the state of web development 2006/2007jpkc.fudan.edu.cn/_upload/article/files/33/07/9e2...blogs,...

2006/2007

Summary of Results from a survey of 5,000 web developers and internet professionals conducted during the summer of 2006

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The State of Web Development 2006/2007 by David Aponovich, Lachlan Donald, Nick Langmaid, Matthew Magain, Ian Muir, and Kevin Yank.

Copyright © 2006 SitePoint Pty Ltd and Ektron, Inc.

Technical Editor: Matthew Magain Editor: Hilary Reynolds Technical Director: Kevin Yank Cover Designer and Illustrator: Alex Walker Printing History:

First Edition: October 2006

Notice of Rights

All rights reserved. No part of this report may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews, or uses allowed under the license agreement under which this report was purchased.

Notice of Liability

The authors and publisher have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information herein. However, the information sold in this report is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors and SitePoint Pty Ltd, nor Ektron Inc., nor its dealers or distributors will be held liable for any damages to be caused either directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this report, or by the software or hardware products described herein.

Trademark Notice

Rather than indicating every occurrence of a trademarked name as such, this report uses the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner with no intention of infringement of the trademark.

Published by SitePoint Pty Ltd

424 Smith Street Collingwood

VIC Australia 3066.

Web: www.sitepoint.com

Email: [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

The State of Web Development 2006/2007

Thank you for downloading this free preview of The State of Web Development 2006/2007 report, published by SitePoint Pty Ltd and Ektron, Inc. This preview includes:

❑ background information about the survey

❑ summary of our findings

❑ sample graphs and commentary from the “Tools of the Trade” section, covering three of the 15 questions from the survey

❑ citation policy and license information

❑ full glossary of terms

The full version of the report includes:

❑ 54 pages of results, analysis and expert commentary on the state of web development in 2006/2007

❑ raw results dataset from over 5,000 survey participants

❑ a full correlation spreadsheet tool to help with your own analysis

Blogs, podcasts, AJAX, server platforms, content management systems, industry best practices, and CSS layouts are just some of the areas analyzed in depth in this report.

This complete, yet easy to digest, almost “conversation style” report will bring you and your organization up to speed with the state of the web development industry in 2006/2007, with a look at what challenges lie ahead.

Download the full report now from http://www.sitepoint.com/launch/survey06/.

Executive Summary We believe that this report reflects the largest survey of professional web developers to date.

This report taps the experience of 5,000 web developers to answer 15 important questions. The questions covered a range of topics, including:

the demographics of respondents what roles they play in the industry, and how they rank the most important questions of the moment

tools of the trade which productivity tools are favored by web developers, which server technologies are being deployed, and what the expectations are for the next 12 months

design practice in the real world what web developers are doing about adopting methodologies and best practices in software design

web technology adoption how web developers are encountering hot new technologies such as blogs and podcasting, and how they anticipate working with them over the next 12 months

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resources and learning how web developers are preparing to meet the challenge of new technologies, where they look for information on these technologies, and what they’re trying to find out about right now

the future of the Web capturing a broader view of where web developers think the technologies might be headed over the longer term

The picture that emerges is one of a diverse industry. On one hand, we have the adventurous souls who intend to take the technology as far as it can go, as quickly as possible. Their goal is to create as many opportunities as they can. On the other hand, we have the cautious types who prefer to let others take the risk of exploring uncharted territory, but watch carefully to make sure they don’t get left behind.

This report is a guide for both camps, as well as for those who need to know which direction the industry is taking, and want their understanding to be based on real data, not just guesswork.

In addition to the graphs and interpretation provided in this report, we also provide supporting information in the form of the raw data and analysis tools so that customers can test their own views of the future against the data collected by this survey.

About the Survey The State of Web Development 2006/2007 is the product of a joint research initiative conducted by SitePoint Pty Ltd and Ektron, Inc. These two organizations have been actively advocating for and helping web developers, designers, and other online professionals for almost a decade.

SitePoint began in 1997, around the start of the Internet’s first major growth cycle. sitepoint.com remains one of the most highly trafficked and respected sites today, delivering information, commentary and resources to an active and involved community of web developers and designers.

Ektron, Inc., founded in 1998, has established itself as a technology and market leader in web content management software and web authoring tools with its CMS400.NET and eWebEditPro product lines. Along the way, Ektron’s software has empowered tens of thousands of web professionals to harness the Web as an effective platform for communication and interaction.

The partnership of these two organizations, and their support for the community of web professionals, led to an idea in early 2006: leverage the critical mass of web developers and other web professionals associated with these organizations to take a “snapshot in time” and quantify the state of web development tools, technologies, techniques, and trends.

In all, 5,000 web professionals participated in this survey between June 15 and July 15, 2006. We believe this to be the largest survey of web developers to date. We also hold it to be one of the most insightful, reflecting both current realities and changes in the wind.

As a result of the size and depth of audience response, we decided to package the data, along with detailed interpretations and critical discussion, in this report.

Even though the original intent of the survey was not to gather data for reporting purposes, the value of the information this survey captured is undeniable. Some interpretation has been necessary with pieces of the data, revealing a truly insightful picture of the industry as it stands today.

