Need help answering technical questions

[ozEworks]

Hi

 

I have proposed using osCommerce for a job and I have been asked the following questions and I am not sure of the right answers so any help you can give me would be appreciated:

 

 

1. Content and Presentation should be in separate files.

 

Apart from the language files we now use the info-pages contribution for all About Us etc content so I guess I can answer "yes"?

 

2. XHTML Transitional per W3C Standards

 

Don't have a clue.

 

3. CSS2 per W3C Standards

 

Ditto

 

4. Full functionality for all Modern Browsers (CSS2 capable) and degrade nicely with less capable browsers.

 

I think the answer is yes but it is the CSS2 that I am unsure of

 

5. No CSS Hacks for older browsers compatibility without prior approval.

 

I don't think there are any CSS hacks at all right?

 

 

thanks in advance

[stevel]

Definitely not XHTML Transitional. And the CSS has some non-standard stuff in it, but nothing that can't be done without. I think it is CSS1 or something earlier than CSS2. There are no browser-specific CSS hacks.

 

However, "content and presentation in separate files" - that depends on your point of view. I'd maintain that having explicit table layouts in some 30+ files is hardly keeping things separate. But, for the most part, the REAL content (text and images) are separate, yes - either in include files or the database.

[ozEworks]

Damn so we are failing on that one. But how about

 

"What is the easiest way to convert my HTML documents to XHTML?

HTML Tidy gives you the option to transform any HTML document into an XHTML one. Amaya is a browser/editor that will save HTML documents as XHTML."

 

This feasible?

 

And is this a big deal anyway? To be it all sounds like overkill. How could I present an argument for osCommerce despite this?

[stevel]

I suppose the XHTML is feasible. Mostly it's adding a / before the closing > of tags that don't have their own close tag, such as <img> and <br>. Just a mechanical translation.

 

I think you could make an case that content and presentation are separate. It's not as if you edit the .php files every time you add a product. Once you have the presentation the way you want, everything else is done through the database.

 

The code is not strictly HTML4 compliant, but the fixes for that are easy and there's a contrib that tells you what to do.

[Jumping Rabbit]

Hi

 

I have proposed using osCommerce for a job and I have been asked the following questions and I am not sure of the right answers so any help you can give me would be appreciated:

1.  Content and Presentation should be in separate files.

 

Apart from the language files we now use the info-pages contribution for all About Us etc content so I guess I can answer "yes"?

 

2.  XHTML Transitional per W3C Standards

 

Don't have a clue.

 

3.  CSS2 per W3C Standards

 

Ditto

 

4.  Full functionality for all Modern Browsers (CSS2 capable) and degrade nicely with less capable browsers.

 

I think the answer is yes but it is the CSS2 that I am unsure of

 

5.  No CSS Hacks for older browsers compatibility without prior approval.

 

I don't think there are any CSS hacks at all right?

thanks in advance

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

In this case a solution using the BTS template contrib and a custom made xhtml/css2 template.

 

Alternatively, if you are not to strict about the separation of the content part....

 

There are several contributions available which will make a standard oscommerce installation into valid XHTML.

[ozEworks]

Thanks for that. We have no problem using BTS and a new CSS2 template. But one of these contributions talks of STS ...

 

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contri...ll/search,xhtml - this one mentions STS

 

or

 

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contri...ll/search,xhtml

 

S I am a little confused about the strategy to take and what I should be saying. Is this a choice of one only (I am guessing yes)? Is one better than the other?

 

 

Also they want flash but they then say

 

"Flash, if used, should be no more than 10-20% of the page (no Flash menus) and it must be layered on top of XHTML so that full non-flash accessibility and presentation is not compromised. "

 

Can anyone translate that into English for me?

[user99999999]

"Flash, if used, should be no more than 10-20% of the page (no Flash menus) and it must be layered on top of XHTML so that full non-flash accessibility and presentation is not compromised. "

 

 

It means dont make it like this site.

 

http://www.rr.com/flash/