[Gllug] Website developement

[Wulf Forrester-Barker]

When approaching website design, I tend to think in terms of 'container' and 'information'. The container is the overall layout which produces the look and feel of the site. Generally, you can split this into two halves - top and bottom (or top and right hand sides of the page, left and bottom sides of the page).

I like using dynamic pages (so that I can slip in elements like current date or whatever) and use either PHP on Linux platforms or VBScript in .asp pages on Windows platforms. My approach is basically the same though - each page of content would look similar to this:

<?php
include("./includes/pagewriter.php");
writepagetop("Page Title Here");
?>

<p>The contents of the page would go here, marked up as XHTML (ie. strict HTML with no deprecated tags and everything - even <br /><br /><br /> tags properly terminated)</p>

<?php
writepagebottom();
?>

The page writer include file contains both of the user functions needed to write the page, and any supplemental tools they need (such as functions to pick random quotes, write menus, etc). Gradually, I'm starting to use more and more XML as well... for some of the stuff I've done at work, a whole website consists of a couple of pages, which process and display information stored in a set of XML pages.

Alternatively, if you're looking for a way of generating static pages, how about using the sed stream editor. You can write your pages as simple markup, maybe with few unique snippets to search and replace for. sed can write a chunk of code at the top (using 1i\ for insert before the first line) and at the bottom (using $a\ to append to the end). Using a script, you can run it across a whole set of directories, making converted copies of each file and moving these to another location, from whence you can upload.

Quick and simple... 

Wulf

>>> freemadi at yahoo.co.uk 14/07/2001 9:58:14 pm >>>
list,

I have a couple of questions.

I have recently, as part of some NVQ avoidance work, been redsigning my
web site.

http://www.alug.org.uk/freemadi/ 
or if the DNS is fixed
http://freemadi.alug.org.uk/  [1]

Now I have spotted lots of mistakes due to me creating it when I should
be sleeping, as each page is almost identical, each page needs the same
alterations to be made. But each page is non Identicle enough for it to
be a pain in the arse to do.

So I was wondering if anyone on the list can think of a way to create a
site with lots of pages, like this one, where the design can be changed
without changing each file by hand, whilst keeping it looking as
similiar to what it does at the moment. And whilst keeping the html on
the server static, so I could create it dynamically on my machine and
then upload it.

I hope that makes sense.

Thanks

D / Bascule

PS Does anyone have a copy of the specifcation for the 19 inch rack
standard?

[1] Yes I know about the large quantities of spelling mystakes

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