The period 2006-2007 will remain widely recognized for seeing so much progress: the new wave of online investment; the emergence and growth of newer web technologies and techniques; the growth in adoption of web standards; and the rise (and fall) of new business models that harness the power of the Web like never before.

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The data reflected in this report shines a light on this evolution.

About SitePoint SitePoint is a fast-growing online media company and information provider targeting the web professional market—specifically web developers and designers.

SitePoint’s web site, sitepoint.com, is currently ranked as the number one web site in the world in the Web Design and Development > News and Media category—and in the top 300 web sites globally—by Alexa.com. sitepoint.com has a daily reach comparable to web sites operated by many mainstream media corporations.

The SitePoint Forums boast more than 135,000 registered users. Its newsletters mail to half a million subscribers every month. The company has over 70,000 customers in 174 countries, and its sample products are enjoyed by 620,000 registered users.

The company has six major revenue streams: advertising and sponsorship, content-based products both online and in retail, software, and more recently, streaming video subscriptions, classified listings, and industry reports.

About Ektron Ektron, Inc. (http://www.ektron.com/) was founded in 1998, and has since established itself as a technology and market leader in web content management software and web authoring tools with its CMS400.NET and eWebEditPro product lines. Along the way, Ektron’s software has empowered tens of thousands of web professionals to harness the Web as an effective platform for communication and interaction. Ektron’s web content management and authoring solutions are affordable for any organization and simple enough for anyone to use, yet offer webmasters, designers, and developers all the tools they need to create, deploy, and manage interactive web sites, intranets, and extranets in one platform. With Ektron CMS400.NET, companies can do what they want on the Web: develop rich sites for personal, two-way communication with visitors; build community through memberships, blogs, and forums; and attract more repeat visits using RSS feeds and web alerts in order to increase business opportunities. An open API allows for easy customization and extension.

Ektron is based in Amherst, New Hampshire, and has more than 15,000 customer implementations worldwide, including Unilever, Intel, and Pfizer.

About the Authors

David Aponovich

David Aponovich is Ektron’s Director of Marketing, driving a range of initiatives to increase awareness and adoption of Ektron’s web content management software. He also writes the WebInsights blog on Ektron.com.

David previously served as senior web editor at Aberdeen Group, a technology market research and consulting firm; earlier, he was a web editor at internet.com/EarthWeb (now JupiterMedia), where he covered emerging web and business technology. Previously, he was business editor for a daily newspaper.

David graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Journalism.


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Lachlan Donald

Lachlan Donald is Lead Developer for SitePoint’s web development team, which is responsible for building and deploying solutions for businesses. He works on a daily basis with dynamic languages on a variety of platforms, and specializes in building accessible content management applications.

Lachlan completed his Bachelor of Computer Science with Honours, as the top-scoring student of the year. Prior to joining SitePoint, he worked in a variety of positions, including consulting roles at the Bureau of Meteorology, James Cook University, and Channel 9.

Nick Langmaid

Nick Langmaid started in the information technology industry in 1976 as a mainframe systems programmer. In the 30 years since, he has worked for many companies, large and small, designing and implementing systems to satisfy their business needs.

Nick is the principal consultant at Solution Space, and specializes in requirements management and software system design. In addition to working with the SitePoint team, Nick is currently working with one of Australia’s largest companies to use web technologies to extend and modernize its retail point-of-sale operations.

Nick lives with his wife Anne and two children. When time and weather permit—which is all too rarely—he enjoys flying light aircraft.

Matthew Magain

Matthew Magain holds a Master of Engineering degree and one half of an Associate Diploma in Graphic Design, qualifications that reflect his love for both the creative and technical aspects of the Web. His first taste of web programming came during a research posting at the Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and he has been jumping back and forth between client- and server-side projects ever since.

Matthew has worked as a consultant for IBM’s Business Consulting Services, as a freelance web developer, and as an English teacher in Japan. Since joining SitePoint as a Technical Editor he has edited several books, including Ian Lloyd’s Build Your Own Web Site The Right Way Using HTML & CSS, commonly accepted as the best beginner’s web design book on the market.1

Matthew lives with his wife Kimberley and their daughter Sophia.

Ian Muir

Ian Muir is Ektron’s go-to web guy. A web developer by trade, he is also a web content management and Ektron CMS400.NET evangelist. Ian develops and teaches Ektron’s Certified Developer Training Program, works with customers and partners deploying web sites, and cultivates the company’s growing user community.

Ian is the architect of the Ektron DevCenter, a site dedicated to providing web developers, designers, and webmasters with a range of resources to support them in building web sites, intranets and extranets, and applications.

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Ian is a promoter of open source projects in ASP.NET, and of collaborative events such as BarCamp. He has extensive experience with PHP, ColdFusion, C#, and VB.NET. He graduated from the University of Maine with a Bachelor of Arts degree in New Media.

Kevin Yank

Kevin Yank is the Technical Director of SitePoint, and oversees all of its technical publications—books, articles, newsletters, and blogs. He has written over 50 articles for SitePoint on technologies including PHP, XML, ASP.NET, Java, JavaScript, and CSS.

