[GLLUG] Off Topic - Please, HTML/CSS problem, any help?

[Richard Houser]

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You can absolutely do this, and easily.  Congratulations, you just
changed your file extensions (told you so :) ).

The easiest way would be use Server-Side-Includes, but there are tons of
good options.  SSI (.shtml) and PHP (.php) are the most common.  SSI is
very limited, but supports some very basic things like includes and
modification dates on practically everything.  PHP can do image
manipulation, database access, etc. as well.

You need to find out which languages your host supports before picking
which language to use.  Do NOT use JavaScript for any logic, includes,
etc.  In fact, it's a good idea to develop your page with JavaScript
off, then turn it on and edit only JavaScript code.

Benjamin Cathey wrote:
> Let me ask you this.  Is there a way to keep the center menu in one file and just have it referenced on every page so that I only have to make changes to it once?
> 
> A friend helped me do that with my company's website by saving the nav bar as a php file and then using the include command to include that in every page.
> 
> I would want it in the same place on every page.  Is there an easy way to do this?
> 
> 
> Benjamin Cathey
> System Administrator
> Cathey Company
> 4917 Tranter St.
> Lansing, MI 48910 USA
> Phone:     517.393.4720
> Fax:       517.393.4225
> Toll Free: 800.333.1972
> "Service is Our Profession"
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Richard Houser
> [mailto:rick at divinesymphony.net]
> To: Benjamin Cathey
> [mailto:benjamincathey at catheycompany.com]
> Cc: Dan Ryan
> [mailto:thethinkbox at gmail.com], linux-user at egr.msu.edu
> Sent: Tue, 06 Mar
> 2007 22:53:49 -0500
> Subject: Re: [GLLUG] Off Topic - Please, HTML/CSS
> problem, any help?
> 
> 
> Sorry for the length.  As I mentioned, I do this stuff for a living, so
> I've seen all the same problems elsewhere.  Feel free to ignore anything
> I said
> 
>> An external style sheet was my original intention.  I don't know enough
> about all this to do it right I suppose.  I guess it would be like my
> individual poems which include a link to a style sheet.  I would just copy
> out all the stuff b/w <style> and </style> and then put that in it's own
> file with a reference.
> 
> That's the bulk of it.  The remainder is just moving the style
> attributes (not tags) from the other items into the main stylesheet once
> you move the style blocks.  For those, you just need to figure out the
> proper selector that matches what you need to style with those rules.
> It's not hard, and you should be well on your way in 5min.  Overall,
> extremely minimal change.
> 
>> As for the extensions, that's probably good advice except I don't even
> plan on using PHP or anything else.  My original thought was a purely text
> page but then I thought a minimalist interface would be nice ( I like
> fluxbox and keeping things simple.)  I didn't use and Java and didn't want
> to.   I thought it should all be able to be done in a text editor with CSS. 
> 
> 
> Nobody ever plans on breaking links on a tech change, but it happens,
> and happens a lot.  As soon as you want to add anything dynamic, you are
> looking at SSI, php, jsp, asp, etc, and that would break your existing
> links, etc.  It's just another form of future proofing that you should
> try to provide.  The only reasonable situation I've came across for not
> doing this so far was on a really low power webserver that couldn't run
> something like apache reasonably well (ie. my linksys wrt54g
> router/webserver).
> 
>> It was a learning experience for me.  The website I designed for the
> company I work for, I designed using Dreamweaver.  I know now, from looking
> at the source, that it is all backwards.  Dreamweaver just kept creating new
> styles every time I changed a font or text at all.  I would like to clean
> that up to but there is no time.
> 
> It's a learning experience for us all, even those of us that have been
> doing it for years.  More often or not at that point, it's an issue
> about getting around the latest IE bug conflict.  Luckily, all the other
> browsers mostly just behave :).  Anyhow, on the Dreamweaver front, I
> despise the program, but I hear the current versions aren't anywhere
> near as bad as before (and almost worth using for non-expert users).
> 
>> Is there a web based CSS checker?  That is what I was looking for when I
> found the other tests, which my site passed.
> 
> http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/, but the link is on the w3.org main
> site as well.
> 
>> All in all I like the way it turned out.  I have only gotten one piece of
> of feedback so far and that person liked the site.
> 
> Glad to hear.  An audience should also provide the encouragement to keep
> up the learning too :).  Give it time, and you will probably be writing
> small dynamic applications (it's just baby-steps all the way in, there
> is no big hurdle for any given part).

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