Slides for the workshop session on “Providing information to third parties (4)” (C2) at the IWMW 2001 event held at Queen's University Belfast on 25-27 June 2001. See http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2001/sessions.html#c2

1. Providing Information
To Third Parties:
Architectures
Brian Kelly
UKOLN
University of Bath
Bath, BA2 7AY
UKOLN is supported by:
Email
B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk
URL
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
Pres 4

2. 2
Architectures
What architectures can we use for providing
information to third parties?
• Let third parties copy information from your Web
site
• Upload information using a Web form on the third
party’s Web site
• Bulk upload of information using a Web form on
the third party’s Web site
• Create file on your Web site which third party
uploads
• Create files on your Web site which third party
harvests
• …

3. 3
Manual Copying
The third party copies your information
• No work for you
• Simple
• Manually intensive for them
• Possible problems with quality control
• Won’t know when information changes

4. 4
Use Of Web Form
You use a Web form to upload your
information:
• Simple
• Manual process and may be time-consuming
• Will have to be repeated for other third-parties
Course Details
Course name
Course code
Submit

5. 5
Bulk Upload
Use bulk upload facility:
• Useful if you have more than a handful of
records to upload
• Requires agreements over file format
• Likely to require IT department to be able to
export data in agreed format from backend
database
Course Details (Bulk Upload)
Filename C:…
Submit
Browse

6. 6
Third Party Uploads /
Harvests Your File
You create a file in an agreed location and
the third party uploads it:
• Requires agreements over file format
• Requires third party to have software to
process file
Note the file can be:
• Uploaded once, following manual notification
of its existence
• Automatically harvested at regular intervals

7. 6
Third Party Uploads /
Harvests Your File
You create a file in an agreed location and
the third party uploads it:
• Requires agreements over file format
• Requires third party to have software to
process file
Note the file can be:
• Uploaded once, following manual notification
of its existence
• Automatically harvested at regular intervals