Kevin writes the SitePoint Tech Times, SitePoint’s biweekly technical newsletter for web developers, which has 120,000 readers worldwide. He is also a sought-after speaker, presenting regularly at conferences such as Web Directions and Fundamentos Web. However, he is best known for his book, Build Your Own Database Driven Website

Using PHP & MySQL.2

Kevin enjoys performing improvised comedy theater and flying light aircraft.

Our Findings The State of Web Development Survey 2006 informed this report, to provide us with insight into current and important developments in the world of the Web. Much of the data reinforces our ideas about what is happening, but some questions have uncovered new trends within the developer community. This report presents the raw data from the survey, interpreted via expert analysis and commentary to present some thought-provoking ideas about what it all really means.

We provide a brief breakdown here of the subjects covered by the 15 questions, and a precis of our findings. A glossary of abbreviations and terms is provided at the end of the report.

who responded The survey received an enormous response from both the Ektron and SitePoint developer communities. Just over 50% of the survey participants are actively employed in the Internet industry, and the rest work with the Web in varying capacities within other industries.

Of the former, 40% are freelance developers or owners of web design/development companies, and 12% work for a web design/development company. Of the remaining 48%, about 30% administer or manage a company’s or organization’s site, with 5% managing their own ecommerce sites. The remaining 18% is almost evenly split between students at 8%, and the ever-popular “other” category at 10%. This distribution shows that a good cross-section of web professionals participated in the survey, rather than just one specific group.

design practice in the real world There aren’t a whole lot of surprises emerging from the questions about standards compliance and standards-based design. About 17% of the people surveyed use pure CSS to lay out their pages, while 69% mostly use CSS and only occasionally resort to table-based layouts in the sites they build.

Almost 78% of respondents validate their markup, with 25% of developers going the extra mile to maintain 100% standards-compliance with their code. A promising trend is evident—developers across the board are recognizing and implementing web standards. Data from some of the other questions also supports the contention that more web professionals are creating sites to meet web

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standards. Just over 39% of developers list accessibility as a topic they want to learn about, and 33% would like to see more resources available, both online and offline, for learning XHTML and CSS.

tools of the trade The information gathered about server platforms is more unexpected. At 68%, PHP is by far the most common language being used by developers, but what we find interesting is that about half of the PHP developers surveyed also work with at least one other language. When developers were asked what server platforms they planned to learn about in the next 12 months, Ruby (at 24%) and ASP.NET 2.0 (at 22%) were the most popular choices. These results suggest that many web developers might get started with PHP, then move on to object oriented languages such as Ruby, .NET, and JSP. It’s also surprising that classic ASP is still the most common of the Microsoft languages, but as mentioned previously, there’s a growing interest in learning ASP.NET 2.0.

resources for learning Several of the survey questions related to the trends that developers are following. Respondents most commonly cited best practices and design as the areas of web development that they wanted to learn about. Search engine optimization and usability were the next most popular choices. When web developers were queried about the technologies for which they’d like to see more resources, 47% nominated AJAX. Next up was the XHTML/CSS combination, followed by JavaScript and JavaScript libraries.

content management When queried about the type of content management system (CMS) they were using, respondents were split fairly evenly between those who use a home-grown CMS, those who have acquired an external CMS (open source or commercial), and those who use no CMS at all.

adoption of web technologies In addition to an increase in the use of AJAX/JavaScript, the survey’s respondents show an interest in using more community-oriented tools. In response to the question of which technologies they plan to use in the next 12 months, 37% of developers intend to use blogs in their development projects, 25% aim to use podcasting, and 20% mean to use wikis. Another question asked respondents to indicate the kinds of resources they use to stay up to date. Of the respondents, 96% use online articles, but 60% also use forums, and 55% also use blogs. While articles are respondents’ main source of information, less formal communication tools, such as blogs, forums, and wikis, are becoming increasingly important resources.

the future of the Web The survey revealed some very interesting trends in how the Web is evolving. Developers and designers are placing more emphasis on creating rich user interfaces, using AJAX and Flash. Standards compliance is a concern for the majority of web professionals. Finally, creating object oriented code, and working with languages that provide solid frameworks on which functionality can be developed rapidly—such as Ruby and ASP.NET—are on the horizon for most developers. The Web is clearly moving in a direction that is both improving the user experience and creating more efficient code.



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Tools of the Trade These questions dealt with the development environments that people use, and the server technologies they are developing for. We asked participants about both the technologies they use currently, and the technologies that they expect to start using over the next 12 months.

Dreamweaver remains the most-used development environment, with over 40% of respondents naming it as their primary environment.

On the server front, PHP is the technology of choice, with 67% of respondents saying that they develop for this platform. However, significant numbers of respondents expect to start using Ruby (24%) and Microsoft’s ASP.NET (22%) over the next 12 months.

None of these statistics are overly surprising but, as we’ll show in the next few pages, our analysis revealed some sub-trends that may be less obvious.

Question 2: What is your primary development environment? As may have been expected, the responses to this question (shown in Figure 1) indicate that Dreamweaver is the most popular choice for building web pages, with over 40% of respondents indicating that it was their primary development environment. More surprising is that "text editor” was the second highest choice, at 30%!

