• They're Watching You...
• Klixo Web Services Framework
• Form2Mail2Story
• Google WTK
• Klixo2 CMS Development Starts
• Klixo2 Content Management System
• Quantum Theory for Google PageRank
• Google Maps InfoWindow Not Centering
• Cuil Search Engine
• Environmentally Friendly Data Centres

They're Watching You...

What do you think can be determined about you from browsing the web? That you have an interest in poker and live in New Zealand perhaps? This can be ascertained by a single click of the mouse. And the latest software that analyses your online behaviour can apparently determine a huge amount about you. A recent article in New Scientist suggests that the company Acxiom have lifestyle information on 200 million US citizens. If you're on a site that's geared up for it, they can track everything you do in a browser, how long you spend on a page and what you buy using JavaScript. Then you have companies like Phorm who use 'deep packet inspection' technologies that essentially allow them to see everything you look at and to analyse it as they wish. Wikipedia defines deep packet inspection as 'enabling advanced security functions as well as internet data mining, eavesdropping, and censorship'.

There are two sides to this - firstly why is my privacy being invaded? Personally, I don't have a problem with it but I'm sure there are plenty reasons that I haven't considered as to why this should be illegal. The American's are totally against it but in the UK Phorm is running their software on British Telecom's internet infrastructure. The biggest reason that I should be worried about this is that both companies have gone out of their way to remove any trace of them working together presumably in an attempt to keep the British public in the dark. If there's nothing sinister, then why cover it up?

The other side of the coin is that this is good for the businesses and their customers, us. I hate advertising - the BBC's ad-free television and radio is as far as I'm concerned the best in the world significantly because they have no advertising. But you're not going to get away without advertising any more - Google have seen to that and made AdWords an extremely profitable business for themselves and their customers by targetting adverts to the search terms we send to their search engine. It's good for us to - if I'm looking for a drum kit then it's great to see 10 adverts from companies that have gone out of their way (and to a cost to them) letting me know they have something appropriate to look at. If it's not appropriate then the company will just end up out of pocket because they won't make any money out of it which keeps the adverts highly targetted. Google have taken this further by allowing websites to display AdWords that can be similarly targetted, usually based on whatever the website is about.

So this is the next step in that process; target ads specifically to you, wherever you go on the web. Have you seen Minority Report? Targetted advertising based on knowing your identity, what you buy, your likes and dislikes, your lifestyle and so on. And this is the kind of information that is becoming increasingly known by the likes of Phorm, Google and BT. So don't be surprised when in a couple of years time you're browsing a website when an advert pops up saying 'I know you ordered your wife Pip some flowers for her birthday on Friday, but remember last year? She told all her friends about that pear tree you bought her and she wants to put a plum tree next to it - click here to get it delivered to home Friday'. Expect it sooner in the UK.

posted by Dan Wonacott, 05 Dec 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Klixo Web Services Framework

The past couple of weeks I've been developing the Klixo Web Services Framework (KWSF). This is a project that fits somewhere in between our current Klixo content management system (KCMS) and our next version. We've been working away at providing web services to KCMS for a few months now with the ultimate aim of allowing all of the current ability of the KCMS interface to be effected using web services (plus a few more too).

So what does the KWSF do? At this stage it is very simple but a very useful tool in developing an alternative front-end to the KCMS. The basic concept is quite simple; if you're using the KWSF you're creating/reading/updating and deleting new data. On the web this is a <form>. So, what you want to do is take that form data and either create, read, update or delete data from the database. The first thing the system does is convert the from post/get data into an appropriate XML document as specified by the web service. If you use the Klixo naming conventions this is a single call to the KWSF but of course you can manipulate any of the elements of the XML request as required (as long as they are consistent with the web service you wish to call). Then you need to make the call to the appropriate webservice with the request you've just generated; again a single call.

Of course, you can make as many calls as you like and the KWSF simple accumulates the responses in a single document. When you've finished you can access the document and extract information or manipulate it as required. But most of the time you'll be wanting to simply convert all that XML you've acquired into an (X)HTML document which again is a single call. This is just the beginning but it's already proving very useful and significantly reducing development time - we're starting to use it on our own KCMS front-end and it makes life easy.

posted by Dan Wonacott, 28 Nov 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Form2Mail2Story

What happens when a customer wants to contact you via your website? Many websites have a simple link using mailto:contact@website.com as the href. will utilise a form that posts the fields of the form to the appropriate recipient. At Klixo, we use a system called Form2Mail which posts an email but also stores all the data in our database. Furthermore, this system is backed by an anti-spam system that uses the fantastic Re-Captcha system to prevent form spam.

The Form2Mail system is pretty useful in many respects.  The first benefit is that, should the email get 'lost', our customers always have a record of the request. 
What happens if you want to send sensitive information? Well, because Klixo's content management system is based upon XML technologies (I hope we extend its use and develop an XRX-based system over the next year) we simply change the XSL file to inform the recipient that sensitive information has been submitted to their site together with a secure link at which to read that information on our website. Very handy!

