What do we need SSI, PHP templates, other templates ?????

richiwatts · Aug 28, 2004

Hi

We have a site that is built using frames inside another frame. It is very difficult to manage and update and we now want to remove frames and try to find a simpler alternative. That is easier to manage and update. We also want to try to maintain the sites appearance.

The content is centered in the center of the screen (700 X 450 ) with just a background colour surrounding it. The site has around 40 pages.

This content sections is split into four parts:

Header: contains links to other pages and stays the same on every page, except that the colour of the link of the page you are on is not clickable and is a different image.

Content: This is the information and changes on every page

1st footer: contains sub-links depending what page you are on. E.g if you had selected ”Products” from the links above you would come to the main product page and in this footer we would have links for each product-

2nd footer: Logo and Slogan and never changes throughout site.

Based on the above what solution would you use: SSI, PHP templates, other templates ?????

We want the site to be as easy to manage as possible. We have even heard about RTF with some template systems where people in our office can log in to the site and make small changes using some sort of WYSIWYG type tools. Any suggestions.

Thanks for any recommendations or suggestions

DaRNCaT · Aug 28, 2004

I'd recommend using templates and SSI, if you use SSI for the stuff that never changes, or if it changes it has a whole section that is the same (say your site has 4 distinct areas, and you create and include an SSI for each). Use templates for the rest, dreamwaever has excellent templating if you don't want to dynamically include everything.

For example, you may use SSI for the main header and footer, and dreamweaver templates for the rest, or dynamically create the sub footer with php.
SSI is good when you want the pages to be mostly static HTML.

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Sometimes, when my code just won't behave, I take it outside and make it listen to britney spears music, and when it comes back it's really well behaved. I wonder if it's suffering from post tramatic stress syndrome now..

ChrisHunt · Sep 1, 2004

I'd use SSI, but make the included files scripts rather than static files. That way, the script can look at environment variables and tweak the output that's sent accordingly.

I'd also have no more than three includes, one for stuff in the <head> of each document, one for all the stuff between the start of the <body> and the actual content of the page, and one for everything between the end of the content and the end of the <body>. Like this:

Code:

<head>
<title>Example Page</title>
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/head.pl" -->
</head>
<body>
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/top.pl" -->
  <h1>Example Page</h1>

  <p>This is the content of the page</p>
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/bottom.pl" -->
</body>
</html>

That way, if you want to change the design of the site, you only have to change the script(s) and not the pages.

-- Chris Hunt

http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk

http://www.napitalia.org.uk

http://www.leicesteryha.org.uk

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What do we need SSI, PHP templates, other templates ?????

richiwatts

Technical User

DaRNCaT

Technical User

ChrisHunt

Programmer

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