Mid-project Review For The Exploit Interactive E-Journal

Background

The Exploit Interactive e-journal [1] was funded by the European Commission's Telematics For Libraries Programme. Seven issues were published from May 1999 and October 2000.

Problem Being Addressed

The original proposal outlined a technical architecture for the e-journal. In addition the workplan included a mid-term technical review which would provide an opportunity to evaluate the technical architecture and provide an opportunity to implement enhancements which were felty necessary or desirable. This document summaries the developments which were made.

The Approach Taken

A summary of the mid-project technical developments to Exploit Interactive where published as an article in the e-journal [2]. The main developments included:

Enhanced Searching

An enhanced search facility was released, which made use of the Dublin Core metadata.

Automated Notification

The external Netmind service was used to provide an automated notification service when a new issue was released,

Enhanced 404 Page

An enhanced version of the 404 error page was released, which included Exploit Interactive branding, a navigational bar and a search facility.

Improved Style Sheet Support

The Exploit Interactive style sheet file was enhanced to improve the appearance of the Web site.

Enhanced Features

The template for the Web site was enhanced in order to enable a variety of new service to be integrated, such as HTML validation, accessibility checks and automated translation of articles.

Problems Experienced

During the lifetime of the e-journal a number of the externally-hosted services became unavailable.

Things We Would Do Differently

The project workplan allowed us to review the technical architecture of the e-journal. This allowed us flexibility to enhance the project deliverable. We will seek to ensure that future project proposals allow such flexibility.

References

1. Exploit Interactive,
   <http://www.exploit-lib.org/>
2. Behind the Exploit Interactive Web Site, Brian Kelly, Exploit Interactive, issue 4, January 2000
   <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue4/exploit-interactive/>

Contact details

Brian Kelly
UKOLN
University of Bath
BATH
BA2 7AY

Tel: 01225 383943
Email: B.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/