 * Need a collaboration space on the web to work on a project application?
 * Want to publish something like the sengbusch collection?

Wordpress μ Blog
Wordpress isn't only a blogging software. It can easily serve as CMS. New blogs in our installation can be created by Lars and Robert, same goes for user accounts.

The Good

 * relatively easy to change the layout, in particular because there are lots of themes to choose from.
 * something like a "news" section is pretty much built-in - it's a blog after all.
 * Interaction with the general public possible via comments.

The Bad

 * when it comes to support for collaboration

Examples

 * the sengbusch collection
 * our internal blog

Colab Portal
As you currently read this information, you already discovered the colab wiki. It is a publicly available installation of the mediawiki software. Everybody can register for an account and start to create new pages or to modify existing articles.

The Good

 * probably the easiest way to publish "single pieces" of information

The Bad

 * layout is defined for complete installation
 * very weak measures for access control

Trac instance + Subversion repository
https://devtools.mpdl.mpg.de/projects/ Initial setup and user management can be done by Robert and André.

The Good

 * very good support for collaboration, including relatively fine grained access control.

The bad

 * relatively hard to change the layout.

And The Ugly

 * Served via HTTPS using a root certificate which isn't pre-installed in most browsers. Thus, not the first choice for public facing websites.

Examples

 * the wals project pages

Web checkout of a Subversion repository
You can also maintain web pages manually (but assisted by version control) in a subversion repository which is checked out on a web server. Ask Robert for details.

The Good

 * complete control over the site.
 * suitable if the bulk of the site is made up by additional resources, i.e. the handmade pages serve merely as table-of-contents for a file-system full of other stuff.

The Bad

 * with power comes responsibility.

Examples

 * http://devtools.mpdl.mpg.de/mdbase/trunk/

WAT:Tools

 * web developer toolbar - an indispansable firefox plugin.
 * firebug - another indispensable firefox plugin to inspect pages which use javascript.
 * Google webmaster tools

Validators

 * w3c (X)HTML validator
 * w3c feed validator
 * w3c CSS validator