ISBER Best Practices For Repositories

The availability of high quality biological and environmental specimens for research purposes requires the development of standardized methods for collection, long-term storage, retrieval and distribution of specimens that will enable their future use. Sharing successful strategies for accomplishing this goal is one of the driving forces for the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER). 

ISBER’s Best Practices for Repositories (Best Practices) reflect the collective experience of its members and provide repository professionals with a comprehensive tool to guide them in all their repository activities. The Practices presented here reflect input from individuals within and outside ad hoc committees. The ISBER Best Practices are reviewed bi-annually and are revised to reflect advances in research and technology. 

Adherence to ISBER Best Practices is strictly on a voluntary basis. It is important to note that some aspects of specimen management are governed by national, regional and local regulations. The reader should refer directly to regulations for their national, regional and local requirements, as appropriate. 

Throughout this document effective practices are presented for the management of specimen collections and repositories. In cases wherein a level of operation is indicated that is above the basic recommended practice or more specifically designates the most effective practice, a designation of “Best Practice” is indicated.

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Web server and operating system information

What is a web server and which is the best?
Web Servers List
What is Apache and should it be a part of my web hosting?
On which operating system (or, platform, in tech jargon) should I host my web site?
Unix, Linux and FreeBSD operating systems for web hosting servers
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Web hosting information - tips and articles

Get all your web hosting questions answered from these pages. Here you will find more than 50 tips and articles covering the most important aspects of web hosting. This valuable web hosting information has been written for keeping in mind the beginner, however, many of the articles and tips might be also helpful to the more advanced web developer.

The web hosting information tips and articles have been segregated into sections to help you locate an answer quickly. Links to these sections appear on the left. The entire list of articles is below if you want to go through that.

Customer support for web hosting

Determining the quality of technical support is actually a Catch-22. I mean, you can only come to know of the support once you purchase hosting from that company... right?

NO! There are other ways to find out how far a web hosting company goes to serve its customers.

The simplest, though, time consuming way, is to read about that company on web forums and message boards. Beware of messages posted by representatives of the companies which you can quickly make out because they are self-laudatory. Go to popular online forums to read other people's reviews and experiences with hosting companies.

A quicker way to know about the quality of customer service from a company can be gauged from its web site. Does the company provide direct phone lines? Is there a toll-free number? Are the phones continually busy when you try to call the company? Is there an online chat feature and can you successfully chat with a company representative? Does the company provide direct email address for technical queries and technical support? Does the web site offer a "Support ticketing" system? How quickly does the company respond to your requests over email... etc.

Most web hosting companies also offer a trial period or a money-back guarantee. You can, thus, put your web site on their servers for 30 days and see how things works out. If your site is slow to load in a browser or is often offline , you know that you need to run away from this service as quickly as possible.

The web host uptime guarantee

In my opinion, the single most important thing in choosing a web host is the uptime guarantee. The uptime guarantee is usually stated as a percentage and refers to the amount of time your web site will be available for all to see on the web. So a 99.9% uptime guarantee means that your site would be on the net 99.9% of the time. If we convert the percentages into actual time, a 99.9% uptime means that the web site would be down or offline for 8.76 hours (0.365 days) in a year. For most of us, this is just fine.

If a web host company offers anything less than 99% uptime - move on.

How to choose the best host for your web site?

When you have hundreds (if not thousands) of companies offering web hosting it can become very confusing; especially when all of them offer great features and promise unparallel customer service. Hence, whenever I look at a web hosting company I pay attention to only two things - the Web Server Uptime Guarantee and the Support. These two important aspects are common for both virtual hosting and a dedicated web host.

How do I choose a web host? - READ THIS!

Choosing the right web hosting service for your web site is as important as choosing a house for your family or an office for your business. A good web host can do wonders to your web site and a bad one can play havoc with it.

Though picking up a web hosting service seems pretty straightforward, it's not! The sheer amount of competition in this market and the various options presented to the consumer confuses not only beginners but also seasoned web developers. And this confusion is caused because we don't want to be taken in - We want the best features and service at the best price!

