Understanding Modal window

In user interface design, a modal window (often called modal dialog because the window is almost always used to display a dialog box) is a child window which requires the user to interact with it before they can return to operating the parent application. Modal windows are commonly used in GUI systems to command user awareness and to display emergency states.

Creating a popup window is reasonably easy if you just want another browser window of a specified size and you don't care if your visitors swap back and forward between the various browser windows. Where it becomes difficult (if not impossible) is where you want the new window to stay in front of the original window and not allow your visitor to interact with the original window until the new window has closed. We call a window that insists on retaining the focus like this a modal window.

Usage

• Drawing attention to vital pieces of information. This use has been criticised as ineffective.
• blocking the application flow until information required to continue is entered. collecting application configuration options in a centralized dialog.
• Warning that the effects of the current action are not reversible. This is a frequent interaction pattern for modal dialogs, but it is also criticised by usability experts as being ineffective for its intended use (protection against errors in destructive actions) and for which better alternatives exist.

Modal Window Apllication Tools

ThickBox

Webpage UI dialog widget written in JavaScript on top of the jQuery library. Its function is to show a single image, multiple images, inline content, iframed content, or content served through AJAX in a hybrid modal.

TinyBox

TinyBox is an easy to use lightweight JavaScript library for creating modal windows/dialogs in an elegant manner, without using traditional pop-up windows. It can be used to overlay content on the current page (i.e. you can load a page and display it in a box above the current one).

Control.Modal

Control.Modal creates modal windows and lightboxes from any links/anchors elements on your pages. Since it attaches these behaviors to HTML that already has semantic meaning, it will degrade gracefully for browsers that do not support JavaScript, and is search engine friendly. It attaches in one line of code for simple use cases, but is highly customizable and can be used in a variety of edge cases.

MOOdalBox

A modal box (inline popup), used to display remote content loaded using AJAX, web 2.0 style, written for the mootools framework.

Lightbox JS

Lightbox JS is a simple, unobtrusive script used to overlay images on the current page. It's a snap to setup and works on all modern browsers.

GreyBox

Webmaster as a profession

Webmasters are practitioners of web communication. Typically, they are generalists with HTML expertise who manage all aspects of Web operations. On a smaller site, the webmaster will typically be the owner, developer and/or programmer, in addition to the author of the content.
On larger sites, the webmaster will act as a coordinator and overseer to the activities of other people working on the site and is usually an employee of the owner of the Web site, hence webmaster can also be listed as an occupation. If the webmaster is hired by a larger Web site, or promoted to the position, they could do things from web design, to project management, or employee supervision. The range of activities to be undertaken by a webmaster may be estimated using the concept of Website scale.
In the early days of the use of the term "webmaster" (a take-off on the term "postmaster", the administrator of an e-mail system), this role encompassed all aspects of planning, coding, production, and user interface. The webmaster may have many of the duties of an information architect, including ensuring site usability, user experience and menu taxonomy.
However, since the late 90s, this type of webmaster role was typically only found working on small Web sites that could be managed by one person, or in environments where there was not a great deal of role definition. The current model tends to be more team oriented with a website manager or online producer leading a team consisting of web developers, designers, programmers, QA lead, Adobe Flash developers and often at least one usability expert or a UI/UE team. In established web development companies, especially those existing since the 90s, the term webmaster may be used by senior officers of the company, and may include usage such as "Webmaster-in-chief."
A broader definition of webmaster is a businessperson who uses online media to sell products and/or services. This broader definition of webmaster covers not just the technical aspects of overseeing Web site construction and maintenance but also management of content, advertising, marketing and order fulfillment for the Web site.
Core responsibilities of the webmaster include the regulation and management of access rights of different users of a web site, the appearance and setting up web site navigation. Content placement can be part of a webmaster's responsibilities, while content creation is typically not.
Typically, the webmaster is the agent who reads user feedback and complaints about site functionality.

Web content management system

A web content management system (WCMS) is content management system (CMS) software, usually implemented as a web application, for creating and managing HTML content. It is used to manage and control a large, dynamic collection of web material (HTML documents and their associated images). A CMS facilitates content creation, content control, editing, and many essential web maintenance functions.

Usually the software provides authoring (and other) tools designed to allow users with little or no knowledge of programming languages or markup languages to create and manage content with relative ease of use.

Most systems use a database to store content, metadata, and/or artifacts that might be needed by the system. Content is frequently, but not universally, stored as XML, to facilitate reuse and enable flexible presentation options.

A presentation layer displays the content to regular website visitors based on a set of templates. The templates are often XSLT files.

Administration is typically done through browser-based interfaces, but some systems require the use of a fat client.

A Content Management System (CMS) differs from website builders like Microsoft FrontPage or Adobe Dreamweaver. A CMS allows non-technical users to make changes to an existing website with little or no training. Web content management systems typically require an experienced coder to set-up and add features, but it is primarily a website maintenance tool for non-technical administrators.