The Web Developers Users' Group met on January 29, 2003, at 10:00 AM in the Parliamentary Room, PSU 313.

Restricted subwebs and secure sites presentation

Sara Clark, Web Coordinator, presented the use of restricted subwebs and secure sites.

Restricted subwebs

Restricted subwebs allow only authorized users to view content. For more information visit the restricted subweb page.  

Sara pointed out these reminders about restricted subwebs:

• All content that needs to be restricted must be in the restricted area including style sheets, images, etc.
• FrontPage will treat subwebs (including restricted subwebs) like a separate site. Subwebs are opened in their own instance of FrontPage, and subwebs have their own navigation and themes.

Secure sites

A secure site allows data transmissions to and from the site to be encrypted, eliminating the threat of a third party viewing data.  This is useful for securely transferring sensitive information such as credit card numbers and other personal information.  For more information about secure web sites visit the secure sites page.

Sara pointed out common issues with secure sites:

• When a secure site that has images linked from non-secure sources, users will get a message asking them if they wish to display non-secure content.  This doesn't affect the security, but may confuse the user.  To prevent this problem make sure all included content is placed within the secure web site.
• The web server has a directory of secure images available for secure pages.

HTTPS server certificates were brought up during the meeting. Computer Services has purchased certificates for central servers but not distributed servers.  University units should contact the Web Coordinator before purchasing certificates for distributed servers.

Virtual Tour

Sara demoed the virtual campus tour to the group.

Additional tour points that were brought up:

• Poor Man's Virtual Reality was used to make the 360 degree views of various stops on the campus tour.
• WDUG members mentioned that additional buildings need to be added to the campus tour stops.

Web Access Compliance Team (WACT) updates

Joe Kuster, Web Access Compliance Team member, mentioned the WACT site has been updated with these changes:

• Improved accessibility examples
• Updated HTML and FrontPage techniques
• Clarified policy

Sara also mentioned that the Web Access Project is still offering training classes monthly.

Next meeting

The next WDUG meeting will be held in the PSU Ballroom East, on February 21, 2003 at 3:00 PM.