LebGeeks

chosen2k

Member

Development Checklist

If you were to assign a developer to develop your website.

What would be the technical checklist you present to the developer ?

Example:
- Make sure to submit the website to search engines
- Customized error page
- Browsers compatibility: Website should load on : Internet explorer v 7-8, firefox and google chrome
- Submit to google analytics

etc...

Any other ideas ? what do you use to make sure you tackled all issues that might arise ?

For ex: someone saying his website is not loading on netscape navigator 1995 ?

rolf

Member

Re: Development Checklist

There are a lot of things. I think the most important thing is that the development happens in parallel, with the a constant feedback loop.
The developer's implied responsibility is:
- Reasonable Cross browser compatibility
- secure code (no easy exploit)

And of course there has to be no weird display bugs, that is understood. The rest is optional but often necessary for the client. And about someone complaining that the website does not load in Netscape navigator, that is not what I call "Reasonable Cross browser compatibility". For me it means at least latest stable versions of IE, Firefox and Chrome, and normally IE7 and up too.

Last edited by rolf (September 13 2010)

Bassem

Member

Re: Development Checklist

Check:

- Compressed images; no unnecessarily large graphic files.

- All images have ALT values, and TITLE values where needed.

- If Javascript is disabled, a suitable message is displayed that is helpful (offering alternative content or navigation, not just saying "your javascript is off.")

- The layout doesn't mess up if zoomed in and out. More and more people are taking advantage of modern browsers' ability to zoom, on their widescreen monitors, to more easily see a website.

Zef

Member

Re: Development Checklist

Here's a website that helps you create a customized checklist for this kind of thing:

http://launchlist.net/

It starts with a pretty comprehensive list, but allows you to remove items or add your own.

Hope that helps!

rolf

Member

Re: Development Checklist

- If Javascript is disabled, a suitable message is displayed that is helpful (offering alternative content or navigation, not just saying "your javascript is off.")

Huh?? Javascript has been around since the 90ies, why would you do that?

Bassem

Member

Re: Development Checklist

@rolf some users disable Javascript for security reasons. Pain in the butt, I know.

mrmat

Member

Re: Development Checklist

- If Javascript is disabled, a suitable message is displayed that is helpful (offering alternative content or navigation, not just saying "your javascript is off.")

What a coincidence. I am currently working on a project and thought i'd look at the forums. The website that i am working on relies on javascript for some important functionality that can't be achieved by alternative methods. It was doing my head in. I believe disabling javascript is old school now, as most of the websites nowadays heavily rely on it, for example, as far as i know youtube won't work with javascript turned off.

So i just decided to inform the user in a user-friendly way of what they are missing.

Joe

Member

Re: Development Checklist

Reminder for everyone, let's stay focused on the original post. The topic of disabled javascript could be discussed in a new thread.

As for me, here's what I would add to what's already been said:

- Cross browser compatibility means also IE6 and mobile browsers (iphone, blackberry and such).

The reason I recommend IE6 compatibility, is that you do not want to be showing your website to your banker (who is probably still running IE6) and have it come out completely messed up. Believe me, bankers do not care about cross-browser compatibility.

- Compliance to standards.

Not only is it the best way to enforce compatibility, it also enhances maintainability (by producing clean code), performances, and accessibility.

- General enhancement of accessibilty.

Not all the people access the web the way you do. Graphical browsers like lynx, or screen readers (for the blind) are more widespread than you think. Complying to standards is a way to make sure they get proper access, but there are other things to pay attention to. Those readers/browsers, cannot display javascript. So any functionality on your website should have a server-side underlayer (in PHP, ASP, or whatever).

chosen2k

Member

Re: Development Checklist

Thank you all for your feedback,

@ Zef thx for the website this will 100% get me started,

@rahmu what are the standards you are mentioning ? are they in relation with the validation of HTML & CSS ?

Furthermore,
Usually, if the developer buys the domain, is he supposed to submit the username and password he used to buy the domain?
What is the usual legality in here?

Is he supposed to submit his source code? Who owns the source code he used?
What are the post delivery services a developer should offer? For example: The mail server is down? should i contact the dev?

One more thing, what is the best mail server out there? that could handle incoming and outgoing email of a small to medium company, without the hassle of server down, e-mails lost in the sea of the internet darkness.

Too much questions i know, but informative.

I'll make sure to give you more questions next time.

Joe

Member

Re: Development Checklist

@rahmu what are the standards you are mentioning ? are they in relation with the validation of HTML & CSS ?

Exactly. They are standards put by the w3c (a consortium of web developers) created to unify the way web browsers read an html page. To this day, Microsoft's Internet Explorer is the only browser not to repsect these standards. If you want to know more about standards open a new thread, I'll gladly explain all you need to know.

Furthermore,
Usually, if the developer buys the domain, is he supposed to submit the username and password he used to buy the domain?
What is the usual legality in here?

Is he supposed to submit his source code? Who owns the source code he used?
What are the post delivery services a developer should offer? For example: The mail server is down? should i contact the dev?

I believe there's no standard there. It depends on each developer, and these things should be clearly stated in the contract. But as a client, it is only normal that you retain some sort of independance from your developer.  However you should know that support for your website will come at a price, that you usually pay per month.

One more thing, what is the best mail server out there? that could handle incoming and outgoing email of a small to medium company, without the hassle of server down, e-mails lost in the sea of the internet darkness.

It depends what you are looking for. If you're willing to set up your own email server, Postfix is always the way to go. However, if you're looking for something more reliable, and are willing to pay some money (40$/year/employee I think), Google proposes Enterprise Services that are of very high quality. Mail + Agenda + Documents, very easily syncable to a Blackberry device, it's really worth a shot. (We used it at work, never complained once).