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Draft Technical guidelines for TELT application development

Please feel free to adjust the order, terminology etc and to add/ delete/ edit as you feel is required, keeping in mind a non-tech audience.

As a starting place I've taken the following from the Australian Flexible learning Frameworks Toolbox dev specs.....

Content formats

< general intro blurb > The following formats are accepted as acceptable standards for UNSW to support maximum portability, accessibility, interoperability and standards compliance.

XHTML

Developers should use readily available development software, and use XHTML1.0 code where customisation can be anticipated, with more sophisticated development software (eg. Flash) reserved for components that are less likely to be changed.

  • XHTML must validate - Web page markup must conform to XHTML 1.0 specification. XHTML 1.0 Transitional, XHTML 1.0 Strict or XHTML 1.0 Frameset may be used.
  • All XHTML pages must contain a Document Type Definition (DTD)  - A DTD defines which version of XHTML you are using, and gives important information to your browser so it can render your page faster and more consistently. Example: <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
  • UTF-8
  • File size - for HTML should be under 65Kb. HTML files should be limited to a download time on a 56k modem of no more than 30 seconds given reasonable connectivity. Products that use resources with high bandwidth requirements must also provide a low bandwidth alternative. For example, streaming or downloadable video could have a series of still images with a transcript as an alternative.
  • Javascript - is to be kept in external files. Javascript should be contained in an external linked .js file, using the XHTML <script> element. Example: <script language="javascript1.3" type="text/javascript" src="scripts/mainscript.js"></script>
  • Provide comments in all code - Think about customisation and provide comments in CSS, Javascript, XML and HTML to assist trainers and developers. Example: <!- navigation starts here - >

CSS

  • Validation - Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) files must validate to the CSS1 or CSS2 specification.
  • Storage - Styles must be stored in an external CSS file not within the HTML. Styles should be contained in an external linked .css file, using the <link> element. Example: <link href=”css/global.css” rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” />
  • Font sizes- must be defined as % and ems only not px.
  • Comment style sheets - CSS supports multiline C-style comments, just like JavaScript. At the very least, a comment at the top of each style sheet to explain what’s in that style sheet. So, to comment out an area, use the following. Example: /* This is the default style sheet for all text on the site */
  • Printing - Pages must be printable from the supported browsers. Some developers choose to use a dedicated style sheet to ensure a clean printout. Example: <link href="css/global.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="print" />
  • Text selection - Ensure layers and <div> tags do not obstruct users from selecting the content text. Teachers and trainers regularly use this method to extract content from the Toolboxes.

PDF

  • PDF should be used for storing formatted data requiring exact display only.
  • PDF’s must be made with accessibility in mind - Example: Using tags and ‘alts’ for images.
  • PDF’s must be readable in Adobe® PDF Reader 6.0
  • All .pdf files must also be supplied in .doc or .rtf

Word and RTF

  • All Word documents must be well structured and images must have alternative text applied. A well structured document uses recognized formatting such as lists, paragraphs and headings to format content.
  • A document type and size must be provided for links to downloadable documents. This includes links to PDF’s, Word documents, Excel, RTF documents etc. Example: Annual Report (Word 255Kb)

Images

  • All still graphics must be provided in PNG, GIF or JPEG format.
  • Images have been optimised for smallest possible file size
  • Images should be optimised for smallest possible file size and download time.


Video / Animation

  • All video are provided in MOV, MPEG2 or MPEG4, AVI, SWF or FLV
  • Don’t use getURL in Flash to fire Javascript in a HTML page
  • Security features of the Flash player 8 and 9 will not allow a SWF file, when playing locally within a HTML page, to execute any JavaScript within that page. It is OK to use this function with a standard URL, e.g. getURL(“../lesson3/page3.html”). But you can’t include the “javascript:” command, these will be ignored on non-trusting machines.

Audio

  • All audio is provided in MP3 or AU


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