[thelist] Web Based Employee Directory

[Scott Harman]

I'm liking the idea of Perl - it's something easy enough to install on a
webserver, and it would probably be appropriate for a project of that
size - in terms to pure data manipulation, it's quick and easy.
I suppose if the webserver is off-site and you don't have access to
configure it just the way you'd like - I can kind of see where you're
coming from, but at the same time - I've never worked in an office where
there haven't been a couple of spare boxes sitting around doing menial
tasks where you can install apache, perl, php and whatever else takes
your fancy.
In terms of a database-based site -if you don't have a spare box, and
don't fancy installing MySQL, Postgre or some other open source solution
- then yes, I can accept that.  However - the solution I proposed was
getting slightly ahead of your requirements, where I was thinking more
in terms of a company wide address book, where any user can input the
contact details that they deem useful for the rest of the company.
Alternatively, the same can be achieved with any of Hassan's proposals -
which will be faster and easier again.
In terms of user expectactions - what do they need, what do you think
they need, and of course - in an ideal world, what will you give them.
All completely different requirements and expectations - but the last
two are determined by you, and the technologies you have available.
You could even use a flash-based solution reading from a csv file - if
that's what you really want... However in terms of accessbility - that's
not what you're really looking for are you?

Scotty 

-----Original Message-----
From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org
[mailto:thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org] On Behalf Of Steve Lewis
Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2004 10:28 PM
To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject: Re: [thelist] Web Based Employee Directory

Ken Chase wrote:
> I'm lacking inspiration today and need to create an employee directory

> for my company. I can't seem to find anything very elegant in my 
> searches.
> Here's the criteria:
> - I don't have access to a database. Everything must be static HTML
> (valid)

Scott Harman replied:
> I'm lacking inspiration today and need to create an employee directory

> for my company. I can't seem to find anything very elegant in my 
> searches.
> Here's the criteria:
> - I don't have access to a database. Everything must be static HTML
> (valid)
[Ken didn't take to this reply]

and Hassan Schroeder replied:
> In any case, if you can't do this dynamically, I'd suggest your only 
> maintainable option is to put the employee information in a single 
> file (XML, CSV, whatever) and then generate your static pages using 
> make, Ant, XSLT, Perl -- whatever you're most comfortable with.
This is the model I was going to recommend.  Think "Movable Type" 
style.  Heck, you could probably just install Movable Type, customize a
template, and "recommend" the responses to the various fields if you
were familiar enough with it and willing to be really quick-and-dirty.

That said, you have said 'no database' but have not explained why. 
You also did not comment on the availability of scripting languages.

If you will excuse the hyperbole, you asked us how to build a house
without a hammer.  You didn't bother to tell us why you are biased
against hammers or what tools you *do* have available, so plenty of
patience is in order while we shake down the details you did not
volunteer.

regards,
Steve Lewis

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