Introduction
AllAboutSussex.co.uk is a data-driven web site; it runs on Windows NT and uses Microsoft's Active Server Pages technology. The purpose of this site is to provide the visitor to Sussex, England, with information on what there is to see and do; information on where to stay and places to eat will be coming on-line shortly. Key features of the site include a Webcam, search facility, context sensitive help and remote data management.

Technical details
Based upon Microsoft's Active Server Pages technology, the web site has been designed to be data-driven; that is to say that 90% of the pages are created dynamically. 20 tables in 3 databases are used to hold the data, which includes information on 18 towns & cities, more than 400 places to visit, 70 further information pages, 100 electronic postcards and 150 gallery pictures. Work has started to incorporate places to stay, eat and drink; this will see the creation of further tables.

Data management is provided through a significant number of web based management screens. These allow the site operator to add, edit and delete entries remotely, as well as providing on-line reporting tools.

JavaScript is used extensively on both the server and client-sides, although this is supplemented with a small amount of server-side VBScript.

The main user interface
The interface that the user sees has been designed to be interesting and colourful, as well as easy to navigate. It is split into three frames: top, main workspace and left menu bar.

Top frame:
The top frame is static and contains quick launch buttons that provide direct links to the home page, search page, help system and contact us page; it is also here that the banner advert is located.

Main workspace:
It is in the main workspace that the work is done. Pages that appear here include places to visit listings, picture gallery, electronic postcards, search page, information pages, towns & cities pages, glossary items, the Webcam, plus lots more.

Left menu bar:
The left menu bar is dynamic; that is to say the menu items displayed relate to the information that has recently been requested.

On-line help
The on-line help system provides information to help the user navigate his or her way around the site; it can be accessed from a number of locations, the most prominent of which is the help button in the top frame. Clicking on the yellow question mark opens a second window, which displays information relevant to the page being displayed in the main workspace.

Webcam
AllAboutSussex have their own Webcam which connects to the Internet via a broadband connection; updates currently take place every minute. The camera is of the type used for security surveillance and features a 55mm manual iris / manual focus lens. The unit's DV line out is connected to a television capture card, which is housed inside a PC running Windows NT Workstation and Webcam32 software.

Data management interface
The database is managed remotely through a web interface. Each of the tables can be updated (i.e. add/edit/delete) through a number of wizards that have been developed. Also included in the suite of management tools are reports and a facility to generate plain HTML files from the data. Search engines and web crawlers often ignore dynamically created web pages - these HTML files are intended to be used by such external services and can be accessed via the tag in the default home page. A user linking to one of these pages is automatically redirected to the dynamic page, which is displayed within the frameset.