Essays

1. You have been asked to set up a new multilingual site under the United Nations main web site (www.un.org), on the issue of the Millennium Development Goals. What are the basic requirements for setting up such a site? Describe the steps involved in establishing the site from concept to launch, including the taxonomy of the site and its multilingual and accessibility aspects.
2. A developer has been engaged to set up a database-driven web site in which content is to be entered via a web-based form into a MS-SQL Database. The public-facing web pages for retrieving the data and populating a template would be in .ASP. The Web Server being used is Apache running on a Sun Solaris Operating System. Draw a flow chart to illustrate the set-up. Would the developer need any additional software to complete the development of the proposed site? If so, what is required,and where would it be in the data-flow?
3. You are the Manager of the United Nations web site, which comprises of a number of sub-sites, in the six official languages, with information prepared and produced by different Departments. You have been asked by senior Management to devise and establish a clear, coherent, workable and acceptable governance mechanism for the entire site which will take into account the different needs of the content-providing Departments which maintaining a degree of centralization so that institutional branding is not compromised. Prepare an outline for this governance mechanism setting out responsibilities of content-providers, the technical group and the management group.

Questions

1. What is a Content Management System? What are its advantages and disadvantages? Describe the underlying technology of a Content Management System – how content is entered, stored and displayed.
2. Briefly describe what is meant by the following terms:
1. Hits to a website
2. Page-views to a web site
3. Unique visitors to a web site
4. 404
5. SHTML
6. XML
3. What is streaming media? What are the main formats of streaming media that are currently in use on the Internet? Discuss the relative advantages of each of the formats over the others.
4. Create a basic HTML page which will use JavaScript code embedded into the page that will display the day, date and time on the top left corner of the web page. Write out the entire HTML code for the page including the JavaScript element.
5. Are there any differences in the way the major Internet browsers display HTML content? Describe how Internet Explorer, Firefox (Mozilla), Opera may display the same content differently. What does a developer need to keep in mind when creating web pages so as to ensure that these pages will display as intended in all the major browsers?
6. What are the image formats that can be displayed on a web browser? What are some formats that cannot be used on a web page? Explain which format is best suited to display each of the following and why:
   A colour photograph on a web page;
   A two-colour navigation button.
   
7. What is UTF-8? Under what circumstances would you recommend using UTF-8? Is there an alternative to it that will serve the same purpose?
8. What is a cookie? When and why are they used? Describe a situation when using a cookie or cookies could enhance user experience. How can cookies on a website provide improved user analysis?

List of Topics

Suggested reading includes basic textbooks and periodicals in the field of web design and development covering the following topics:

• web site programming
• web application development and programming
• database programming using SQL
• interface design
• Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator
• Multimedia and Macromedia Flash
• ASP/ASP.NET, HTML
• Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
• Java
• Dreamweaver
• Visual Studio
• content management systems
• graphic design
• public information

Examination Sample: General Paper (P2)