Can NOF provide advice on the use of Java in NOF-digitise project Web sites?
The Java language was developed by Sun. Although it has been submitted to several standards bodies, it has not been standardised and remains a solution. Java applets which run within the Web browser do not appear to have taken off, due to inconsistencies in the Java virtual machine used within Web browsers and resource and performance problems. In addition much of the functionality provided initially by Java applets can now be carried out using open W3C standards such as HTML, CSS and the DOM (often referred to as Dynamic HTML or DHTML). Java can, however, provide a suitable resource at the server, as opposed to the client. Java Server Pages can provide server-side scripting facilities, and Java Beans can provide integration with other server-side services. However, you would need to make a very good case for the NEED in your business case; a whizzy, jazzy interface does not count as a NEED.
