[thelist] script alternative for static web site

[Diane Soini]

Not top posting...
On Wednesday, July 28, 2004, at 04:05 AM, 
thelist-request at lists.evolt.org wrote:
> If you are accessing the server via IIS, then you probably have access 
> to
> ASP.  ASP can do everything you need.

I don't think it is IIS. I have tried ASP but it is not there.

> 	If it's a Windows 95/98 machine, you can install PWS (Personal
> Web Server) and run Active Server Pages (anything newer will just use
> IIS).  They can be scripted with either VBScript (very easy to learn) 
> or
> Jscript (Microsoft's Javascript variant).
>
Can't install anything.

> 	One other option, if you don't want to do things through the web
> server, would be to use Windows Scripting Host... But again, if it's 
> not
> installed on the machine and the only access you have is http or ftp,
> you're probably out of luck.  This is a really odd request; I'd be
> interested to hear more context on your situation.
>
I know it is an odd request, but the context is that a co-worker and I 
have created a really nice little "finder" to search and sort through 
all these little presentations on our web site. It's all 
javascript-based and uses XML to store the data. It's a pain in the 
neck to maintain the XML file, since you have to remember to add new 
presentations, and you have to explain XML to non-techies. So I wrote a 
perl script that will auto-generate the XML file.

Our public web site is Apache on Solaris so my script will work. Our 
Intranet, however, is mostly Lotus Notes (and the Lotus Notes version 
of this "finder" sucks, hence our little project). Non-Lotus Notes 
Intranet content lives somewhere that just happens to be a Windows 
machine. But it doesn't have perl installed, it doesn't have anything 
dynamic web site-like installed at all. I don't have a clue how to log 
into it like I could do if it was a Unix machine.

We have hundreds, maybe thousands of these little presentations on this 
server. People sometimes ask me where such-and-such presentation is. I 
have no idea most of the time and have to search through HTML files 
with list of links to these things (why can't anybody else do that??). 
If I could just re-create our finder for the Intranet, it would be 
peachy.

I had wondered if there is a way to make those Windows scripting 
commands work, but I have only heard that they don't work through http. 
So, just in case, I thought I would see if there is anything else to 
consider. You can use javascript XMLHttpRequest or the ActiveX 
equivalent to open and read files. The tedious part is generating a 
list of files to open. That's what I'm looking for help with.

Diane


> Cheers,
>
> Peter
***
Don't be afraid to try something new. An amateur built the ark. 
Professionals built the Titanic. -unknown