The Development Practices of Web Programming

June 2014

The Development Practices of Web Programming Clipsal 500 Website

Written by James Douglas-Hill

A team of software developers are hired to design a car-racing game for the managers of the Clipsal 500 national car race. The team must produce a game that simulates the car race realistically while allowing features such as weather condition input and statistics listing, allowing it to be incorporated into the Clipsal 500 website. The following paper will explore issues relating to the development of the racing game and the interactive website, of which will include: the recommended practices and conventions that should be followed by the team of developers, how the design of the site should reflect its purpose and meet the user’s needs, how the programmers will protect intellectual property rights when publishing and publicising the website, and how website technologies affect the marketing of events such as the Clipsal 500 car race.

Software Developer Recommended Practices & Conventions

Website development is often associated with practices such as neatly laid-out code, consideration of user platforms or circumstances, user and download conditions, and convenience. Code is commonly laid out with the use of white space and stage-based HTML tag positioning. Additionally, comments within the code to say what the code does is conventional, especially if the code will be viewed externally or by someone else. Names and IDs of tags as well as variables are also commonly named respectively and descriptively in order to assist with the understanding of what it is or what the script does.

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Code comments within HTML, CSS and JavaScript describing what code does

Security of the data must be constantly thought about and thorough security checks need to be made. With the possibility of hackers, antivirus software and firewalls must be installed on database servers. Data corruption can also be a problem if malware or other programs interact with the servers.

Considered file organisation and placement is another common practice of importance. Unauthorised data access or website page admission can be an issue if all files on site are accessible. The structure of folders and files in the website must be arranged so that no important data or information can be accessed such as source code, JavaScript or resources and layouts. Images used on websites are usually kept in separate folders called ‘resources’ or ‘images’ and used only when necessary. This stance should not be dissimilar with the software developers.

Images or large files on the website must be downloaded by the user upon loading the page.

Hence, with altering download speeds and software capabilities, the website may not

A common website file structure

perform correctly or present undesirably. Small images are more likely to show consecutively across all audiences and devices so should therefore be used more often than images that are hundreds of

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kilobytes in size. According to Ray Morgan Research, 44% of Australian shoppers said they would move on if a page took more than 15 seconds to load. Viewers of the team’s website will not keep an interest if a page takes too long to load due to overwhelming resource file size or content.

The Reflection of The Website Purpose & Needs of The User

When it comes to the Clipsal interactive website, consideration of the position the user is in is crucial. Website features and design must attend to user requirements and needs. Simple design choices like an easy-to-follow graphical user interface and vibrant colours or fonts like ‘Arial’ and ‘Helvetica’ can make all the difference with appealing to the user and helping to fulfil the user’s requests.

Since the site will be more popular amongst the target audience of car-racing enthusiasts, racing colours or car decoration styling would interest the majority of users, encouraging them to stay on the website, play the car-racing game, and introduce the possibility of reaching other audiences. The carracing game is very likely to be of more interest to an audience of children or teenagers rather than adults because it is a game. This means bright colours should be encompassed or interactive features to ensure a fun experience for this array of younger users.

It is possible some car-racing fans are not as technologically skilled as PC users and enthusiasts, which means a complex and detailed experience on the website would not appeal to them. Hence, the layout should not consist of numerous buttons and mounds of text. JavaScript and HTML

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code to simplify website accessibility or ease data input must be employed in ways that do not confuse the user. For example, dropdowns to choose racing game weather conditions should be used instead of text inputs. Still, this may not be practical to pick from the numerous racing drivers to view statistics on, as it is difficult to scroll through hundreds of drivers in a small dropdown input. A clever solution for this would be code to perform a database query based on the letters inserted into a text field, or the driver number or ID added to a numeric field.

An effectively laid-out website with clear links and bold colour usage

Careful consideration must be made to the condition of the user. Website viewers may be physically impaired in a sensory manner, meaning they might not be of ability to effectively play the racing game or find the driver they want to search. Blind users might own audible feedback software on their computational device, so the website must cater for this.

