advice on what to use to change page

[confusedlady]

Hi all. I don't know too much about web disign, so I could really use your suggestions. I maintain a webpage for my church, but I did not do any of the designing. This is how it currently looks-

http://www.highpointnepa.org/,

which looks great. The problem is that the information that changes (news, weekly, events section) are hard-coded onto each page! So changing one item means updating all pages!

My question is, how could I replace that code? Before this redesign, (yes it was ugly) I had a frameset on the index page, referencing events.htm. Is there a way to make a news.htm, events.htm, and weekly.htm and somehow put it in the designer's table layout and not mess the look up?

Sorry, so long. And thanks in advance!
Melissa

 

[Xaqte]

With some server side programming, you could use a template system. The benefit of this is that you would have one main template for your site, and have a dynamic content layout.
Thus, just sending the template the information it needs just for that specific page... all other information is hard coded into the template. This could be done in alot ways.

Just my 2 cents!

X

 

[confusedlady]

xaqte,
Could you explain that just a little more? I'm guessing that would require me learning some sort of scripting? What programming language? I'm a Cobol programmer, and to be honest,I haven't looked at much else in years.

 

[Vragabond]

You should use SSI (Server Side Includes). Easy to learn and will do just what you want. Here's some basic info:

http://tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?fid=3309

http://tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?fid=2000

 

[Xaqte]

Yes, that would require a programming language. Something like Perl or PHP, just to name a couple.

 

[confusedlady]

I will definitely look into this further. From looking at the sites provided by Vragabond (and google), this shouldn't be as difficult as I thought. I wish now that they had designed it using includes. They have the navigation buttons as part of a sliced image, so I don't even want to think about adding a button yet!

One more question-is there a language supported by all hosting companies? Or do I need to contact them to see what to use before doing anything?


Thanks again

 

[Xaqte]

One more question-is there a language supported by all hosting companies? Or do I need to contact them to see what to use before doing anything?

Unless they have a website available with this information, you may need to contact them. If you tell us the host, we may be able to find out for you.

Another alternative:

http://freemarker.sourceforge.net/

Let us know your results!

X

 

[confusedlady]

xgate,
It's American Computer Associates (

http://12.96.228.84/),

but this page tells you nothing. I can't log in. It asks for a "customer name", and password, and obviously that is not the username and pass I use to access the server

Melissa

 

[Xaqte]

Yeah, it seems as if they really don't advertise their services very well. I would recommend that you call them to get this information. However, the freemaker link I gave you is Javascript. So, if you went that route you wouldn't have to worry about it.

X

 

[confusedlady]

Thanks again xaqte. I probably will go with freemaker, since I don't have a contact name or anything for anyone at American Computer, and I'd like to do some work on this over the weekend.

 

[Xaqte]

Try this #:
570-874-1910

If its not the correct number, the party answering should know a contact #.

Good luck & Let us know your results!

X

 

[ChrisHunt]

However, the freemaker link I gave you is Javascript.

According to the page you linked to it's Java, not Javascript. A very different beastie. To use it you'd need some kind of Java engine running on the server, which is a rather uncommon set-up, I think.

Most hosts will support PSP and/or Perl. Windows-based ones will probably do ASP as well. If your host doesn't, go somewhere else - there's plenty of cheap, good hosting out there.

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[Xaqte]

ChrisHunt,
Thanks for pointing out my goof! You are absolutely right... I hope she has good luck getting in contact w/ the host.

 

[confusedlady]

Xagte-

I didn't see your post until now, so hopefully someone will be in tomorrow.

 

[confusedlady]

Just an update-I never got in touch with the hosting company until late last week, so by that time my question was just "Is it OK that I uploaded some .php and .inc files?".

I made on .php file to get the info, figuring if it worked, it was supported. It returned all this-

http://www.highpointnepa.org/phpinfo.php,

so I found out all I needed.

Thanks a bunch-especially those links!
Melissa

 

[Xaqte]

Good to hear! Nice site design! I look forward to hearing your end result!

X

 

[confusedlady]

lol. Actually, that is the end result for now. I replaced what I could on the existing pages, and any new ones I'll do using just a "template" of what's there and includes.

I did replace the whole navigation area with an include, but the problem I will have is adding another button. Because of all the nested tables to control the layout, the whole page shifts and everything is all ugly then!

For right now though, I just wanted to easily change the events and stuff each week.

Thanks again

 

[confusedlady]

Another question...How do you handle putting newsfeeds onto a site? I currently have 3 of them on my test page (

http://www.highpointnepa.org/mindex.php).

The first one is just the cut/paste script from their site. For the other two, I downloaded a freebie app called Carp.

Before I spend too much time tinkering with it, I thought I'd ask your opinions. Anyone use/like this program?

Thanks again,
Melissa

 

[Foamcow]

Yes, I've used CARP.

It's pretty simple to set up and customise to display the news feed as you want it to.
It uses a basic templating language to define what gets shown where.

Give it a go!

Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
I wonder what possesses people to make those animated gifs. Do you just get up in the morning and think, "You know what web design r

 

[confusedlady]

Do you know of a tutorial or example of this? That's exactly what I need to look into-how to display it all properly.

Currently I'm using 3 different feeds, but I want them to look the same. My test site is

http://www.highpointnepa.org/mindex.php,

and it's in the news section - easier to show you than tell you

Melissa

Oh, sorry, the first one is a cut/paste javascript, but only because I had it uglier using Carp myself.