Overview of Strudel - A Web-Site Management System

The Strudel system applies concepts from database management systems to the process of building Web sites. Strudel’s key idea is separating the management of the site’s data, the creation and management of the site’s structure, and the visual presentation of the site’s pages. First, the site builder creates a uniform model of all data available at the site. Second, the builder uses this model to declaratively define the Web site’s structure by applying a “sitedefinition query” to the underlying data. Third, the builder specifies the visual presentation of pages in Strudel’s HTML-template language. The data model underlying Strudel is a semistructured model of labeled directed graphs. In this paper we describe Strudel’s architecture and the key characteristics. We report on our experience using Strudel, present the technical problems that arose from our experience and discuss the impact of potential users’ requirements on Strudel’s design.