Figure 1. Breakdown of respondents’ primary development environment



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Commentary

Lachlan Development tools have almost religious significance for developers! The task of convincing a developer to adopt a new development environment is not one to be tackled lightly. The strong negative correlations that the raw data shows between types of development environments make this apparent—few people choose to use more than one environment.

That said, the tools do influence developers’ perceptions of the development task. For example, Dreamweaver users tend to say they don’t use CSS for layout—presumably they rely on Dreamweaver to translate their work into “web standards” without their having to intervene. Most users of visual development tools are content to let the tools handle the underlying code for them.

There are some interesting contradictions in the responses. For example, Zend Studio developers are enthusiastic about learning best practices, yet claim they aren’t interested in learning about design. This correlation could be because these developers have, largely speaking, pigeonholed themselves as developers, and therefore don’t feel that they need to educate themselves about other best practices that could be grouped under the design umbrella.

It seems that Visual Studio users aren’t interested in other editors, or in SEO, CSS, or accessibility. This trend may be due to the fact that Visual Studio is mostly used to develop applications for use within larger companies; it might also indicate that developers who fall under the “corporate” stereotype that we introduced in the previous section commonly ignore the semantic nature of the Web. Table-based layouts are still popular in this area of the market, which suggests that competing at a search engine level is not a huge consideration for these respondents.

Matt It works the other way too. Those living on the bleeding edge—the “gurus”—aren’t interested in using tools that are mainstays for more conservative developers. Despite recent advances in industry support for standards, code completion, and other productivity-enhancing features, the survey shows that developers who are actively using “Web 2.0” technologies are typically using a text editor (or Zend Studio) to write their code.

The relationships in the data are obvious: ASP.NET developers tend to use Visual Studio as their coding tool; ColdFusion developers commonly use Dreamweaver to write their code; PHP, Perl, Python and Ruby developers prefer to write code in a text editor.

It’s interesting to note the positive correlation between developers who use a text editor and those who use CSS for layout. This correlation indicates that developers who like clean, valid markup prefer to do things “by hand,” despite the recent growth in web standards support provided by tools like Dreamweaver. However, it may also be the case that respondents who indicated that they “primarily use CSS for layout” aren’t working on large projects—operating with a text editor and producing markup that validates is a lot easier when the number and size of files being edited is small.

Compare this with the negative correlation between respondents’ use of Dreamweaver and their adoption of CSS for layout. This correlation supports the theory that the majority of Dreamweaver users come from a design background but, though they’re beginning to brave the world of CSS, haven’t fully embraced it yet.

A similar negative correlation exists between the usage of Visual Studio and a tendency not to validate markup, although in that case it may be the case that the ASP.NET world isn’t generally concerned with, or aware of, web standards.


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One can only postulate on whether the users of these tools are less standards-savvy than their “guru” counterparts because they’re unaware of the benefits that can be gained from building with web standards, or because standards are just not a priority for them. Sometimes the culture of an organization is such that standards compliance is seen as involving unnecessary overheads, even if the developers are pushing for it.

Despite the fact that these tools offer increasing support for web standards, developers appear to be making little use of these features at present. There may be some opportunities here for publishers on the topics of Visual Studio and Dreamweaver, although this depends largely on whether the reason for the negative correlation is a lack of education or simply a matter of priorities.

As an aside, I’m quite amazed at the high number of respondents who indicated that their primary development environment is a text editor. While I’m personally not a fan of graphical environments, I consider an IDE that has good debugging and code completion as an essential development tool.

Question 3: Which server platform(s) do you develop for? As shown in Figure 2, the responses to this question indicate that more than two-thirds of the survey respondents are developing in PHP, making it by far the most common platform among respondents. Classic ASP was second highest, with 20% of respondents still using the technology even though it’s now over five years old.

Figure 2. Breakdown of server platform used by respondents

To help interpret the overall picture, we provide a breakdown of the respondents who use PHP; as Figure 3 shows, the percentage of PHP developers who also use any of the Microsoft environments is significant.




Figure 3. Breakdown of platform usage by PHP developers

Question 4: What server platform(s) are you not currently developing for, but expect to in the next 12 months?

As illustrated in Figure 4, the responses to this question indicate that the languages respondents plan on developing for over the coming year are Ruby (24%) and ASP.NET 2.0 (21%). Java and PHP still garner some interest.

Figure 4. Breakdown of planned server platforms



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Commentary Nick By studying the survey data carefully, we can see an interesting pattern in the statements about

the technologies that people expect to start using in the next 12 months.

The survey data suggests that the strongest growth (at least 20% of respondents) will occur in the adoption of ASP.NET 2.0 and Ruby on Rails. The second tier of growth (10–20%) looks like it will arise in the usage of PHP and Java. The potential growth in all other platforms, including Python, languishes below 10%.

However, the interest in adopting ASP.NET 2.0 seems to come mainly from respondents who are already developing for the existing ASP base, as can be seen by Figure 5. The survey data suggests that few ASP developers expect to be moving to other platforms, and few users of other platforms expect to be moving to ASP.

Figure 5. What server platforms are currently used by people planning to start using ASP.NET 2.0?

On the open source front, developers who expect to start using Ruby, Perl, Python, or PHP are likely to be using another of these languages already.

