473,320 Members | 2,193 Online
Bytes | Software Development & Data Engineering Community
Post Job

Home Posts Topics Members FAQ

Join Bytes to post your question to a community of 473,320 software developers and data experts.

help

I have a website with many pages.

How do I set it so that the left hand column is the same in all pages
without having to type it in - and so that changes go from page to page
when made.
I am using front page as this is all I know at the moment.
Nov 29 '06 #1
2 1371
In our last episode, <_E9bh.392575$R63.126913@pd7urf1no>, the lovely and
talented prophet broadcast on comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html:
I have a website with many pages.
How do I set it so that the left hand column is the same in all pages
without having to type it in - and so that changes go from page to page
when made.
I am using front page as this is all I know at the moment.
There are two basic approaches, neither of which is HTML.

One is server-side includes (SSI). You have to know some details of your
server configuration to use SSI. SSI must be turned on in the server, which
is pretty standard with most hosts, but it is possible that it isn't on
yours. You must know how to indicate which documents have includes. The
two principal ways are with the file extension (mydocument.shtml instead of
mydocument.html) or the Xbithack, which means setting the executable bit on
the document. You will have to research your particular brand of server and
examine or ask about the server configuration.

In the main document an include for a document served by Apache looks
like this:

<!--#include virtual="filename.txt" -->

To HTML this looks like a comment and is ignored, but when properly served,
the contents of filename.txt are inserted in the document at this point in
a way that looks seamless to the viewer (browser, user agent). The
inserted file should not be a complete HTML document, but instead is the
snip of markup you want to include at this point.

When you change filename.txt, the changes will appear in every document that
includes filename.txt.

The main drawback is that to see the document as served, you have to have a
server. If you view the document as a file, the includes will be missing.
This may be a good thing if you have many text-heavy documents and want to
concentrate on proofing the text without the distraction of the included
boilerplate. It is a good idea to make the included file a complete block of
markup, so you have a valid document even when the included part is missing.

The other main approach is to use a preprocessor. This approach is a little
too complex to go into here, but basically you have the choice of using a
preprocessor on a server, which is not a whole lot different from SSI,
or of using a preprocessor to produce documents before you put them on the
server. PHP is widely (but not universally) supported by servers. It can
also be used to produce complete documents before you upload them to a
server, in which case there doesn't have to be anything special about the
server. There are a wide variety of scripting and report languages and
preprocessors (many of which are intended for programming) in which it is a
relatively simple matter to insert a block of text into many documents, and
controlling a number of such processes can be done with a Make utility,
whichever flavor your system may support.

Okay, which way to go?

If you are using Frontpage I'd guess you don't know much HTML and are pretty
much at sea concerning what you are doing. You probably should start with
SSI if it available on your server. You will have learn HTML and how to use
a flat ASCII editor on your documents (but you will have to learn that much
for any solution). You might start just by using cut-and-paste to paste
the appropriate markup into several documents, and when you know what you
are doing, then let SSI do the pasting for you. If your site never gets
very elaborate, this may be all you need.

--
Lars Eighner <http://larseighner.com/ <http://myspace.com/larseighner>
War on Terrorism: Treat Readers like Mushrooms
"DO NOT USE photos on Page 1A showing civilian casualties from the U.S. war
on Afghanistan." -Memo, _Panama City_ (FL) _News Herald_
Nov 29 '06 #2
Hi Prophet,

prophet wrote:
I have a website with many pages.

How do I set it so that the left hand column is the same in all pages
without having to type it in - and so that changes go from page to page
when made.
I am using front page as this is all I know at the moment.

There are numerous ways to do this have a look at:
http://allmyfaqs.net/faq.pl?Include_one_file_in_another for a start.

Regards,

James
--
James Frayne
ja*************************@yahoo.co.uk
Remove doesnotlikespam to send mail.
Nov 30 '06 #3

This thread has been closed and replies have been disabled. Please start a new discussion.

Similar topics

21
by: Dave | last post by:
After following Microsofts admonition to reformat my system before doing a final compilation of my app I got many warnings/errors upon compiling an rtf file created in word. I used the Help...
6
by: wukexin | last post by:
Help me, good men. I find mang books that introduce bit "mang header files",they talk too bit,in fact it is my too fool, I don't learn it, I have do a test program, but I have no correct doing...
3
by: Colin J. Williams | last post by:
Python advertises some basic service: C:\Python24>python Python 2.4.1 (#65, Mar 30 2005, 09:13:57) on win32 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> With...
7
by: Corepaul | last post by:
Missing Help Files When I enter "recordset" as the keyword and search the Visual Basic Help index, I get many topics of interest in the resulting list. But there isn't any information available...
0
by: hitencontractor | last post by:
I am working on .NET Version 2003 making an SDI application that calls MS Excel 2003. I added a menu item called "MyApp Help" in the end of the menu bar to show Help-> About. The application...
0
by: DolphinDB | last post by:
The formulas of 101 quantitative trading alphas used by WorldQuant were presented in the paper 101 Formulaic Alphas. However, some formulas are complex, leading to challenges in calculation. Take...
0
by: DolphinDB | last post by:
Tired of spending countless mintues downsampling your data? Look no further! In this article, you’ll learn how to efficiently downsample 6.48 billion high-frequency records to 61 million...
0
by: ryjfgjl | last post by:
ExcelToDatabase: batch import excel into database automatically...
0
by: Vimpel783 | last post by:
Hello! Guys, I found this code on the Internet, but I need to modify it a little. It works well, the problem is this: Data is sent from only one cell, in this case B5, but it is necessary that data...
1
by: PapaRatzi | last post by:
Hello, I am teaching myself MS Access forms design and Visual Basic. I've created a table to capture a list of Top 30 singles and forms to capture new entries. The final step is a form (unbound)...
0
by: CloudSolutions | last post by:
Introduction: For many beginners and individual users, requiring a credit card and email registration may pose a barrier when starting to use cloud servers. However, some cloud server providers now...
1
by: Shællîpôpï 09 | last post by:
If u are using a keypad phone, how do u turn on JavaScript, to access features like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram....
0
by: af34tf | last post by:
Hi Guys, I have a domain whose name is BytesLimited.com, and I want to sell it. Does anyone know about platforms that allow me to list my domain in auction for free. Thank you
0
by: Faith0G | last post by:
I am starting a new it consulting business and it's been a while since I setup a new website. Is wordpress still the best web based software for hosting a 5 page website? The webpages will be...

By using Bytes.com and it's services, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

To disable or enable advertisements and analytics tracking please visit the manage ads & tracking page.