[thelist] HTML optimization advice, please

Thu Sep 20 09:42:19 CDT 2001

Am about to start "optimizing" a large (400+) static site.  Can't decide
what approach to use.  Your suggestions on the below appreciated.

SITE STRUCTURE:
~40 "groups" (county depts.)
~10 web pages per group
Each page has 2 sections the same, but unique to the group:
    "Header": <head>...</head> with uniqueness in the group's meta keywords
and <title>.
    "Footer": Each group has a submenu*.

Example page from 1 of the groups:
http://www.co.brunswick.nc.us/sample_admin1.htm

* Submenu links from all groups are combined on an Index page.  see
http://www.co.brunswick.nc.us/az-index.htm

TASK:
Optimize (for maintenance) the "Header" and "Footer" sections, through SSI
or other.

APPROACH #1:
Use SSI_header and SSI_footer for each group.
Advantage: Current filename extension of .htm will not have to change
(server config. for parse of .htm);
Advantage: Site can easily migrate to a non-Windows server in the future, if
desired.
Disadvantage: Will result in 80 additional files.

APPROACH #2:
Put the unique information (keywords; submenu links) into a database and
dynamically write it to the web page using ASP/SQL.
Advantage: Will require no additional files.
Advantage: Will allow dynamic creation/update of the Index page. (This is a
key navigation page for users with Javascript turned off or for older
browsers.)
Advantage: Can replace some existing Javascript (e.g., page update date)
with server side scripting.
Advantage: Can add more dynamic stuff.
Disadvantage: Will require changing the existing .htm extensions to .asp,
perhaps interferring with outside links to the site.
Disadvantage: Will make moving the site to a non-Windows server in the
future, _if_ desired, more work.

Note: With Approach #2, I thought that I could create a 404 page that
instructed users to try the same page filename but with .asp extension.
Unless server can be configured to interpret *.htm as *.asp -- that would be
awesome.

Thank you!
Tyme