Descriptive approach to web sites' conception

The conception of a dynamic web site usually implies a programmatic approach: business processes are implemented in an executable code (PHP, ASP, JSP, Servlet) in order to handle data specific to the web site. Business processes are coded by specialized engineers in order to enable the management of content (data recovering, data updating, data formatting, etc.). The integration & design team then links these data structures and objects to a layout, building a user interface.

Web site conception as proposed by Novadeck puts an end to this programmatic paradigm by using a descriptive approach of web site development.

Once the data structures that will be handled have been defined through a simple web interface for business object's creation, handling methods are immediately available without the need to write a single line of code, and cover all sorts of needs: content attached to each object can be displayed, formatted, published or de-published, moderated, searched, updated or deleted through universal interfaces.

The conception of each page follows this descriptive approach. It is limited to the description of types of data for each page, possibly under specific conditions, and integrated in a structuring XML framework. Lastly, the resulting XML content is adapted to the display terminal (web browser, PDF, wap, etc.) by applying a standard XSL stylesheet, which enables various layouts of a unique content.

Such an approach features unquestionable advantages: much shorter development time, lower technical level for advanced site's creators, and interfaces' standardization.