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Updating entire site

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LinkJames

LinkJames

Technical User
Jan 26, 2004
4
GB
Sorry if this is in the wrong place, but I think its closer to HTML related than anything else.

I have a large site, and I want to take every page and place it within a template. Now I know I need some software to do this, but I don't know what. Can Frontpage 2000 do it? If not, do you know anything that can?

Thanks for any help
LinkJames
 
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I'm assuming by a Template, you mean a "PageStyle" - effectively to separate content from layout. By using Cascading Style Sheets, you can achieve this but it means rewriting a lot of your pages to include class names where appropriate on your tags.

You could also re-write your code to use server side includes (PHP, ASP, SHTML), and include blocks of code which allow the design to be updated more easily. Your content is then simply paragraphs of text wrapped within the blocks. If it is a really big site, then perhaps you need a content management system (CMS). [thumbsup2]

What is the format of your pages at the moment? Static HTML? ASP?

Pete.


Web Developer / Aptrix CMS (LWWCM) Specialist
w: e: Pete.Raleigh(at)lclimited.co.uk
 
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It is several thousand pages of static html. Currently it uses frames, but I need it to be single static pages. I can use ASP, but I am unable to do anything that requires updating every page, as it would take the rest of my life ;) so I can't use css or even ASP. Thats why I want to find some software to shove the static HTML pages into a template I create automatically.

I'm sure I had somthing that did somthing similar a few years ago, but I'm blowed if I can find it now.

Any other ideas?

PS, a CMS would be ideal, but do you think my boss will let me do that? >:|

Cheers guys
 
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Adobe GoLive has great template and site management features that can you all you want and more.
 
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I guess a lot depends on how you're planning to build and maintain the template. If you're going to use Dreamweaver or something similar to generate templated pages on a once-only basis (until you change the template, when you have to re-generate them all), you'll have to see what facilities your tool of choice has to import existing pages.

If you're going to use SSIs or asp to wrap some standardised bits around your content on the fly, you'll have to edit your existing HTML to call the new routines. If your existing pages are pretty standard (albeit repetitive) then you could use a text editor like Notetab that lets you run Find/Replace actions on multiple files. Just find the existing repeated text and replace it with a call to the template.

By the way, thousands of static HTML pages sounds like you should be using a database or CMS or something. Does this site have a URL?

-- Chris Hunt
 
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Thanks wiser3, but I have no budget to buy new software for this, so its gotta be freeware. Notetab sounds like a good plan.

And yes, the original designer should have uses databases or CMS or somthing. But he didn't, and theres bugger all chance of me getting to put one in place. lucky me ;)

Will try notetab.
Cheers guys.
 
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I'd advise you to try to migrate your pages to look something like...
[tt]
<html>
<head>
<!--#include virtual=&quot;/cgi-bin/header.pl&quot; -->
<title>The title of this page</title>
</head>
<body>
<!--#include virtual=&quot;/cgi-bin/top.pl&quot; -->
The actual unique content of the page goes in here.
<!--#include virtual=&quot;/cgi-bin/bottom.pl&quot; -->
</body>
</html>
[/tt]
That way you can accommodate future changes in layout by changing one of the three scripts (or make them flat files if you prefer). Note that I could have included, say, &quot;</body></html>&quot; into bottom.pl instead of repeating them on every page, but doing it this way means that you have a valid HTML page even when the includes aren't working (like when you open the page direct from your C: drive).

I've used SSI above (more on how to use them at faq253-3309 and faq253-2000 ), no doubt the same thing could be done with asp.

PS. You may like to run your pages through HTML Tidy first to ensure that indents etc. are consistent within pages before your mass-edit.


-- Chris Hunt
 
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Yes, thats what I had planned to do, but thanks never the less.
Does Notetab (lite) have a simple tool that would (Using your example) take
&quot;The actual unique content of the page goes in here.&quot;

and turn it into

<html>
<head>
<!--#include virtual=&quot;/cgi-bin/header.pl&quot; -->
<title>The title of this page</title>
</head>
<body>
<!--#include virtual=&quot;/cgi-bin/top.pl&quot; -->
The actual unique content of the page goes in here.
<!--#include virtual=&quot;/cgi-bin/bottom.pl&quot; -->
</body>
</html>

including deleting the <HTML> <HEAD> and <BODY> tags? I've looked all over, but there dosen't seem to be a tool for it. Am I being blind and missing somthing nice and obvious, or is it not that simple?

thanks again guys, I really appreciate all your help.
 
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LinkJames, I've used a slightly modified version of yours on a couple of sites. The &quot;template&quot; looks like:
Code: 
<!--#include file=&quot;head.asp&quot; -->
    <meta name=&quot;description&quot; content=&quot; ... &quot;>
    <meta name=&quot;keywords&quot; content=&quot; ... &quot;>
<!--#include file=&quot;top.asp&quot; -->
... The actual unique content of the page goes in here...
<!--#include file=&quot;footer.asp&quot; -->

The page name / title can be generated server side as well, through the use of an array or database lookup. If you don't need to include the META tags, then your template is even simpler.

Pete.


Web Developer / Aptrix CMS (LWWCM) Specialist
w: e: Pete.Raleigh(at)lclimited.co.uk
 
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The tool I was thinking of was Find/Replace, which Notetab Std and Notetab Pro let you do within the &quot;Search Disk&quot; dialogue - so it applies to multiple files. You can get Notetab Pro on 30 day trial, and the $20 price tag may be possible even with your non-budget!

-- Chris Hunt
 
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