Q and A
Questions and their answers
As seen below, we were provided questions that needed to be answered. And as you can see, we provided adiquite answers to each.
Question 1: Describe the difference between an XML Sitemap and a HTML Sitemap. List the benefits and disadvantages of using each.
| Type | Positives | Negatives |
|---|---|---|
| XML | Helps search engines like Google find and index the websites pages faster, useful for large websites with many pages, and displays detailed metadata about pages. | It's not designed for users to naviagte or read, only searchengines, and does not guarantee that all the pages will be indexed. |
| HTML | Typically displays the content the user requested, allows multiple forms of media to be displayed easily (e.g. Video), and improved user navigation. | Easily becomes cluttered when the site becomes larger and may not display detailed metadata about pages. |
The difference between XML and HTML is that HTML is how the users view the site, as well as how the site's content is structured and displayed on web browsers. While XML is how the site's data is stored and what essential pages there are, making sure search engines can find them atthe user's request.
Question 2: Evaluate three IDE's (Integrated development environments) and provide a brief summary on the positive and negative aspects of each. Also, in your own words include how it would suit an entry level trainee code developer.
| Type | Positives | Negatives | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visual Studio Code | It's faster than other IDEs, offers a wide range of tools and assets through it's extensions, it already supports a large variety of programming languages. | The user needs to have extensions to actually match all the features of a full IDE, and performance can slow down because of too many extensions. | An entry level trainee code developer would have a tough time at first and would need to play around with it for a little while (1-2 days at most), but they could quickly begin to understand and use it properly. |
| Eclipse | It supports Java development quite easily, it's open source and free to use, it supports plugins, and has good tools for debugging and testing. | It can be slow and also memory-intensive, plugin management can cause compatibility issues, and the interface feels less user firendly when compared to other IDEs. | An entry level trainee code developer would have a difficult time with this IDE, it gives you the tools that you need but the interface has made it more difficult to understand and navigate. It would be even more difficult for entry level trainees, so they would need a decent chunk of time (2-4 days at most) to learn Eclipse before they can properly use it. |
| Intellij IDEA | Provides excellent tools for modern development frameworks (e.g. Kotlin), provides strong buitl-in features (e.g. refactoring), has a more modern interface compared to other IDEs, and has a large variety of features and tools already built-in. | It is a subscription service meaning it's not free to use, uses more resources than other IDEs, due to significant amount tools it features it takes a decent while to learn. | An entry level trainee code developer would have a tougher time at first with Intellij IDEA and would need to play around with it for a decent chunk of time (2-3 days at most), especially because of the significant amount of tools built-in, but they can definitely learn it and use it to it's fullest potential. |
Question 3: Provide a brief history on web browser development and the issues encountered by web developers, specifically, the adherence to web standards.
Brief History of Web Browser development:
Netscape Communications Corporation had started work on what was to become Netscape Navigator back in 1993. Version 1.0 of the software was released in December 1994. While Spyglass Inc. (the commercial arm of NCSA) licensed their Mosaic technology to Microsoft to form the basis of Internet Explorer in 1993. Version 1.0 was released in August 1995. These stood as the 2 main web browsers, with notable other ones being Opera.
An escalation soon followed, as Netscape and Microsoft each tried to get a competitive edge to attract developers. This has since become known as the browser wars and during the browser wars, issues began to arise as Microsoft and Netscape focused on implementing new features rather than fixing problems with the features they already supported.
Developers during this time were forced to deal with increasing levels of confusion when trying to build web sites, as features that were implemented for one browser were incompatible for other browsers. This caused developers to either build two different but esentially duplicate sites, or only support one browser and blocking any others from their site.
These on-going issues and rising new issues sparked the creation of web standards.
Web Browsers and their adherence to Web Standards:
In 1994 W3C was founded, and their vision was to standardise the protocols and technologies used to build the web, and during the following years the W3C published several specifications (called recommendations) to specify what recommendations were expected. However W3C did not enforce these recommendations, so it was not exactly a succesful movement.
But in 1998, when a beta version of Internet Explorer 5 released with a new and proprietary dynamic HTML, a group of professional web developers and designers banded together and called themselves the Web Standards Project (WaSP). Their idea was that by calling the W3C documents standards rather than recommendations, they might be able to convince Microsoft and Netscape to support them.
And over the next few years, their idea seemed to right, as in 2000 Microsoft released Internet Explorer 5 Macintosh Edition. A key milestone for web standards, with it being the default browser installed with the Mac OS at the time, and having a reasonable level of support for the W3C recommendations too. And as time continued, more browsers began to support web standards, especially when very high profile sites began supporting web standards and new techniques.
This then all contributed to a general positive movement, where web developers and designers finally felt comfortable designing sites using web standards, as they knew they would work to a reasonable level across multiple browsers. Since then, the usage of web standards have become the norm in the professional web development community.
Question 4: What are website testing methodologies? Your answer MUST cover browser compatibility, and website functionality.
Website testing methodologies are, simply put, tests that evaluates whether a website works correctly, performs well, and provides the intended user experience. These methodologies help identify issues/problems before the website is released or when the website is updated. Some key website testing methodologies would be;
| Browser Compatibility | Website Functionality | Security Evaluations |
|---|---|---|
| Finds out whether the website can properly works across different web browsers, devices, etc (e.g. Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, etc), and that the website displays everything correctly regardless of the browser used (e.g. layouts, fonts, etc). | Focuses on verifying and making sure that all the intended features (e.g. links, forms, etc) of a website work as intended, and preventing any user complaints about any broken features. | Finds out and identifies any vulnerabilities (e.g. user authentication, data storage, etc) that could allow unauthorised access, data breaches, or malicious attacks. There are more website testing methodologies, but these are just some of the important ones. |
Question 5: What are the endorsed requirements of accessibility for all NT Government webpages?
The NT Government endorses the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0). The NT Government specifically working towards level AA compliance.
Question 6: How do you think it's best to organise all the assets used for a specific webpage? Think locally on your computer AND within the root folder of the website.
Following OPENLAB AT BMCC's Basic Website Folde/File Structure, and personal preferences, it should be organised like this;
| Root Folder | CSS Folder | Image Folder | JavaScript Folder |
|---|---|---|---|
| This will be where all the HTML files (.html) will go, making it easier to see all the files and that paths to resources (e.g. Images) are the same. Additionally, all sub-folders will be in here. | This will be a sub-folder where all the CSS files (.css) will go, with files being appropriately named for what they are styling (e.g. style1.css). | This will be a sub-folder where all the images will go (e.g. .jpg, .png, etc), with files being appropriately named for what they are (e.g. logo.png) | This will be a sub-folder where all JavaScript files (.js) will go, with files being appropriately named for what it's used for (e.g. server.js). |
These answers, and the information used to get those answers, are relevant as of April 2026.