[thelist] HTML optimization advice, please

[Ray Hill]

Tyme wrote:
> Sounds like a good alternative!  Now, what are the chances
> of me learing PHP and converting all 400 files by Monday,
> Sept. 24th.

Pretty good, actually.  All you need to get this working is a rudimentary
understanding of the simple parts of PHP (includes, switch statement, and
maybe some if/then statements).  If you read the first three or four
chapters of "Professional PHP Programming" you should be set.  You don't
even need to buy it; just read the chapters at your local Barnes & Noble,
then rely on the online PHP Manual to fill in the memory gaps.

Professional PHP Programming
http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=1861002963

Online PHP Manual
http://www.php.net/manual/en/


As for updating the 400+ pages, even that can be made a pretty simple task.
Once you've got the template file set up, all you've got to do is replace
the pre-content and post-content portions of each page with the few lines of
PHP that points to the template file for that section.

If you download a copy of KeyText or TrayText from mjmsoft.com, you can save
the pre-content and post-content PHP bits into separate hot keys and then
just go to each page, highlight the non-content stuff, and paste the PHP
bits in with the hot keys, so all you'll have to do that's page-specific is
change the URL in the include (../ vs ../../, etc) and change the sectionid
you're putting in the function call.


If you decide to go this route and need help along the way, feel free to
email me off-list and I'll assist where needed.


--ray