About the HMDS Web-site

Web-site Design

This page is intended mainly for those with an interest in why the site looks and functions as it does.

HTML Specifications

This web-site was designed using the HTML 4.0 transitional specifications for web-page construction. HTML 4.0 transitional incorporates the most recent design tags from HTML 4.0, which are implemented in browsers of version 4 and above, but it also allows the use of some 'legacy' tags understood by previous generation browsers which do not support many of the new features, such as the definition of presentational style using style sheets, and the new <DIV> and <SPAN> tags. Using the HTML 4.0 transitional specification allows the use of new design features such as the separation of style from content, and the application of 'in-line' styling to user-defined text-areas, while retaining maximum usability with browsers which do not support these features.

Resolution

The web pages were designed on a 15" monitor running at 800 x 600 resolution, and will inevitably look best if viewed at similar resolution. In particular, some of the image sets may have asymmetrical layout if viewed at a different resolution. Although checked with Netscape v3 and Microsoft Internet Explorer v4 and v5 browsers, most of the layout design was previewed using Netscape v4, so again the pages will probably look best if viewed with Netscape v4. This is an unfortunate limitation of both the HTML language and the different interpretations of it by the different makes and versions of browsers. However, effective use of the site does not require any specific make of browser, or 'plug-in'.

Frames

The web-site uses frames to implement the site navigation tree, as currently this is the only satisfactory way to incorporate all the features seen on this site. A non-frames prototype design implemented the navigation tree by duplicating the HTML code on every page, which effectively added an extra 10 kilobytes to the file size. It also rendered the site search facility unusable, since a key word search on 'myeloma' for example would bring up every page on the site, as the term 'myeloma' was present in the text of the navigation tree.

Embedding the navigation tree by calling an external file from within each page using the Netscape-specific '<LAYER>' command was ineffective, firstly because there seems to be a 'bug' in the implementation of this tag in pages containing tables with data fields exceeding a certain width, and it also breaks the spirit of universality of the internet as it cannot be implemented by browsers other than Netscape v4. Similarly, the IE equivalent '<IFRAME>' cannot be implemented by non-Microsoft browsers, in addition to causing unwanted formatting.

Site Search and Navigation

Site search is provided courtesy of the Xavatoria search engine from Zoltan Milosevic's Fluid Dynamics. This facility provides some summary information and ranks the results in order of relevance or modification date. Two additional search engines are provided for searching the internet, Mirago's MediSearch for medical content, and Google for general content.

Site navigation is provided courtesy of a custom-modified version of Morten Wang's JavaScript Tree Menu, which dynamically generates a self-expanding directory-like navigation tree in the left-hand frame, or a static alternative for non-javascript browsers.

Effective navigation is ensured for users with non-frames and non-Javascript enabled browsers via a text hyperlink to a frame-free home page containing text navigation links, and the inclusion of Site Map and HMDS Home page hypertext links at the top and bottom of every web-page. Referrals from internet search engines (eg AltaVista) can connect to the main Frameset using the link to the HMDS Home page, or alternatively to the Site Map where a choice between frames and non-frames versions can be made.

Software Used

HTML construction:
Images & graphics:
Flow cytometry data analysis:

Document last updated: Tuesday, 07 December 2004

[URL: www.hmds.org.uk/about.html]