Web Site Design with OS/2 - by Tejaswi Kasturi

The Software

ood software is the key for any successful web site design. Above all, software for testing the design of a site before deploying it to the general public is paramount for creating a site which people want to use and return to. In this issue I will talk about software which I have found useful in testing my designs and why each has its place.

The Browsers

Using several different browsers is necessary in order to verify that your site does not "break" on a large portion of users' machines. On my intranet designs, I needed only to use those browsers which were internally mandated by the company. However, things become more complex when catering to the entire population of the Internet.

Above all, know your audience. If creating a web site for high schools, do not expect that users will be running cutting edge hardware or software, and hence make the designs light and easy to read on many different machines, operating systems, and browser combinations. Ideally, design your site to take advantage of the features of the latest browsers, but also to "gracefully degrade" to work on lesser browsers. (Unfortunately, this is not always possible, but you should still try to ensure that all the information on a site is accessible from lesser browsers, even if it looks poor.)

Here are a few of the browsers which I regularly test on:

Netscape Navigator v2.02, v3.0, and v4.0

Since Navigator is the world standard for browsers, it makes sense to test your designs on it. Note that almost all users have upgraded at least to Navigator 2.0 (and most have moved to 3.0), so do not bother testing on 1.x level browsers, unless you have a specific reason. I generally test on 16-bit and 32-bit Windows (for all versions of Navigator), Unix (for Navigator v2.02 and v3.0), and OS/2 (for Navigator v2.02). Although I would also like to test on the Macintosh, I currently do not have the resources to do so, although I make every attempt to when I can.

Microsoft Internet Explorer v3.0

Since almost all IE users are on v3.0 of the browser and running 32-bit Windows, I do not generally test with other versions. IE3 has taken a significant chunk of the browser market from Netscape, lately, however, it is not 100% compatible with Navigator, so be careful and make sure to test your site thoroughly with this browser, lest you offend a large portion of the marketplace.

Lynx

Many Unix users, as well as physically challenged individuals, rely on this quick and easy text-mode browser for web access. Unfortunately, larger and larger portions of the Web are becoming completely shut off to these users as designers do not think to design for them. I make sure that all the text information on my sites is accessible to these users, unless I know that the site will not be visited by such individuals (such as a site on an intranet). I tend to use Lynx on Unix or on OS/2.

Other browsers, which make up a small fraction of the market, may also be useful to test on. However, if you test your sites on the browsers listed above, it is almost assured that your sites will be accessible to these other users. Note that you will need to use operating systems other than OS/2 to do a significant amount of your testing, since most of the world runs on other platforms. However, most of my day-to-day testing for Web sites is done with Netscape 2.02 for OS/2, using the other browsers only occasionally to verify that my designs work as intended.

Server Software

In order to effectively test your site, you should create a test server which mirrors your target server in as many respects as possible. For example, my 4th Millennium Consulting Group web site is hosted on a FreeBSD machine running Apache 1.1, so I created a test machine (with far lesser hardware, of course), which also runs FreeBSD and Apache. Although not everything on the test server works exactly as it does on the production server, the relevant things do, which is what counts. In case you are creating your own production server based on OS/2, here is a list of the server software which I have tested in the past:

Apache

A completely free Web server which has taken the crown as the most used Web server in the world (with approximately 37% market share). Apache is generally lighter and less feature-ridden in its base incarnation than commercial servers, but since it comes with source code and an interface to write plug-in modules, it has been hacked to do everything. Apache does not use threads, since it is designed to be portable across a wide range of operating systems, many of which do not support multithreading. Instead, it creates separate full-weight processes to carry on multiple conversations at once with many different clients. It is a good solid server for simple web serving under OS/2.

IBM Internet Connection Server (ICS)

A weighty Web server which offers more features than almost any other server on any platform. The non-secure version of the server is free, and available on several platforms, including OS/2, Windows NT, Windows 95, and some Unix variants. With support for Java servlets, IBM's backing of Sun's write-once, run-anywhere language is in full force. It also allows easy configurability through a Web based interface which the system administrator can access from anywhere. Although ICS is technically an excellent server, in the past it has suffered from complaints of slowness and memory consumption. IBM claims that the newest version has fixed most of these problems. If you need the features and the robustness of the server, and have the hardware to handle it, this server may be for you.

Jigsaw

A server built entirely in Java, the W3 Consortium's Jigsaw is more of a technology demonstration than a fully usable system. Because Java's networking is so excellent, Jigsaw does not suffer in speed over its compiled competitors, and is both light and efficient in serving Web pages. Unfortunately it is quite difficult to set up and suffers from being in perpetual alpha testing. The W3 Consortium is more of a research and standards body, than a commercial company, and so has created Jigsaw as a pointer to what could be done with server technology. As such, it comes through marvelously. But for a day-to-day server however, find something else.

Other servers abound, including Java Web Server from Javasoft, PlanetWide from Payne-Mennie Computing Services, and PowerWeb Secure Server from Compusource. However, I have not tested these other servers and hence can not attest to their strengths and weaknesses.

For a good description of the various Web servers available for OS/2, see the HTTP Server Systems available for OS/2 on the WWW.

Conclusion

This month I have gone through the major pieces of software needed for web site testing with OS/2. Next time I'll look at software used in actually building the site. Although this may seem backwards to many people ("How can you test something which you haven't developed yet!?!"), I am going in order of importance. There are many different ways of designing and developing Web sites, with no clear-cut winner, and hence it becomes a matter of personal opinion which is best. However, there is a clear-cut best path to be used for testing your sites before deploying them, and that is what I have described here.

Until next time, do your part to make the Web a happy shiny place with no broken pages or links! Adios.

Tejaswi Kasturi is a Founding Partner in charge of web site/intranet design and system administration at 4th Millennium Consulting Group, an Internet strategy consulting and web site/intranet design firm. In his spare time, Tej uses OS/2 Warp 4 to maintain the OS/2 Internet Resources site, an OS/2 e-Zine! Site of the Week.

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