asp??

[crystalb24]

I just took on two new development projects at work that I'm pretty sure involve asp (although I could be wrong since I'm still fairly new to asp) and I could definately use some help.

1. On our internal website we would like to create a table that would contain 5 industry related articles, with 5 new articles posted every day to take the place of the previous days. We would post the title and a 'teaser' intro with a link to the full text of the article (all 5 articles on one page with anchor links). Next to that table we would like to post a list of the top 5 most popular articles, as determined by link hits. What I need to create is a way for the most popular list to be generated and populated automatically, without interaction of a web coordinator. I know that this will most likely involve creating a database to track these links but beyond that I'm not sure how to proceed.

2. Again, on our internal website we would like to create a page that would display all of the conference calls that are scheduled for the next two weeks, with the weeks being displayed dependent on what day you view the page (you would view the current week and the next). Again we would want this to cycle without the interaction of a web coordinator. The second part of this project is that we would have a number of web coordinators that would need to add there call information to this calendar, which I envision them doing through a database interface, but there needs to be an option created in this interface that would allow the web coordinator to upload an audio file, to access the information at a later date to make changes and to add links to related information. I can create the database side of this (I'm fairly sure I can at least) but the rest of it has me at a loss.

Guess I'm just hoping someone out there can help, or can point me in the right direction for help, because it all feels a little overwhelming right now.

~Crystal

 

[Sheco]

The first problem is covered pretty well in the other thread.


As for the second project... Unless you have a "phone conference coordinator" person charged with both (1) arranging the conferences and (2) keeping the site updated, I'm afraid that this project will fail.

What I'm trying to say is, no matter what they say now, it is always easier to do nothing than do something. Left to their own devices, the people in your office will not keep the calander updated. Sure they will at first, but over time they stop.

It is the kind of thing where everyone needs to do it or nobody will. As soon as people feel they can't rely on each other to keep it updated, the whole thing goes down the tubes.

 

[crystalb24]

I'm not worried about that being an issue. It's not my problem if it is, I just have to make it work.

~Crystal

 

[crystalb24]

It's also going to be the only way to advertise there departments call, so I'm fairly certain that they will keep up with it.

~Crystal

 

[Sheco]

Is the audio file small enough to put in the db?

You might just want to put a field for a link to it in the DB.

There are very good date functions native to VBScript. The ones that will come in handy for you to do ths project are DateAdd() and WeekDay() ... and of course the Date() function which simply returns the sytem date.

 

[bslintx]

Crystal,

Sheco is right on. would be better to have a link in the db to a audio folder containing the audio files. links require squat for space while audio files will bloat the database fast and potentially cause a server crash. same w/ pics. i also have to concur w/ sheco as far as being skeptical if someone is not dedicated to this updating the project is doomed. no way it can be totally automated. there has to be some manual interventions for updating the database. i have built a dynamic calendar events scheduler for my intranet and like sheco said people get lazy (in so many words) and will eventually not update vs having one that is dedicated to having to do so. i noticed you said it doesn't matter as long as it works; therefore, for you sheco....i'm curious to ask you (an obvious advanced asp programmer) your opinion in a step-by-step setup for this project. i love trying on new ideas and projects...only way to learn -hint (crystal ;-)) i'd love to see your pseudo code and go from that to create the actual code to make it work if you're willing to do so. i admire how you are willing to help out others that are new to this wonderful world of programming and doing so w/o being paid just wanting to help. that's me too and kudos for that! perhaps w/ your direction we can help this project get off the ground. i'm willing to do the grunt work (for experience)...just let me know what you think...thanks

Brian

 

[bslintx]

Crystal,

Are these "teaser" intro's simply like the first line or two of the actual article? Or is it a brief summary of what the article is about? What I am getting at to make less interventions is to make the first couple lines to be the teaser since standard English paragraphs should contain the Topic Sentence and therefore just just strip the first sentece of the article inserted into database and add a ... at the end. This way there is no need to have to add 2 entries into database 1. the teaser 2. the article. Hope this makes since

Brian

 

[Sheco]

I made a simple ASP for you that shows how to move back and forth through the weeks:

<%@ Language=VBScript %>
<%
Dim WeekOffset
WeekOffset = Request("Week")
If Not IsNumeric(WeekOffset) Then WeekOffset = 0

Dim DayToday, DayNumber
DayToday = Weekday(Date())
%>
<html>
	<head>
		<title>Test Dates</title>
	</head>
	
	<body>
		<table border="1">
			<tr>
				<td>Sunday</td>
				<td>Monday</td>
				<td>Tuesday</td>
				<td>Wednesday</td>
				<td>Thursday</td>
				<td>Friday</td>
				<td>Saturday</td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
<%
For DayNumber = 1 To 7
  Response.Write "<td>" & CStr(DateAdd("d", (DayNumber - DayToday), (DateAdd("ww", WeekOffset, Date)))) & "</td>" & vbCrLf
Next
%>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td colspan="7">
				  <a href="1.asp?Week=<%= CStr(WeekOffset - 1)%>"><- Back</a>
				  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
				  <a href="1.asp?Week=0">Current Week</a>
				  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
				  <a href="1.asp?Week=<%= CStr(WeekOffset + 1)%>">Forward -></a>
				</td>
			</tr>
		</table>
	</body>
</html>

No doubt the tabs in the code will look extreme. I have my editor set with a tab width of only 2 spaces.

 

[Sheco]

I figured since you are stronger in database than ASP that this would be a good thing to start with.

I suspect the best places to put the query is either
(A) inside the for days loop and query once per day of the calendar or ...

(B) use the weekoffset to query a full weeks of meetings at the top into a recordset object ordered by date and then using a while loop on the recordset inside the for days loop.