Russ Ward

1. AN INTRODUCTION TO ON-
DEMAND, WEB-BASED PUBLISHING
Russell Ward
STC-PMC 2012 Conference – Willow Grove, PA

2. Agenda
 Define concepts and benefits associated with web-based
publishing
 Demonstrate the installation and setup of a common web server,
Apache Tomcat.
 Demonstrate basic information delivery via the web server
 Demonstrate the addition of more advanced, on-demand
publishing features
 Briefly showcase a real-world web-based publisher deployed at
Spirent Communications that has provided substantial benefits
 Q&A

3. Speaker contact information
Russ Ward
 Senior Technical Writer at Spirent Communications in
Germantown, MD.
 Owner of West Street Consulting, a part-time enterprise
specializing in Structured FrameMaker plugins and custom
development.
20324 Seneca Meadows Parkway
Germantown, MD 20876
301.444.2489
russ.ward@spirent.com
www.spirent.com
357 W. North St.
Carlisle, PA 17013
717.240.2989
russ@weststreetconsulting.com
www.weststreetconsulting.com

4. Web-based publishing concepts
 Before defining web-based publishing, it is useful to clarify the more
commonly-used alternative: a distributed, file system-based
documentation system that is normally static. Familiar examples include
PDF, CHM, JavaHelp, Flash demos, etc. etc.
 A static system uses some kind of viewer that draws information directly
from a set of files, often stored on the same computer that is running
the viewer.
 Static systems are normally much less complex to implement, as many
tools can generate them out-of-the box. Again, familiar examples
include:
• RoboHelp
• MadCap Flare
• Author-it
• Quadralay ePublisher
• The DITA open toolkit
• …and many more

5. Concepts (continued)
 As an alternative, content can be “served” on demand by a
dedicated application that interactively processes requests and
responds as appropriate. Similar to any web-based operation, this
type of uses:
• A web server – Some computer on some network somewhere that has
information to hand out and “listens” for requests for that information.
• One or more client computers – The “consumers” of the information which
request information from the server, usually with a web browser that
subsequently renders the information.
 There is always an exchange between two or more computers,
usually facilitated by HTTP-based negotiations.
Web
server

6. Concepts (continued)
 Because of the inherent “server-side” processing capabilities,
web-based publishing provides the following features and
advantages:
• Dynamic adjustment of content based on the nature of a request
• Access control
• In some cases, an easier framework for swift content updates
• Normally no requirement to deploy software to users
• Opportunities for advanced functionality related to authoring and content
management, such integration with collaborative authoring and source
control systems
• Integration with any other system that supports web-based interactions; for
example, corporate databases.
 The possibilities are quite expansive. Any given capability may or
may not be applicable to a certain situation.

7. Getting started
 For a documentation system driven by a web server, you obviously
need a web server. Two common options include:
• Apache HTTP Server /r Apache Tomcat – Free, open-source platforms that
provide direct integration with native Java code (Tomcat)
• Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP) – A commercial product that is more
catered to integration with Microsoft-related technologies such as VBScript
and ASP.net
 This presentation will focus on Tomcat because:
• It is free yet very robust
• It runs anywhere (Windows, Linux, etc.)
• Your presenter knows much more about it than ASP

8. DEMONSTRATION
Installing and starting up Tomcat

9. DEMONSTRATION
Delivering simple, static content

10. Server-side processing concepts
 Aside from remote network access, the real magic of delivering
content with a web server is the expansive ability for server-side
processing. You can effectively manipulate the content any way
you want before sending it to the requestor.
 The user does not necessarily see what is actually on the web
server computer, only what the server application sends back. It
may look like the user is receiving static HTML pages that are
sitting on the server somewhere, but in actuality, the server may
be dynamically generating the HTML code upon request.
 In the case of technical documentation, server-side processing
might include:
• Opening XML files and running XSLT transformations
• Querying some database for information
 Basically, the server needs to do whatever is required to create
the HTML for the client browser.

11. DEMONSTRATION
A simple XML/XSLT setup for generating HTML

12.  Server-side processing may be useful for generating content
catered to specific users. For example, you could:
• Accept input from a user to apply the appropriate filters
• Use user profile information to otherwise adjust the content
 For content reuse, the possibilities are endless. For example, you
could:
• Apply filters using the “conditional text” model, according to some sort of
input or selection criteria
• Pull common information from any central, networked location that supports
web-based interaction, such as a database or file system
Profiling and content reuse

13. DEMONSTRATION
Using XSLT to filter conditional content

14. DEMONSTRATION
A mature, real-world system deployed at Spirent

15. Summary and final points
• Dynamic web-based publishing may not be applicable in all situations, but
where it is, it can make all the difference.
• Most people would be surprised to know how much you can do for FREE
(excepting your paycheck and that computer, of course).
• Web-based publishing requires knowledge in advanced concepts that take
time to learn. If you want to develop an extensive and complex
architecture, don’t expect it to be easy. Having said that, the rewards are
worth every bit of effort and will make your resume look GREAT.

16. QUESTIONS