[thelist] Best/Good way to organize a website.

[aardvark]

> From: "Chris W. Parker" <cparker at swatgear.com>
>
> aardvark,
>
> (hey i work for a company named aardvark. imagine that!)

really?  can i send you a letter from my lawyer detailing 240 years
of trademark history?

> so that's your site? i saw the breadcrumb thing around here somewhere
> today and that's why i got to thinking about how it (my site) is being
> done. i'd really like to use the script, but so far the site doesn't
> facilitate it. so that's why i'm writing.

that's my site... recently rebuilt to be CSS-only for layout, XHTML,
and have a non-JS powered style changer...  mostly to prove i
could do it so people who see me doing tabled sites for clients will
bugger off with their criticism that i *can't* do it...

> > i hate query strings... i do everything i can to remove them from
> > play...
>
> but aren't query strings unavoidable at some point? since you said,
> "[you] do everything [you] can to remove them" i'll assume that means
> that they can't be removed 100%?

there are cases where they really can't be -- pages built from a
form submission where you want the user to be able to bookmark
it, for example...

i build sites from the ground up with the intention of avoiding them,
so i take a different approach than some others, making it easier to
work around query strings...

> > not able to hack the install on a shared host, for my
> > personal site (http://roselli.org/adrian/), every page is its
> > own file...
>
> if you were able to "hack the install" what would you do? are you
> referring to a windows based os or a *nix os that you would "hack" if
> you could? i ask that because i have access to the server itself and
> would like to try out different methods, win2k advanced server.

there are techniques to use folder-style query strings in IIS... i'll
defer to the more back-end oriented folks since they can give you a
better answer than my convoluted drivel...

> > the file itself contains a variable for the page title, the meta
> > keywords, the meta description, the content, and any special content
> > (sidebars, etc.)...
>
> a variable for the page title? where does the value for this page
> title variable come from?

i type it in on every page/file...

> i understand the bit about the meta tags, but as for the content i'm
> not sure. is it static or pulled from a database?

static... the db cost per month is small, but i'm too lazy and i like
being able to play with my content in a text editor, not in a db UI...

> > this file also calls, via a traditional include call, a
> > template file...
>
> here is where i get real messed up. up until this point i thought that
> the file you were referring to WAS the template, but then you say you
> INCLUDE the template in each seperate file. please explain how that
> works.
>
> i think once i understand this i will have a much better understanding
> of what you are doing.

ok...

here's the home page of my site, sans content:
==========
<%
strTitle = "page title here"
strMetaDescription = "meta description here"
strMetaKeywords = "meta keywords here"
%>

<% SUB Content %>

<p>
Content
</p>

<% END SUB %>
<!--#include file ="includes/template.asp"-->
==========

now, template.asp calls in the breadcrumb script, the navigation,
and the footer... it also takes the value of strTitle and stuffs it into
the <title></title>, the <h1></h1>, and the last link in the
breadcrumb...

the meta information, well, you can guess where i stuff that...

and the content SUB simply gets called where i want it to appear...

i could also have a SUB called 'sidebar' which i either never use, or
call in the template and can just leave blank when i don't need it...

does that help at all?
--
Read the evolt.org case study
Usability: The Site Speaks for Itself
http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1904151035/
ISBN: 1904151035