Like I said, when you consider that a web host houses your web site very much like your residence (which houses you and your family), you should take a little time to research and choose a good web host for your site.

So let me save you some time and help you in your research - How to choose the right web host for your web site.

If you are new to web hosting and are about to launch your web site, I suggest that you go through this article in detail. However, if you already have a web site and are frustrated with your present hosts or are simply looking out for change (to brighten up your life!), jump straight to the page that lists my recommended reliable web hosting companies. Just keep in mind that my advice and suggestions regarding the various web hosts are based on my personal experience.

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Limitations

The code above requires JavaScript 1.1 and above to execute. This means that if your visitor is using a browser prior to Netscape 3.0 or Internet Explorer 4.0, they will not be able to view your rollovers. 

The links, however, will still work correctly when clicked (even on browsers with JavaScript disabled or with no JavaScript support at all). This is important since mouseover effects are purely cosmetic, and you don't want them to detract from the overall functionality of your site. 

Note that you should probably also make sure that the files you use for the buttons are small. If your files are too big, the image rollovers (or mouse-overs) will not have the smooth effect of buttons popping up and down that you intend.

How to Create Image Rollovers in JavaScript

by Christopher Heng, thesitewizard.com

Image rollovers (sometimes also called Image MouseOvers or mouse-overs) are a fairly common sight in websites today (although I don't use them at this time on either thesitewizard.com or thefreecountry.com). You've probably seen them around too: when you move your mouse cursor over a button on a particular site, the button appears to be depressed. Move your mouse cursor away, and the button pops out again. 

Image rollovers are implemented by creating two images for the same button. The first image is that which you want displayed when the mouse is not hovering over it, typically the "undepressed" or "up" state of a button. The second image is the graphic you want displayed when the mouse pointer is over the graphic, usually showing the button in a depressed or "down" state. 

The actual mouse-over effect is created by some JavaScript code that is added to the affected links. Your link would typically look like this:

Databind Controls in Expression Web

by Todd Miranda

Expression Web provides terrific tools for creating static HTML sites, but most web sites have some dynamic elements. Displaying database data is accomplished by "binding" that data to controls in an ASP.NET page. This video demonstrates how to bind controls to data from a database using the tools in Expression Web.
(17 minutes, 18 seconds)
Sample code files 
Video and audio link

Create a SQL Datasource in Expression Web

Expression Web has many tools for working with static HTML pages, but it also has tools for creating more dynamic pages. Dynamic pages often retrieve data or content from a source of data. This video demonstrates how to create a SQL Datasource to be used in dynamic pages.
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Sample code files 
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Create Site Navigation Based on Site Structure
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Most web sites have more than one page, so some type of navigation user interface is needed. A navigation user interface can be some static links to the other pages, or can involve the use of menus or treeviews. No matter how the navigation user interface is implemented, a site's logical structure (also called a site map) must first be defined. Prior to ASP.NET 2.0, developers typically created their own site navigation solutions, which can be time-consuming and expensive to maintain. ASP.NET 2.0 makes defining a site's structure and implementing the navigation user interface much easier. This video demonstrates the use of some ASP.NET 2.0 navigation controls in Expression Web.
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Creating Online Forms to Collect Data with Expression Web

by Fred Gerantabee

Learn to create online forms to collect data and send it to an email address or database with Expression Web.
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Learn to create CSS drop-down menus using standards-based design techniques with Expression Web.
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Expression Web Training Videos

Setting the Style Application mode to Manual in Expression Web 
by Fred Gerantabee 

Learn about when and why you might choose to set the manual style application mode in Expression Web for creating and modifying CSS rules.
(04 minutes, 12 seconds)
Sample code files 
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Creating a Standards-Based Page Layout using CSS in Expression Web 
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Learn how to use CSS to create standards-based page layouts using Expression Web, and discover some of the benefits of using CSS-based layouts. 
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Creating a Page Template with Expres