Form2Mail2Story takes the whole thing a little further. The same process occurs but we modify the XSL such that when they view the Form2Mail at our website an extra button allows them to convert the mail into a story. In Klixo, a story is a small bit of content that can be added anywhere on the website. To add a bit of content on your website you simply create a story and put it where it's needed (we have a variety of means to do this).

How is this useful you may ask? Well, we've just started developing a new website for the Koanga Institute. They want a FAQ page that their customers can add questions to should they not find the answer. We are implementing Form2Mail2Story on the FAQ page.

Say the customer looks at the list of FAQs (all stories on the FAQ page) and doesn't find what they're looking for. Lower down the page a form allows them to pose their own question. They receive an email with the question. They decide whether or not it warrants a response that should go on the website. If it doesn't they simply reply to the email.  If it does, they click the link to turn the question into a FAQ. The Klixo story editor opens up with all the pertinent information and they simply write the answer to the question and press the save button. The page is automatically republished (our content management system publishes static pages where appropriate to improve speed of delivery (which boosts search engine rankings) and reliance upon the database) and the FAQ is updated. Simple, easy, efficient. Love it.

posted by Dan Wonacott, 14 Nov 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Google Web Toolkit (GWT) in the Klixo CMS

I've been looking into the Google Web Toolkit for use on the Klixo website as well as our customers' websites recently to determine if it will benefit us. There are many problems with implementing cross-browser support at all levels - HTML, CSS and JavaScript are the main components of a web page that are browser dependant and this is of course a major discussion topic for web developers. This particular post is concerned with the JavaScript (or ECMAScript) aspects, particularly of the Klixo CMS front-end. The Klixo content management system is based on XML retrieval and XSL transforms to publish web pages and in that respect is (quite astonishingly to me) still, pretty unique.

We have used the fabulous open-source code available on SourceForge.net called Sarissa for several years and it has proven very useful. The developers state that 'Sarissa is an ECMAScript library acting as a cross-browser wrapper for native XML APIs'. It's been around for many years and is the essence of AJAX. This has enabled us to provide an enhanced editor for our customers' as you would expect of any application that really needs AJAX. But from my initial dips into the GWT I have found that they have completely surpassed this and built an all-encompassing development platform for *all* cross-browser JavaScript.

Because it's a Google app and we know they'll stay around and support it, I think we'll embrace it. The next time someone produces a major browser release that changes things (have there been any this year? er....IE8, Fx3, Chrome) we'll simply recompile our code to support the new browsers without all the effort of looking into exactly what has changed. Thank you very much Google.

posted by Dan Wonacott, 19 Sep 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Klixo2 CMS Development Starts

I wrote about the redevelopment of the Klixo content management system a few weeks ago, and we've already made a start. It isn't quite K2 (Klixo Content Management System V2) as the web services are still using the current Klixo database. The database shall be redesigned to more easily incorporate many of the features we want to add and simultaneously make the developments we've already added to Klixo1 more generic. However, these web services have been written in .NET using Visual Studio and C# with a good framework already developed for the database and generic web services that we shall use in K2.

Currently, the Klixo CMS has a single interface which our clients access to change or update their website. The new API provides services that can be consumed by our clients' applications. For some of our customers, the standard Klixo interface won't be optimal for data input. For example, one of our customers, Tramping Tracks provides a website that has comprehensive information on walks throughout New Zealand. Because of the extensive information they provide for each page we determined it would be significantly faster to write a custom interface for them. As a consequence, the Klixo API arose.

This API adds another string to Klixo's bow because it allows for as much customisation as required. Of course the current system is dynamic, responding appropriately as the website demands, but in highly complex content entry such as this, there are significant gains to be made. A further benefit to our customers is that they can outsource the interface development if they so desire. Another benefit is that with a custom interface the content may be updated automatically. Imagine a company (such as I was talking to the other day) that sells books and gets many more books each week. If the book data can be extracted in any way, this API and a custom interface would allow all their books to be automatically updated on their website.

posted by Klixo Support, 19 Sep 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Klixo2 Content Management System

My business partner Daniel Larsen developed our current content management system many years ago and it has proven to be highly successful. Over the years more and more useful features have been added and we can do pretty much everything we want with the system. However, there comes a time in every software's development cycle when it is rewritten and this is what Daniel and I have decided upon as our next project. As we all know, programming languages, application development tools, management tools and so on are always changing; each of these areas is modified, improved, superceded and replaced by every company out there. The web arena covers a plethora of languages, for us this has to now encompassed html (and xhtml), javascript, php, asp (and asp.net), xml, xsl and visual basic. Probably a couple I've missed too.

So why do we want to do this? Firstly, for the reasons stated above - tools and languages are superceded. The latest are easier and quicker to develop with, have improved capabilites, are more powerful and are faster. Secondly, with years of experience in content managment, search engine optimisation and website reporting and with the latest tools from other companies in these areas we can improve our effectiveness yet further. This doesn't mean that your website will look and better, run any faster or have better stats; it just means it's easier for us to make this happen for you.

