OReilly: Website Architecture and Design with XML (Bob Boiko)

Size: 10.47 GB Type: Course

What you'll learn:

Competitive analysis techniques to slice up the competition and create a content architecture and site design that puts you on top

Concepts and skills that are critical to designing for Drupal, WordPress, SharePoint, or any other content management system

Information structure to define and master the content and navigation on your site

XML Schema design to create binding rules that control your content

XML Instance coding to transcend pages and create a true content base

XML Transform coding to access your content base and automatically create any site design you can imagine

A new way to look at websites, mobile delivery, PDF and any other output that will put you ahead of other designers

How to create your own ideas, rather than just implementing the ideas of othersAbout this online course:Take your web design skills to the next level with XML, and learn how to use the content behind the site to drive the information, navigation, and design of a full-featured website. In this 10-week course, you'll build a professional website from the ground up by focusing on back-end structure and information to create brilliant front-end design and functionality. As you learn more about XML, information types, and navigational structures, you'll discover how to architect your content once for use in multiple fomats and venues: the Web, desktop, mobile devices, and PDF.

You'll learn how to build structured content bases that control HTML, CSS, and javascript. Discover how to update your information easily, then create your site and other publications with the push of a button. With these concepts, skills, and tools, you'll go way beyond Dreamweaver-and never look at websites the same way again.

Who should attend?

This course is for web professionals of all stripes who want to move their site analysis and implementation skills to the next level:

Designers

HTML coders

Content people

Information architects

Web programmers

Business analysts

What you'll need:

Any major web browser

Oxygen or another XML IDE, such as EditiX Lite

Online sessions description:

Please note: Because this online course takes place before and after the change from daylight time to standard time, the first five sessions will start at 11 a.m. PDT, and the final five sessions will start at 11 a.m. PST.

Session 1: Get Started in XML (Overview)-October 5, 2010, 11 a.m. (PDT)

Explore the uses of XML, and how it can drive websites. You'll learn about the Oxygen development environment and how use it.

Session 2: Begin a Competitive Analysis and Schema for the Course Project-October 12, 2010, 11 a.m. (PDT)

In this session, you'll be introduced to the course project: using XML to build a professional photography site. You'll explore a complete competitive analysis that reveals what kinds of content and design work best. You'll also learn about XML schemas, which can encode the decisions you make about content and design, and discover how to validate an XML file to ensure it conforms to a schema.

Session 3: Create the Photo Information Type-October 19, 2010, 11 a.m. (PDT)

Learn about information types-the key kinds of information you want to deliver. In this session, you'll study and implement your first info type: photographs. Understand how photos are handled by the competition and then implement a best-practice photo info type in an XML schema and instance. You'll learn the difference between information types and information items, and how to extract information types from any web page.

Session 4: Transform the Photo Information Type-October 26, 2010, 11 a.m. (PDT)

Learn the process of site creation with XML, using XML transforms with XPath and XSL commands to build web pages automatically. In this session, you'll find and retrieve raw photo information and turn it into fully formed web pages.

Session 5: Transform the Narrative Information Type-November 2, 2010, 11 a.m. (PDT)

Continue your study of XML transforms by applying them to our second information type: the Narrative. Learn how to use template libraries and the powerful apply templates command to transform complex text and image-rich content into sophisticated layouts.

Session 6: Create Site Navigation-November 9, 2010, 11 a.m. (PST)

Learn the core concepts of information organization that drive all site navigation. You'll add indexes, cross-references, and sequences to your XML schema, and instance to organize your photos and narratives. Then you'll learn how to create site navigation from the organized information.

Session 7: Build a Complete, Integrated Site-November 16, 2010, 11 a.m. (PST)

Learn how to use one XML transform to put navigation and content on the same page, and how build a complete site with hundreds or even thousands of pages in a few seconds. This technique lets you easily separate your content and site structure, so you can recreate your site when either one of them changes.

Session 8: Create and Implement Site Hierarchies-November 23, 2010, 11 a.m. (PST)

Learn how to implement a site outline and an outline of photos by location. These hierarchies are sophisticated structures that you can effectively create and use in XML. You'll discover how hierarchies are modeled in schemas, implemented in instances, and transformed into cascading menus and expanding outlines for site navigation.

Session 9: Put a Professional Polish on the Project Site- December 7, 2010, 11 a.m. (PST)

Learn advanced modeling and transform techniques that allow you to optimize and reuse transforms. These techniques let you build a sophisticated and robust XML site system that's flexible and maintainable. You'll learn how to drive CSS and javascript from your XML system so that advanced features can be added to the site with no manual effort.

Session 10: Create Other Outputs-December 14, 2010, 11 a.m. (PST)

Learn how to use the XML system we created to drive outputs other than a user-facing website. You'll construct a simple transform that creates an RSS feed, and create other transforms to render a private site. Also, you'll study other techniques for rendering mobile sites, PDFs, and any other output you need.

Course Instructor

Bob Boiko, a faculty member at the University of Washington Information School, is founder and president of Metatorial Services Inc., a company that specializes in content and information management strategy and design. With almost 20 years of experience designing and building web, hypertext, and multimedia systems and tools for some of the world's top technology corporations (including Microsoft, Motorola, and Boeing), Bob is recognized as a leader in the field of content management.

Bob is the author of Content Management Bible (Wiley) and Laughing at the CIO (CyberAge Books), and known internationally for his lectures and workshops.