[kwlug-disc] Can someone help?

Wed May 5 10:45:06 EDT 2010

I don't believe we are OT at all.  I am looking for the best way and after all this time that way has obviously changed or been created.  I will go with the technical superiority of Drupal and with CMS.  Now when a better way show up . . .
================It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.

-----Original Message-----
From: "Insurance Squared Inc." <gcooke at insurancesquared.com>
Date: Wed, 05 May 2010 10:41:07 
To: KWLUG discussion<kwlug-disc at kwlug.org>
Subject: Re: [kwlug-disc] Can someone help?

As others have noted, the original way to integrate various parts of a 
web page together was through SSI's, or what John's suggested, and other 
ways.  But that's 10 years ago.  So layout and content were kept 
seperate in different files.

Today the correct way it's done is to seperate the layout and content is 
through a CMS (Content management system).  You don't include parts of 
files, you have a program that keeps most of this stuff in a database 
and pieces it together on the fly.  It's designed to work well for 
dynamic content sites, but works just as well for static content sites.

The two most likely candidates for a CMS are wordpress and Drupal.  
Wordpress is far and away the most commonly used.  Drupal is far and 
away better from a technical perspective.

We're now talking way off the OT, but if you're starting fresh on a 
site, you really should look at a CMS rather than some version of server 
side includes.

On 05/05/10 10:31 AM, Raul Suarez wrote:
> Oh, yes, For dynamic and static content and a large number of pages (and I assume, contributors) using a CMS may be your best option.
>
> Curiously, yesterday night I was thinking of doing a presentation at work titled: The Manual of the Lazy Knowledge worker. Tips and tricks to be more productive while doing less work.
>
> One of the tips is: "The most productive work is the one you don't have to do". Using a CMS someone already did the work for you.
>
> Raul Suarez
>
> Technology consultant
> Software, Hardware and Practices
> _________________
> Twitter: rarsamx
> http://rarsa.blogspot.com/
> An eclectic collection of random thoughts
>
>
> --- On Wed, 5/5/10, Raul Suarez<rarsa at yahoo.com>  wrote:
>
>    
>> From: Raul Suarez<rarsa at yahoo.com>
>> Subject: Re: [kwlug-disc] Can someone help?
>> To: "KWLUG discussion"<kwlug-disc at kwlug.org>
>> Received: Wednesday, May 5, 2010, 10:27 AM
>> Shane,
>>
>> There are many different ways for achieving what you want.
>>
>> You didn't specify if your web site is dynamic content or
>> static content so I'll respond to both:
>>
>> Dynamic content (content driven by a program running on the
>> server):
>>
>> - Using server side assembly of the page; You can use PHP,
>> JSP, ASP, Ruby on Rails, etc... To populate the contents of
>> your page into a standard template. Requires some
>> programming.
>> - You could use AJAX (HttpRequest) to bring the contents of
>> the header.
>>
>> Static Content (Content that does not change between calls
>> to the same page)
>> - Using frames: Frowned uppon these days but very popular
>> in the old days. I won't go into detail why it's not good
>> but you can search.
>> - Clone the content of the header and apply the format
>> (position, colours, etc) using CSS. This only works when you
>> have a limited number of pages as changes to the header
>> would require changing every page.
>> - Write a simple script that will concatenate a "header"
>> page with the "body" of each page. Whenever there is a new
>> page, you run the script on it. Whenever the header changes,
>> you run the script for all pages.
>> - Using<iframe>  where you can insert the contents of
>> another web page into your page.
>>
>> I hope one of these is the one you remember.
>>
>> Raul Suarez
>>
>> Technology consultant
>> Software, Hardware and Practices
>> _________________
>> Twitter: rarsamx
>> http://rarsa.blogspot.com/
>> An eclectic collection of random thoughts
>>
>>
>> --- On Wed, 5/5/10, Shane<shane.msg at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>      
>>> From: Shane<shane.msg at gmail.com>
>>> Subject: Re: [kwlug-disc] Can someone help?
>>> To: "KWLUG"<kwlug-disc at kwlug.org>
>>> Received: Wednesday, May 5, 2010, 9:53 AM
>>> Thanks.  There used to be an
>>> easier way using an attribute of - I believe it was
>>>        
>> the
>>      
>>> "<a" tag.  It was told that when the page was
>>> loaded, insert the contents of the external
>>> file.   Progress.
>>>
>>> Now I have to go back into the fog to try and figure
>>>        
>> out
>>      
>>> what it was.  Not for any practical reason - just to
>>> know.
>>>
>>> ================It's not the size of the dog in the
>>>        
>> fight,
>>      
>>> it's the size of the fight in the dog.
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: "John Van Ostrand"<john at netdirect.ca>
>>> Date: Wed, 5 May 2010 07:43:18
>>> To:<kwlug-disc at kwlug.org>
>>> Subject: Re: [kwlug-disc] Can someone help?
>>>
>>> The easiest way we do this is using PHP.
>>> Create header.php as the header including HEAD and
>>>        
>> BODY
>>      
>>> tags. Then create
>>> page.php with only HTML.
>>>
>>> Then create .htaccess file and use php's directive
>>> "auto_prepend_file"
>>> giving header.php as the file. I don't recal the
>>>        
>> exact
>>      
>>> syntax, search for
>>> that directive.
>>>
>>> Then the header.php file is called every time page.php
>>>        
>> is
>>      
>>> called.
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: kwlug-disc-bounces at kwlug.org
>>> <kwlug-disc-bounces at kwlug.org>
>>> To: KWLUG<kwlug-disc at kwlug.org>
>>> Sent: Wed May 05 01:46:43 2010
>>> Subject: [kwlug-disc] Can someone help?
>>>
>>> This is not specific to Linux.  I am playing with
>>> website development and
>>> the number of pages is growing.  The problem is that
>>>        
>> I
>>      
>>> want to keep the page
>>> heading area the same on all pages.  If it becomes
>>> necessary to change the
>>> page head I'd rather not have to do 36 changes; 36
>>>        
>> now.
>>      
>>> When I did this before, there was a way by setting a
>>> separate document and
>>> calling copies of it whenever the page was loaded,
>>> automatically setting up
>>> the heading.
>>>
>>> Trouble is, I forget how to do it and I can't remember
>>>        
>> what
>>      
>>> this process of
>>> inserting text from other files is called so I have
>>>        
>> been
>>      
>>> unable to look it
>>> up.  I've tried many possibilities but nothing has
>>> worked.
>>> ================It's not the size of the dog in the
>>>        
>> fight,
>>      
>>> it's the size of
>>> the fight in the dog.
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>>        

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