What will this mean for our customers? Well, they will still be getting the same high standards of support they always have (we won the Triple-A award for exceptional customer service). They will still get our core team of experienced developers maintaining their sites. They will still get a simple to use content management system at their disposal 24/7. But here's a sneak preview of just a couple of the features we shall be implementing:

• Search engine optimisation built into the system - you won't be able to avoid it
• Complete automated management of all the files on your server
• Managed access to different areas of the content management system

Not enough? Well I'll probably write a few more things about the system as the design phase gets underway - and you probably don't know all the features we currently support anyway...

• Automated subscription system
• Email publications
• Form2mail so you never lose a customer's request from your website
• RSS feeds - both incoming and outgoing
• Did I mention fully automated shops with stock levels?
• Automated page updates for new or expiring news

If you're really interested in our system start browsing from our home page or flick us a message, you won't be disappointed.

posted by Dan Wonacott, 22 Aug 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Quantum Theory for Google PageRank

Physicists in Italy led by Nicola Perra have now determined that 'the Google PageRank can be expressed in terms of a wave function obeying a Schroedinger-like equation.' Isn't that great? Well you might think so if your business, job or hobby involves search engine optimisation because the ultimate result of this is that once a pagerank has been determined, recalculating it based on changes to links coming in to your pages and site will be significantly faster. What this infers is that Google will be able to update your site's page rankings more quickly than it currently does.

Schröedinger's equation is central to quantum physics and describes how the quantum state of a system changes over time. Very simply, you put your particles into the equation and you can see what's going to happen to the particles over time. Perra's team swapped particles with pages and their interactions with incoming and outgoing page links. They then derive the pagerank. Because the equation is all about how it changes over time the equation can be tweaked by adding or removing linked pages to get the new pagerank. Well that's how I understand it anyway. 

 

posted by Dan Wonacott, 18 Aug 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Google Maps InfoWindow Not Centering

We were recently investigating a request from EatOut (one of our clients who's website lists restaurants around New Zealand) who wished to allow users of the website to get directions to the restaurant. Given that we were using Google Maps to provide the location this was a fairly straightforward job given the API, knowledge base and documentation available on the web. Having completed the development and testing and EatOut had reviewed the work we were ready to put the site live. Then we noticed a bug whereby the map centres on the pin whereas the API states (or at least used to) that it centres on the InfoWindow (and indeed did during development testing).

After much research I couldn't find another Google Map with InfoWindows on the web which worked correctly. It transpires that it is a Google bug that was presumably introduced after v2.119 was released.  The solution is therefore actually simple and I simply needed to change the page to use version 2.118 as follows:

http://maps.google.com/maps?file=api&v=2.118&key=<mykey>

The issue now is, are Google going to fix it or have they simply changed the way it works? I would not have questioned this but note that on the Google Maps API page which has an InfoWindow they actually offset the centre of the map such that the InfoWindow is fully visible. Maybe they've just changed this page while they fix the bug.

posted by Dan Wonacott, 08 Aug 2008 | read 1 comment | comment | link

Even though Cuil doesn't know that it is, (at least not on its primary search results for 'cuil.com' of a few days after their launch (which incidentally has the most incomprehendable presentation of any search I've ever done on google (the results of which I won't copy here in case of litigation (but I'm sure you can find it on google in the archives)))), I have experienced some excellent results on searches.

The first few search results were appalling and the pages they linked to were covered in ads and I almost gave up any thoughts of home right there. But I'd read an article in the New Scientist and I expected more journalistic integrity so I persevered. The following day I tried again.

I was investigating a google maps API bug that didn't centre an infowindow, (javascript mods between versions caused this pop-up window which should be centred in the map to be too high and mostly chopped off at the top (we rigorously test our code and discovered the issue after deployment testing)) and this cool search engine showed me semantic alternatives for my search terms. This led me straight to the solution (still half an hour of unbilled time to implement the solution start to finish) of changing the javascript to include the last version that presented info windows correctly, v2.118.

posted by Dan Wonacott, 31 Jul 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link

Environmentally Friendly Data Centres

Klixo being a web service company and me being a bit eco-minded, I figured why not start my blog with something about web hosting? I've read quite a bit in New Scientist over the past year about how data centres are able to improve their energy efficiency through a whole raft of technologies and software. 

A report from UK-based Global Action Plan, puts carbon dioxide emissions from information and communications technology at 2 per cent of global emissions, on the same level as that of the aviation industry, so it's something that I am really concerned about. One particular article from New Scientist talked about many companies that are tackling this problem. It stated that IBM are investing $1 billion USD into a project called 'Big Green' which aims to double their computing capacity without increasing power consumption.

But my favourite article was by IBM Switzerland. The idea is to add microfluidic pipes over the processors in the data centre which connect up to a heat exchanger. This is used to heat nearby homes. They reckon that 75% of the energy used in the data centre can be reclaimed and a medium-sized data centre consuming 1MW of energy could heat 70 homes.

posted by Dan Wonacott, 25 Jul 2008 | 0 comments | comment | link