So this establishes Ruby on Rails as the main growth area among open source technologies, as illustrated by Figure 4, with new applications that implement Rails expected on sites that currently use PHP and—to a lesser extent—Perl and Python. Figure 6 shows that a large number of these Rails converts will be PHP developers.



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Figure 6. What server platforms are currently used by people planning to start using Ruby on Rails?

This trend probably comes as no surprise to anyone who’s keeping up with the buzz about Rails. Also, the growth in the adoption of Rails presents an opportunity for publishers, toolmakers, and developers alike.

Lachlan Yes, it’s as if there are two separate worlds. Developers who are working on a PHP platform rarely work on the ASP.NET platform. PHP is a fairly easy-to-use language, with a reasonable degree of ongoing development. This makes it approachable for amateur web designers who are just starting out, and for developers building small sites that make use of static HTML—as reinforced by the graph in Figure 7. It’s well supported in hosting environments and there’s lots of PHP work available. Therefore, it’s not surprising that the language is so popular.

Ruby on Rails developers, by contrast, have no intention of using the PHP platform, as Figure 7 shows. I can only speculate that once the initial jump has been made from PHP, going back is not something many people want to do.

If I were running a hosting company, I’d see the provision of support for PHP and ASP.NET 2.0 as pretty safe bets for now. That said, I’d also be getting ready to support the future demand for Ruby on Rails.



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Figure 7. What server platforms are currently used by people planning to start using PHP?

Matt The data also shows that, while the “gurus” are convinced that Ruby on Rails is the greatest thing since sliced bread, the mainstream corporate community is not yet ready for it. Despite the clear time-saving benefits, it will be some time before the technology is fully adopted by this sector, as large organizations lack the skill or confidence to take a punt on such a new technology. They’re staying with Java, ASP.NET, and ColdFusion for now. My prediction is that it is only a matter of time before Rails makes its way into the corporate arena, in the same way that Linux has made huge inroads into large organizations over the past decade.

I agree with Lachlan on the topic of Ruby on Rails developers not wanting to move back to PHP—Rails programmers are evangelical in their love for the structure and time-saving conventions that the framework gives them. There’s no way they’d go back to an environment that doesn’t automatically provide those features. (I’m a little surprised that Python doesn’t seem to have a similar appeal with frameworks like Django coming to maturity, though.)

The Java world is also attracting developers who have dipped their toes into the open source pool, but Rails developers are the exception, as shown in Figure 8. The natural deduction here is that once someone has experienced the benefits of the Rails framework, they are unlikely to return to the comparatively complex task of programming in Java.

There are some indicators here for publishers: books about Rails and ASP.NET 2.0 look like they’ll be popular, as, to a lesser extent, do Python books. The market for books about Perl and Java will probably stay the same, while interest in books about PHP might decline. There will no doubt be more frameworks that mimic Rails popping up in other languages,

And some advice for companies that are building web applications from scratch: take a look at how adopting a framework might cut down on your development costs. The approaches to rapid development used in Rails are inspiring frameworks on other platforms to change the way they go about things, and this is good news for all web developers.


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Figure 8. What server platforms are currently used by people planning to start using Java/JSP?




Raw Data and Analysis Tools With this report, you'll receive a file archive containing a copy of the raw data on which it is based, along with some tools for performing your own analysis. We’re confident that the commentary provided in this report will have stimulated you to generate numerous ideas of your own. We provide the survey data so that you have the opportunity to add substance to your theories by testing them against concrete information.

There are three parts to the Raw Data and Analysis Tools file archive:

❑ The raw data in spreadsheet form. This is an exact copy of the information collected from survey respondents, except that personally identifying information, such as email addresses, has been removed.

❑ An analysis tool in spreadsheet form that shows the statistical correlation between pairs of answers from the survey data.

❑ For each pair of answers, we provide a “likelihood” factor—how likely it is that if a person makes one statement then they will also make the other. A likelihood of 1.0 represents no correlation at all. More than 1.0 means a positive correlation between the two statements—if one is true the other is more likely to be true as well. Less than 1.0 means a negative correlation—if one is true, then the other is less likely to be true.

❑ For each pair of answers, we also provide a statistical significance rating calculated using Yates χ2 (chi-squared) test.3 The values are noted in the spreadsheet.

❑ A representation of the same statistical correlations, presented as an HTML file. This is not particularly useful for analysis, but it’s a more digestible and convenient way to review the data and contemplate the possible links between factors.

Citation Policy and Licenses

Intellectual Property and Usage Guidelines for Members of the Press All information and data provided by Ektron, Inc. and SitePoint Pty Ltd in their jointly conducted The State of Web Development Survey 2006 (“the Survey”) and The State of Web Development 2006/2007 (“the Report”) is proprietary information that belongs to Ektron, Inc. and SitePoint Pty Ltd and is protected by US, Australian, and international copyright laws, treaties, and conventions. Severe penalties apply for unauthorized use, distribution, and access. SitePoint Pty Ltd and Ektron, Inc. make the following licenses available for purchase.

