What Should/Can I Use

To Create This Wonderful Site

[webdev]

Hi all

I just wondered if I could get some opinion in how to start off my development.

In the simplest of scenarios. I want to have an html page with all of my links to other pages on as well as nice pictures etc...

In the middle say of this page there will always be a white area, that will show text all formatted pulled innfrom some kind of text repository.

So say I have a site on cars....what would normally be index.html and a welcome page....I want to be the same but when I click on say BMW cars the same page formatting is kept layout design etc... and all of the details about BMW cars are pulled into this page...rather than creating a new html page that the link just opens, as I have to then format that page etc...

My main reasoning is that I have a site with over 600 pages of info and most pages are identical in design just the content is different....so I wondered what the easiest way would be to export all of my current html into simple text files maybe XML and then have these pulled into the design......this will also save me massively on time when I wish to change the web site design...as I now do....

I've been looking at XML and ASP etc... but ideally if anyone can point me into a direction where I can look at a simple example of a page that uses asp or something to pull in content and format it I would be very grateful.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to read....even if you don't reply.

[rogerd]

There are lots of different ways to accomplish this, but server-side includes are one simple way that doesn't require much effort. This site is an example - I think Brett has different includes for the bottom menu, side menu, etc. Of course, these pages are all generated dynamically (even the "middle" part with the content), but the idea is similar.

There are also content management systems that can perform the kind of function you are talking about plus do things like automatically link new content, etc.

[webdev]

One other thing I was wondering is a lot of sites with loads of content seem to call their pages something like this.

www.example/maker.php3?idMaker=3 (where idMaker=3 = bmwcars)

instead of say

www.example.com/bmwcars.html

Do you know where I can read up on this type of linking. Some are with PHP and some seem to be with asp....just trying to start with the best way before I get too far down the line and have to swap.

Thanks

[Krapulator]

Hi Webdev,

Welcome to Webmaster World.

Asp sounds like it would do the job for you.

In your car website scenario you could have an index page with the main catagories and then a product page which shows the details of the cars according to which link was selected from the home page.

Thus:

Your home page index.asp would have the following links:

BMW's - link: show_cars.asp?CarType=BMW
Subaru's - link: show_cars.asp?CarType=Subaru
Ford - link: show_cars.asp?CarType=Ford

You would then create a page called show_cars.asp
This page would pull the information from a database based on the car type specified in the query string.

There is a great resource available here: [w3schools.com...] - If you follow the tutorial here, it will give you a good start in what you wish to do.

Feel free to stickmail me if you need a hand getting started.

[webdev]

Thanks for your replies guys this definitely seems to be the path that I'm looking to go down...

One question on the database that is going to store all of this information.

If I create a link as thus

BMW's - link: show_cars.asp?CarType=BMW

does all of the information need to be in an actual database like SQL etc.. or can I call simple text files with the information in to be pulled through...the reasoning behind this is that I would also want pictures and other links on the asp created page.

[Birdman]

Hello webdev. This tutorial looks pretty good: Rugged ASP [hotwired.lycos.com]

[Birdman]

If you have access to a database, it would be the way to go. IMO. If not, I don't see why you couldn't include text files. Database would be easier to manage, I think.

I am actually doing the same thing to a site right now, but using php/mysql. Laying out the structure is the tough part. Once you get that right, it's smooth sailing:)

[madcat]

Birdman, how do you actually format the text that's in the database...as in each individual paragraph? I'm about to work on the same type of project, but was wondering how individual elements get tagged when you just import the full text from the database at one spot in the HTML. It's probably blindingly simple :0)

[DrDoc]

<div id="my_div">
insert the text here
</div>

That way, you format the div with style sheets.
Also, you might want to parse the code to be inserted .. to add line breaks etc if necessary.

[Birdman]

I do it like DrDoc. Then I do paragraph, lists, bold, etc. formating in the database field that holds the content.

I'm not sure if there is an easier way. If so, I'm all ears.