Adam -- you have not led me astray in the least. Your last posting is *hugely* helpful. I've been trying to get at that information for weeks now, but no one I've spoken to has been able to explain those methods as clearly and succinctly as you just did.
I was having difficulty explaining my needs clearly, but now you understand exactly what they are. dbMan and Links are, indeed, far more sophisticated than I'll need; the SSI option solves one of my problems, and will simplify my life immediately. I tried out the include-tag and it works like a charm. It will be perfect for those header-footer situations, as you have already shown. (Can older browsers make sense of SSI elements as well as the latest ones?)
I can see, however, that the SSI method has its limits. Suppose a page (or really, a collection of similar pages) includes numerous spots where particular data would replace an include-tag. Is there a more efficient way to generate these pages than using a whole bunch of different include-tags referring to different data files?
I suppose what I'm saying is that it sounds as though buildpage.cgi would be the ultimate solution to my present needs, though obviously I don't know what it can do. I didn't even know such a script existed by that name until you suggested it (where can I find it?) ... would it do roughly what I outlined in my first posting here? I'm not too concerned about the search engine issue you raise, though I appreciate the warning.
Two examples of what I'd like to do -- keep in mind I have no idea how difficult it would be to accomplish these goals, and if the solution is beyond what buildpage.cgi can handle, it might be beyond what I can handle myself, as far as programming is concerned:
(1) Consider a set of pages: each is comprised of specific information within a standard layout. Here's an example: http://www.bestweb.net/~bpress/press/unclec.html . Here the specific pieces of data, which include a photo of a printing press and details about the press (plus the title of the document), are scattered within an HTML table layout. Could buildpage.cgi extract the data from a file and insert each piece into its correct position in the layout?
(2) A more complex, but related, problem: A thumbnail menu of these printing presses (see http://www.bestweb.net/~bpress/mus/mus.html) comprises several pages, each of which shows 9 presses in a table layout. Currently, if I add a new thumbnail -- say an "Adams" press -- to the list, I have to go through the menu pages and bump the last image on each page to the first position on the next, moving all of the images forward one cell. Could buildpage.cgi (or a similar script) spare me this tedium by automatically generating menu pages by looking at a data file and displaying the first 9 entries it finds? This way, I could add new press data to the data file, and new menu pages would automatically be displayed to the user.
If you can even get me started in solving these issues, Adam, I would be overwhelmingly in your debt. You've already been exceedingly generous with your time -- in so doing you've saved me heaps of time in the long run.
Much obliged,
ecn
I was having difficulty explaining my needs clearly, but now you understand exactly what they are. dbMan and Links are, indeed, far more sophisticated than I'll need; the SSI option solves one of my problems, and will simplify my life immediately. I tried out the include-tag and it works like a charm. It will be perfect for those header-footer situations, as you have already shown. (Can older browsers make sense of SSI elements as well as the latest ones?)
I can see, however, that the SSI method has its limits. Suppose a page (or really, a collection of similar pages) includes numerous spots where particular data would replace an include-tag. Is there a more efficient way to generate these pages than using a whole bunch of different include-tags referring to different data files?
I suppose what I'm saying is that it sounds as though buildpage.cgi would be the ultimate solution to my present needs, though obviously I don't know what it can do. I didn't even know such a script existed by that name until you suggested it (where can I find it?) ... would it do roughly what I outlined in my first posting here? I'm not too concerned about the search engine issue you raise, though I appreciate the warning.
Two examples of what I'd like to do -- keep in mind I have no idea how difficult it would be to accomplish these goals, and if the solution is beyond what buildpage.cgi can handle, it might be beyond what I can handle myself, as far as programming is concerned:
(1) Consider a set of pages: each is comprised of specific information within a standard layout. Here's an example: http://www.bestweb.net/~bpress/press/unclec.html . Here the specific pieces of data, which include a photo of a printing press and details about the press (plus the title of the document), are scattered within an HTML table layout. Could buildpage.cgi extract the data from a file and insert each piece into its correct position in the layout?
(2) A more complex, but related, problem: A thumbnail menu of these printing presses (see http://www.bestweb.net/~bpress/mus/mus.html) comprises several pages, each of which shows 9 presses in a table layout. Currently, if I add a new thumbnail -- say an "Adams" press -- to the list, I have to go through the menu pages and bump the last image on each page to the first position on the next, moving all of the images forward one cell. Could buildpage.cgi (or a similar script) spare me this tedium by automatically generating menu pages by looking at a data file and displaying the first 9 entries it finds? This way, I could add new press data to the data file, and new menu pages would automatically be displayed to the user.
If you can even get me started in solving these issues, Adam, I would be overwhelmingly in your debt. You've already been exceedingly generous with your time -- in so doing you've saved me heaps of time in the long run.
Much obliged,
ecn
