About this Web site

by Ralph G. Johnson, former webmaster

This page will tell you what tools were used to create this site, why the home page has two versions, how it evolved, etc.
It first began as a experiment on my personal AOL account, but that was obviously not easy to remember, and was easily recognized to be what it was, a personal web page. With the consent of the Executive Board of NYAIL, I registered the domain locksmith.org, and began with one page (the current count is around 30 pages).
I've written non-browser-specific pages, since I don't know what browser visitors will be using. I've kept to HTML 2 specifications, so you won't see the latest features available (CSS, frames, Javabeans, ActiveX, etc.) Frames are a bad idea anyway, here's why. Javascript is used only to provide an additional line of text in the status bar, and Java on the events page to provide a calendar from a free external site. I do not record e-mail addresses, nor provide them to anyone else (I receive more than enough spam, and will not add to it).
You may have noticed that there are two (slightly different) home pages – the home page that's delivered when http://www.locksmith.org is requested had the Javascript noted above, and a visitor counter on it (it's a serverside page), as well as the links to the RSAC and ICRA rating site (we rate as completely inoffensive), and the New York and Locksmith Webrings. To avoid having the counter increment every time a visitor would link back to the home page from elsewhere on the site, I copied most of that page to indx.htm and linked all other pages to it. The average visitor probably doesn't notice, it speeds loading, and we get a more accurate count. There used to be a sound file that played when the page loaded, but it slowed page loading too much. I also linked to a service which provides a local weather conditions on an image icon. In October 2000 Google search links were added to both home pages to make it easier for visitors to find information. I was surprised to find that Google reported 45 indexed pages (not counting the 39 in the members directory that I've forbidden search engines to index.)
Since I don't know how fast the visitors are linked to the Internet, I've limited the size of each page, and the images on each. Images are compressed, and the shop profile page has the option to click on images for larger size images. The largest page was the Useful links, and it's all text (except for a few logos). Because the page grew to over twenty printed pages in November 2000 it was split into four smaller pages. It may not look as pretty, but it's more useful since it loads faster. Because the Events page became excessively long in April 2000 I split the page into separate year pages, with links to previous years from the current year. In June 2000 I took a Fire Safety Directors course and received a 92% on the FDNY test, so I created the FSD pages to share my knowledge with fellow locksmiths and anyone else who was interested.
The images are created by GIF Construction Set, which also provides ways of creating animated GIFs (its primary purpose). I use images so that once created, they appear at the top of the appropriate page as well as both home pages. I don't have to touch the home pages for the update date to appear. Also, if the page HTML code is cached on another server (such as at Google), the cached page reflects the updated images, even if the page was cached some time ago. The downside is that anyone using a program to monitor the home page (such as Netscape's bookmark monitor) won't see that the images have changed, therefore won't know there have been updates on following pages.
Pages are written using WebExpress (mostly) and Netscape Composer 4, with NoteTab for tweaking the html code when there's no other way.
All photos (except the one above) were developed by Mystic Color Lab, and returned as JPEGs on disk. They were then edited with Corel Photohouse, MGI Photosuite, ThumbsPlus and/or PaintShopPro. Most images (not the "updated" gifs) are compressed using GIF Wizard or Website Garage.
Our site is hosted by Valueweb, which has provided good service at a reasonable price.
I retired in March, 2002 (having been voted Life Member of NYAIL) and handed the webmaster job over to Secretary and Treasurer Rick Duskiewicz; my personal website is at http://ralphgjohnson.com which is the new location of the Fire Safety Director pages as well as philosophy, quotes, links and other interesting information. I hope you come to visit!

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