File Includes

set to load on date?

[mossimo]

Any one know of some simple ASP code that will call a file include such as:
<!--#include file="whatever"--> based on the date or a set number of days. The idea is to load next week’s news article automatically. The file includes could be named:
week_1, week_2, ect.

Thank's
mossimo

[aspdaddy]

AFAIK you cannot do dynamic includes in ASP, the best you can do a is a big select...case

But, maybe you could dynamically create the asp file based on the date?

[mossimo]

Maybe I should ask my host but on my current site i using includes, nothing more than <!--#include file="whatever"--> it works fine.

This may work because of COM components installed on my server?

I am also using includes and a little VBS to display random ads, If I could only turn random into scheduled?

[davemarks]

Include files are included before the script is processed, therefore you cannot dynamically change the file name, you could have

SELECT CASE bla
Case 1:
<!--#include file="whatever"-->
Case 2:

etc etc etc

But the best way is probably try and database the content that changes, then provide an admin interface for making the changes - will make life a whole lot easier ;)

[macrost]

davemarks,
Have you implemented that type of code before? I tried to use an include when I was using a COM, however, I found out that the include needs to be outside of a script block or within an html page. If you do this, I believe that the script will fail.

<%
Select "filename"
case "1"
%>
<!-- #include file="whatever" -->
<%
case "2"
%>
<!-- #include file="another" -->
<%
End Select
%>

I'm not sure but I think even that will fail. Please someone agree or rebutt my statement.
Mac

[davemarks]

Yeah sorry the include needs to be outside the delimiters. How you posted would work fine, but like i say all files will be included and make one large file, which will then be processed by the asp engine....

[aspdaddy]

It will work, but you need to know all the filenmames in advance.

Another idea i just had is to use the filesystem to open a dynamically named file based on the date. I havent tried it but I dont see why it cant work:

Set objText = objFile.OpenTextFile("whatever_" & getWeekNo(Now()) & ".txt",fsoForReading)

Response.write objText.ReadAll

[davemarks]

Yeah that true, aslong as the file you're importing is pure html, you could read it in using the file system object and then simply print it out in the asp...

[Gizmare]

I would add that using the Filesystem Object will degrade performance in a highly utilized scenario.

[macrost]

That is true, FSO will degrade any high performance code that is already made. FSO is notoriously slow... let me think on another way to accomplish this, and I should have an answer by Monday, if someone hasn't already answered it. :-)
Mac

[mossimo]

Thanks for the options,

With all the free or low cost scripts out there I’m thinking it might just make more sense to go with a pre-built content management system.

But where’s the fun in that.

[mossimo]

Yes it can been done easly with XSSI (eXtended Server-Side Includes)
only avalable on Apache web-servers (wich i don't have, o darn)

<!--#config timefmt="%Y%m%d" -->

<!--#if expr="$DATE_LOCAL < 19980917" -->

<P>This will be shown before my birthday in 1998
<!--#endif -->
<!--#if expr="$DATE_LOCAL >= 19980917" -->

<P>This will be shown during and after my birthday in 1998
<!--#endif -->

[Xoc]

Include file processing is done before the processing of ASP. So you can't use ASP to change include files. You can, however, use the FileSystemObject to load the content.

[davemarks]

Wohoo!

<%
somePage = "home.asp"
Server.Execute(somePage)
%>

Stumbled across this while looking up some other info on MSDN
Although I've seen/read about it before, it never really struck home until now what it did.

This basically works the same as an include :D

[macrost]

davemarks,
Yes, I forgot about that... I have some mass mailing software that requires the Server.Execute line to add the sign up box. I haven't implemented it yet, but it seems to be stable. Not sure if it will work in this situation tho.
Mac

[davemarks]

I just tried to apply it to a page where i was previously using response.redirect, the page didn't initialise anything that could have caused problems with the second page, but it failed and didn't give a very helpful message.

It worked fine on another couple of pages i tried though, but the calling page only had html in it...

Def worth a try though.... i must have a play again and see if i can get it too do what i want ;)

[aspdaddy]

This was added into IIS v5, it lets you call asp pages as functions, also Server.Transfer which is similar to Response.Redirect

[davegerard]

I tried Davemarks' method including page02.asp into page01.asp and it returned the following error in IIS.

Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a01b6'

Object doesn't support this property or method: 'Server.Execute'

page01.asp, line 4

were you using IIS on an NT box?

Dave

[davegerard]

IIS 5? Sorry I didn't realize this board had two pages so I didn't see aspdaddy's reply.