Authorized Uses

Single User License

If a Single User License has been purchased, this is a legal agreement between an individual and SitePoint Pty Ltd and Ektron, Inc. to use the Report. The Report is licensed, not sold, and cannot be stored anywhere other than the individual’s computer. This license may not be shared or used concurrently on different computers. An individual may install and use a copy of the Report on a single computer. The Report may be used personally and exclusively by this single user. The electronic version of the Report is

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protected by copyright and must be so treated. The Report must not be copied or made commercially available. SitePoint Pty Ltd and Ektron, Inc. may terminate the license if the individual fails to comply with these terms. If the license is terminated, the Report must be deleted from the individual’s computer. By installing or otherwise using the Report, the individual agrees to be bound by these terms.

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What’s Next? If you find the content of this free preview helpful, why not purchase the full report?

The full report includes:

❑ 54 pages of results, analysis and commentary on the state of Web Development in 2006/2007

❑ raw results dataset from over 5,000 survey participants


http://www.sitepoint.com/launch/survey06/http:[email protected]


❑ a full correlation spreadsheet tool to help with your own analysis

Blogs, podcasts, AJAX, server platforms, content management systems, industry best practices, and CSS layouts are just some of the areas analyzed in depth in this report.

This complete, yet easy to digest, almost “conversation style” report will bring you and your organization up to speed with the state of the web development industry in 2006/2007, with a look at what challenges lie ahead.

What's Covered in the Report? The report addresses the following areas:

❑ How Web Professionals Classify Themselves

❑ Server Platform Utilization

❑ Design Practice in the Real World

❑ The State of Content Management

❑ New Technology Adoption Patterns

❑ Where Developers Turn for Resources

❑ The Future of the Web

The detailed report is richly illustrated with graphs of survey results and correlations. It also contains a comprehensive glossary of terms, with complete and easy-to-understand definitions for all terms used.

Who Should Purchase this Report? This report is a gold mine for those who target or work with web professionals, or have a vested interest in the web development space. For example:

❑ media outlets (newspapers and magazines)

❑ software providers

❑ IT consulting companies

❑ IT book publishers

❑ web design and development shops

❑ technology evangelists and bloggers

You'll not only benefit from being able to refer to up-to-date industry statistics, facts, and trends, if you sell products or services to web professionals, you'll gain invaluable knowledge to help you tailor your marketing strategies for the future.

How to Purchase the Report You can purchase the report online now, by visiting http://www.sitepoint.com/launch/survey06/.


http://www.sitepoint.com/launch/survey06/http://www.sitepoint.com/launch/survey06/


Glossary

accessibility The underlying premise of accessibility is that every web user should

have access to the information and experiences available online. The nature of the Web and the tools used to create and access the information it offers means that some users—for instance, those with visual, auditory, or other physical impairments—have difficulty accessing web content. The tenets and practice of the accessible Web aim to ensure these users’ impairments do not prevent them from finding the Web a valuable resource, and that they have access to the same content that other visitors enjoy.

aggregator See feed reader.

AJAX AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, but the term has come to represent more than just a combination of these technologies. AJAX is a development technique that enhances a web page by sending small amounts of information to and from the server without reloading the entire page, resulting in a richer user experience.

API An Application Programming Interface is the interface that a web site makes available to other sites or applications so that they can request services and exchange data.

ASP Active Server Pages is Microsoft’s server-side scripting architecture. ASP is a gateway for scripting languages such as VBScript and JScript. Because it has been succeeded by the more recent ASP.NET technologies, ASP has come to be known as “classic ASP”.

ASP.NET ASP.NET is a set of web development technologies built by Microsoft. It forms part of Microsoft’s .NET platform, and is the successor to Micro-soft’s Active Server Pages technology (see ASP).

Atom Atom is one of several competing formats for the XML syndication of blogs. See RSS, syndication.

blog (noun) A blog (short for weblog) is a web site to which regular entries are made; they are displayed on the site in reverse-chronological order. Blogs can vary from low-traffic personal journals to widely read and influential commentary on a specific technology, industry, or other topic of interest to readers.

blog (verb) To maintain a blog; to write a post for a blog.

blogger A person who maintains or writes for a blog.

blogosphere The collective term used to describe all blogs (or at least, the most popular ones) as an influential community.

Classic ASP See ASP.

CMS A CMS, or Content Management System, is an application designed to store, format, reproduce, and manage web/intranet data. A CMS usually




uses a database to store the content, and a server-side scripting language to recall and present the data.

ColdFusion ColdFusion is Adobe’s (and before that Macromedia’s) server-side scripting technology. It supports a range of databases including dBASE, MS Access, FoxPro, and Paradox.

compiled language A compiled language is any language that requires compilation before it can be executed. The compilation process takes human-readable code (in a language such as Java or C) and produces machine-readable binary code that can be executed by a computer.

CSS Cascading Style Sheets is a language in which designers can define a set of formatting rules. These rules can be interpreted by the web browser (or other client), and may contain the styling and formatting information intended for the presentation of a web page. The W3C recommends the use of CSS to help keep web content (HTML/XHTML) separate from its formatting information.

CSS layout CSS layout refers to the approach of using CSS to control the position of elements on a web page (rather than using HTML tables for this purpose). The result is that the document’s structure is cleaner and easier to maintain, because the presentation of the document is stored in a separate file. See table-based layout.

