Description:

The Hill Systems website started out as a set of simple static HTML pages. However, I wanted to do something more with this site, including a demonstration of some of the third party technology I work with and proprietary tools I am developing. Thus, hillsystems.com has been upgraded to use Java servlet and JSP technology, as well as utilizing XML within the DAX (Document Automation for XML) framework developed by Hill Systems.

The result is what you are looking at -- a dynamic content web site built on Java and XML technology. This page uses a DAX XML component to parse the page's XML content, then inserting the content at specfic points in the document; for this page, a Java Server Page, there are '<%= document.find() %>' callouts for the project's name, summary, technology, description, etc..

Additionally, I wanted to investigate tools and development styles for building websites. For this I looked at Macromedia's Dreamweaver UltraDev. First, a disclaimer: I'm more comfortable working with vi and make than I am with an IDE. However, working with Dreamweaver has shown the productivity gains to be found with a first class design tool. Dreamweaver organizes all your work around a 'Site', keeping track of your files, cross-links, etc. If you move things around, Dreamweaver keeps everything in sync. The other major concept behind Dreamwever is 'Templates', which facilitates a common look and feel across pages; you build the template for the common stuff (headings, sidebar links, etc.), and create pages based upon the template(s). If you need to change one of the common elements in a template, the change can be propogated to all page built upon the template. On top of this, you can seamlessly switch between the layout and HTML views, which Dreamweaver does a great job keeping in sync.

UltraDev also supports dynamic server side web development, include ASP, ColdFusion, and (relevant to our site) JSP. Admittedly, I did not use all the features of UltraDev in JSP development, but worked it enough to mend my ways and look to using this tool (or one like it) for future web development.

CVS (Concurrent Versions System was used for version control of the DAX elements as the website was developed with rapid iterations. I was actually switching between my desktop and a laptop for development, running Tomcat under Linux and Dreamweaver under Windows. Needless to say, with all the pages, servlets and middle-tier components being developed in this process, CVS helped keep my sanity if for no other reason that for frequent checkpointing of the site.