The Protection of Intellectual Property Rights

Intellectual property rights are the exclusive rights around the creation of information and are legally recognised. They are protected by the government

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and by law, so must be adhered to. Within the programming industry, intellectual property takes the form of copyrights, patents, trademarks, author’s rights and trade secrets. The rights exist to allow the justified recognition of authors of creations of the mind and to deter illegal copying and plagiarism of data. Data on the Internet belongs to the person that created it, and without the owner’s permission, information cannot be copied. With permissions, the standard is to completely recognise the source. This, based on ethical considerations must be heavily undertaken with the development of the Clipsal 500 racing game and website.

Methods many companies use to preserve their and other people’s intellectual property include the securing of their servers, maintaining the concealment of source code, deterring illegal copying and creating clear copyright warnings.

Databases are often password secured with administrator login or undisclosed Internet protocol access information. This prevents the unauthorised admittance of databases and is relied on heavily in the digital age. It is mandatory the programmers have a database with password-secure administrator access. Data encryption, which is a process in which data is converted into an unreadable type of text can be done with data encryption tools and is employed commonly by businesses, the government and various individuals. Being valuable to secure classified information, protect corporate secrets and prevent identity theft, it can only be read or ‘decrypted’ by those with the unique resource known as the ‘key’.

It is also a requirement that the programmers do not release the site source code.

This means the code that the website is produced with, written by the team of developers. Once the website Some normal text [left] and the encrypted version

is viewable on the Internet,

anybody will have the ability to access the public website code. With access to this, anything from the site can be copied or stolen and it could be exploited, WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT

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duplicated or manipulated. The code is, in addition, likely to contain important information, so this must maintain unreachable. Designing the code so that significant files are kept externally from the website pages and only referred to with code references is a regular approach to keeping the code private. JavaScript files, for example, are usually kept inaccessible and only used when referenced in the website pages using script HTML tags.

Clear copyright warnings need to be written by the programmers to display the consequences and mention the rules around the use of the websites intellectual property. Companies use Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policies to ‘state the rules’ and indicate any trademarks or patents present, as well as source any external data that must be acknowledged.

The Effect of Website Technologies on National Events Marketing

The instalment of clever website technologies in websites for events greatly influences marketing. Representatives for the car race are very likely to notice an increase in interest due to broadening their target audience through appealing to more peoples’ interests. To appeal to broader audiences, commonly advertisement designers or website developers create gender or interest neutral visual features for example commonly used colours like blue or rounded styles like circles for buttons to equate to most people’s interests.

Similarities between people’s interests such as favourite animal or contemporary colours can be found through surveys and the like. Some large companies are known to contact survey websites such as SurveyCompare to locate this valuable information, which is increasing in worth as companies grow and the population expands. It is very important for organisers of events to understand societal standards. Simple knowledge like what the most common mobile device or breakfast product is can be incorporated into strong

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advertising on the front page of the website of a huge corporation through relating to the average consumer.

Users of a sophisticated site with interactive and user-friendly assets are more likely to show an interest in company events. According to Business Insider [Heggestuen, 2013], over 20% of the global population own PCs, 22% own smartphones as of late 2013, and 6% of people own a tablet device. Due to the expanding expanses and increasing ownership of technology, people this century are more appealed to technologically skilled companies, and it is recently increasingly becoming a disadvantage to companies that do not encompass the notions of websites or recognise electronic technology.

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In this digital age there are definite procedures that must be undertaken to website development. Practices such as keeping the website secure from hackers and using practical code and file sizes can mean the difference between acquiring customers and losing critical information. Software developers must have a sound knowledge of intellectual property rights as well as an understanding of the condition and situation of different users. The team must follow design conventions similar to the use of convenient input devices or animate features to effectively reflect the websites foundation of car racing. Finally, the expansion of marketing of the event must be at the front of mind for the software developers for them to successfully produce an effectual impact on society.

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Adelaidenow.com.au, (2014). AdelaideNow | The Advertiser. [online] Available at: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au

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Clipsal500.com.au, (2014). Clipsal 500 Adelaide 2014. [online] Available at: http://www.clipsal500.com.au

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JDH 2014

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