CSS-P CSS Positioning; see CSS layout.

DHTML Dynamic HTML is an implementation of JavaScript that is written to allow high-level, client-side browser manipulation.

Django Django is a high-level web framework written in Python. Like Rails, it purports to save on development time by being intuitive and making intelligent assumptions about basic functionality.

Dojo Dojo is an open source DHTML toolkit written in JavaScript.

DOM A DOM, or Document Object Model, is a tree representation of the structure of a web document that may be used via scripts to access and manipulate any element within that page.

dot net See .NET.

Dreamweaver Dreamweaver is a web development tool created by Macromedia (now Adobe Systems). It allows the user to edit a web page using either a WYSIWYG view or raw HTML, and provides many features for designing and developing a web site.

ECMAScript See JavaScript.

ecommerce Electronic commerce (ecommerce) refers to the buying, selling, marketing, servicing, and distribution of products and services over the Internet.

feed reader A feed reader (or aggregator) is an application that displays syndicated web content such as blogs and podcasts.




Firefox Firefox is an open source browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation. It has gained significant market share in the past few years, largely due to its extensibility and regular security updates.

Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash) is a development environment for creating Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). The application runs in a web browser in which the Flash Player is installed.

Flex Adobe Flex is a collection of technologies that combine to give developers a strong framework for building Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). Most notably, the client-side uses Flash.

forum A forum is a site on the Web that allows users to engage in discussion. The presence of regular visitors to a forum helps to develop a sense of community.

freelancer A freelancer is a person who is self-employed. Freelancers generally enjoy a greater variety of assignments than those in regular employment.

HTML HTML, or HyperText Markup Language, is the language that web developers and designers use to create web pages, and format content for display in web browsers. See XHTML.

IDE An Integrated Development Environment is a tool for creating software. An IDE distinguishes itself from other editors by incorporating such features as a debugger, a code profiler, code highlighting, and code completion.

IE See Internet Explorer.

information architecture Information architecture is the study of the organization and structure of effective web systems. In particular, it focuses on the relationships between internal page elements, as well as the relationships between individual pages.

Internet Explorer Microsoft Internet Explorer is the leading web browser for the Microsoft Windows operating system. Also known as MSIE or IE, it was initially based on a version of the Mosaic browser. Internet Explorer is included for free with Microsoft Windows. In the past, Microsoft was criticized for anti-competitive behavior for requiring Internet Explorer to be packaged with all new computers that used Microsoft Windows. Internet Explorer has developed a reputation as the least secure of the major browsers. Internet Explorer 6.0 was released in 2001. In the past, some versions of Internet Explorer for Macintosh OS were released, but Internet Explorer for Mac has since been discontinued. Today, it is only available for the Microsoft Windows platform.

intranet An intranet is a private computer network used by an organization to share information with its employees.

Java Java is a cross-platform, object oriented programming language suitable for writing anything from a distributed application that runs on a corporate network to a database-driven web site to host your personal photo gallery. Java programs are compiled into an intermediate binary form, which needs to be interpreted by a Virtual Machine. Virtual Machines




exist for many platforms, allowing compiled applications to be used on a variety of platforms.

JavaScript Originally developed by Netscape Communications and since adopted as a web standard, JavaScript (not to be confused with Java) is a cross-platform, world wide web scripting language most commonly (but not exclusively) used for client-side applications. It is strictly named ECMAScript, after the ECMA organization that formalized it, but the name JavaScript is much more widely understood.

jQuery jQuery is an open source JavaScript library that is gaining popularity because of its simple syntax and small file size.

JSP JavaServer Pages is a server-side technology that allows developers to create web-based applications that can make use of components developed in the Java programming language, according to the JavaBeans specification. In some respects, it can be compared to server-side scripting languages such as ASP and PHP. JSP is similar to PHP in the C-style syntax of the Java language, but JSP was also designed to be extensible, using components such as ASP.

microformats Microformats are standards for marking up data that allow you to provide additional information, including the markup’s semantic meaning, in a way that computers can interpret.

MVC The model-view-controller approach to software architecture is a paradigm that separates an application’s presentation, business logic, and data, so that modifications to one of these aspects do not affect the other two.

.NET The .NET Framework (pronounced “dot net”) is an application platform developed by Microsoft. It's made up of a massive number of classes and a managed runtime environment known as the Common Language Runtime (CLR). Many of the classes in the .NET Framework work in conjunction with each other to form technologies such as ASP.NET, which can be used to develop web applications; ADO.NET, which provides powerful data access features; and Windows Forms, which can be used to create user interfaces for desktop applications. .NET also allows developers to program in any CLR-compatible language that they choose, and have their code remain completely compatible with code written in any other CLR-compatible language. The most popular of these CLR-compatible languages are Visual Basic and C# (pronounced “C sharp”).

OOP Object oriented programming is a programming approach that involves the building of abstracted code objects designed to interact with each other in order to carry out a particular action. This approach is an alternative to the simpler but more common “procedural programming” method. Java and C++ are examples of well-known languages that often use the object oriented programming methodology.

Perl Perl is one of the original server-side scripting languages. It is still popular today.




