"Toucan: A Configurable Web Site Maintenance Tool"

Supervised by S.North

Abstract

While much has been done to make authoring web sites easier, little has been done about management sites as a whole. Sites with a large amount of funding can afford a solution in the form of a bespoke application, but smaller ones can't and have to make to with static pages. This dissertation proposes a system called Toucan, designed to solve the problems associated with management with a generic application suitable for any site.

This system has three parts, a scripting language used to describe a web site, a developer aimed at IT professionals for authoring the scripts and a client aimed at novice users for making minor alterations. Toucan Script allows developers to logically structure a web site using templates to encapsulate common elements, and variable substitution to effect localised changes to them.

This dissertation covers the development of a prototype Toucan system, which includes the scripting language and the client application only. It shows the value of the ideas developed and makes proposals for the extension of these ideas in future work.