Inserting rss into web pages

I'm on Windows Server

[dontwc]

I have been making web pages for years, but only recently have I started to learn new tricks. I've been using FrontPage for years because it was just so darned easy. My pages are fairly simple, maybe a step above the look of Drudgereport. The focus is on having useful information and universal functionality.

I run a local elections website that is a labor of love. I do it for free. And recently a lot of changes are converging. One is that I have discovered how cool and useful that RSS is, and that FeefForAll gives away a handy php script that makes it easy to do. Even me!

The next change is that my host will stop supporting FrontPage Extensions in the near future. I contacted them, and they told me that if I moved to a Windows Server Plan that FPE would be supported for a long time still. So I moved.

Now I have found that the Server Side Includes won't execute the script on windows server.

But then I found out that if I don't used SSI, but just use the optional php include that FeedForAll's tool gives me, and save the page with a .php extension, it works! Hooray!

However, saving it at a .php means I get no design or preview panel in FrontPage. Booo!

Now I am exploring using ASP, but just as I get started with those tutorials, it tells me that I should download the framework to my computer, which apparently has the only Windows operating system which will NOT run ASP: XP Home Edition.

I am getting dizzy. Can you give me some suggestions? I love FrontPage. I love using RSS. I don't have a lot of money to spend on this. Where do I go from here?

Thanks!
DonTWC

[cmarshall]

I would highly recommend taking the next step, and going to PHP.

If you are running a political site, like LGF, FR, Dkos, whatever (hopefully, less extreme than said examples), then you need to run it as a CMS. Most reasonable CMS systems run on PHP. There are some that run on heftier tech (Dkos runs on Scoop, which is a CGI tech, LGF looks like reworked WordPress, and FR seems to be a customized system.)

Give up Frontpage, and come into the light. Once you go CMS, you'll never go back.

[dontwc]

Does this mean I blew it by moving to Windows server? Should I go back to the Linux plan I was on before? I know NOTHING about CMS.

[cmarshall]

Probably not. Windows isn't the native environment for PHP, but there is a great deal of support for it.

You should be able to install PHP5 and MySQL (4 or 5) on your Windows server, and a CMS like WordPress will work.

I think you will really like WordPress. It has become the CMS of choice for regular bloggers. Unless you are developing a high-traffic site like this, you probably will always be fine with WordPress.