PHP PHP, or Hypertext Pre-processor, is a widely used, general-purpose scripting language that is especially well suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML.

podcasting Podcasting is a method of distributing multimedia files (audio and video) over the Internet using a syndication format such as RSS. Unlike streamed audio or video, files downloaded as a podcast can be played on mobile devices and personal computers.

Prototype Prototype is a powerful JavaScript library. Prototype comes bundled with the Ruby on Rails framework, but can also be used on its own.

Python Python is an open source, object oriented scripting language that was written by Dutch programmer Guido van Rossum in the early 1990s.

Rails See Ruby on Rails.

RSS RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, and is the most popular format for syndicating content on the Web. See Atom, syndication.

Ruby Ruby is an open source, object oriented scripting language developed by Japanese programmer Yukihiro Matsumoto in the early 1990s.

Ruby on Rails Ruby on Rails is an open source web application framework developed by Danish programmer David Heinemeier Hansson. Written in Ruby, its popularity has been fueled by the success of several applications built by 37signals, a Chicago-based web applications company that champions the Rails framework.

scripting language Unlike a compiled language, a scripting language does not need to be compiled in order to be executed. A set of instructions presented in a scripting language will be executed in order, without having to undergo a compilation process.

SEM Search Engine Marketing is a set of marketing methods designed to boost the traffic to a web site by increasing its ranking in the results pages for search engines.

SEO Search Engine Optimization refers to the process of optimizing a web site so that it appears prominently in search engine results for specific keywords. Search Engine Optimization may involve modifying the markup of a site to make it more search engine friendly, which is free, or it may involve paying search engines or directories for inclusion. Some Search Engine Optimization techniques are frowned upon because they involve trying to “mislead” the search engines into believing that a site is more relevant to a search term than it really is. These are referred to as “black hat” SEO techniques.

standards compliance The term “standards compliance” refers to web sites and applications that adhere to the recommendations and standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

syndication In the context of the Web, syndication refers to the publishing of content in an XML format that is easily processed by a feed reader. There are several competing standards for syndicating content on the Web, including RSS and Atom. See feed reader.




table-based layout Table-based layout is the practice of using HTML tables to position elements on the screen. The excellent support provided for CSS by today’s browsers has resulted in the practice of using tables to create page layouts being considered out-of-date. See CSS layout.

unit testing Unit testing is the procedure for validating whether or not a particular module of source code is functioning correctly in isolation.

usability Usability refers to the ease with which a user interface can be used by its intended audience to achieve defined goals. Usability incorporates many factors: design, functionality, structure, information architecture, and more.

versioning Also known as version control, versioning refers to the process of managing multiple revisions of a document—be that a text file, an HTML file, an image or some other document that undergoes change as it evolves. Using version control allows a team of people to work on the one document, and revert to previous versions if required.

Visual Studio Visual Studio is the feature-rich, integrated development environment for building web sites using Microsoft’s .NET framework.

Web 2.0 Web 2.0 is a phrase that has come to represent the new wave of web applications that focus on usability, user-generated content, rich user interfaces and more.

web standards The term “web standards” refers to the group of technologies recommended for usage by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and primarily includes HTML, XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, and the DOM. However, to build a site “with web standards,” it is not sufficient simply to use these technologies: the term also refers to an approach that implements the technologies in accordance with recommendations from the W3C, including using style sheets for presentation and developing in a way that does not sacrifice accessibility.

wiki A wiki (pronounced “wick-ee”) is a type of web site that allows the visitors themselves to easily add, remove, and alter the content of the site. Wikis are popular tools for collaborative documentation efforts on the Internet and in intranets.

WPF The Windows Presentation Foundation (formerly named Avalon) is the graphics system for Windows Vista that aims to take graphical web applications beyond the browser.

XHTML XHTML is a version of HTML that combines XML with HTML 4. This provides developers with a language that conforms to the XML format, as opposed to HTML, which is based on SGML (XML is much simpler to parse than SGML). Unfortunately, support for XHTML in browsers is poor, and the leading browser, Microsoft Internet Explorer, does not support the XHTML mime type application/xhtml+xml.

Zend Studio Zend Studio is a commercial, proprietary integrated development environment (IDE) for PHP developers.




χ2 test The chi-squared test (pronounced either “kai” or “kee”, depending on whether you are a statistician or a scholar of ancient Greek) is a test for determining the statistical independence of two sets of data.



The State of Web Development 2006/2007Executive SummaryAbout the SurveyAbout SitePointAbout EktronAbout the AuthorsDavid AponovichLachlan DonaldNick LangmaidMatthew MagainIan MuirKevin Yank

Our FindingsTools of the TradeQuestion 2: What is your primary development environment?Commentary

Question 3: Which server platform(s) do you develop for?Question 4: What server platform(s) are you not currently developing for, but expect to in the next 12 months?Commentary

Raw Data and Analysis ToolsCitation Policy and LicensesIntellectual Property and Usage Guidelines for Members of the PressAuthorized UsesSingle User LicenseIntranet LicenseMarketing/Media LicenseFull Reproduction License

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What’s Next?What's Covered in the Report?Who Should Purchase this Report?How to Purchase the Report

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