What do you use to manage your site (i.e. changing layout across many pages, etc)?

Personally, I wrote a small program (ok, code is small, but I used MFC and it bloated the EXE file) that appends a specified header file and then a specified footer file to a specified content file. My site is going to be small, and each page has basically the same layout. I code everything by hand, so I'm not going to use one of the editing programs. I think my program can handle 100 pages or so. I don't know how many pages it can process.

A lot of sites use a database and some scripting languages to do management. I don't really want to do that, because it means if I wrote a PHP solution, I'd have to convert scripts if I switched to a server with ASP.

What does everyone else use?

 

Dreamweaver does what your program does. You can create a template and then base pages on it. Then if you change the template the parts of the pages that are based on it get changed, too.

 

Yeah, those editing programs have convenient management tools. I'd use them if I wasn't bent on writing the code by hand.

 

Why write all the code by hand. Dreamweaver in particular can write extremely compliant and nicely formated code. I just set it to create XHTML transitional documents and voila.

I use a portal or CMS system (phpWebsite), it's the best solution. I didn't have to code anything excpet for the template for the lok of the site. With such systems you just have to create the template, why bother programming "all" the system when there are so many free one out there. If I had to move my site I would only have to look for a host that provides PHP and MySQl and that's it. If you wrote your own or used a free one, and need to move, just select a company that supports what you need (either ASP or PHP/MySQL), no big deal.

And if you are hellbent in doing it by hand why not do it with something like Perl or Python, you could write something that batch process files and it wouldn't matter if they are 100 or more.

 

I code by hand. It's cheaper than buying a program, and I feel like it gives me more control. In terms of WYSIWYG programs, I've only had a little experience with FrontPage (and absolutely hated it), and have never tried Dreamweaver. For the basic layout, I use SSI to include the main header and footer, so changing the overall layout isn't too hard.

 

Why write all the code by hand. Dreamweaver in particular can write extremely compliant and nicely formated code. I just set it to create XHTML transitional documents and voila.

I don't think that works for me. I'm doing a completely standards based layout, using only CSS for visual formatting. I think a editor like that may not be able to work with it properly.

just select a company that supports what you need (either ASP or PHP/MySQL), no big deal.

I know that's how it is, but I don't need any server side scripting anyway so I don't want that to be a big consideration. I haven't even found a host yet, so I didn't want to code my site for a specific one.

And if you are hellbent in doing it by hand why not do it with something like Perl or Python, you could write something that batch process files and it wouldn't matter if they are 100 or more.

The program does batch process the files, it's just that I have no idea whether it can process a lot of them since there are still memory limitations. More than likely, if there are no errors I can process 1000 of them at once. It'll just be a lot of memory allocation with pointers and strings.

I code by hand. It's cheaper than buying a program, and I feel like it gives me more control.

Yup, Dreamweaver is too expensive for me.

For the basic layout, I use SSI to include the main header and footer, so changing the overall layout isn't too hard.

I've been staying away from that since I might have to use my ISP's host, and they don't have SSI.

 

I've only had a little experience with FrontPage (and absolutely hated it)

Well no wonder. Frontpage puts in a lot of M$ crud and really turns pages into a mess. Hey what did you expect from them ;-).

I think a editor like that may not be able to work with it properly.

Well at least Dreamweaver deals prefectly fine with CSS1. My onlly small complaint is that adding or editing styles requre a few too many clicks, but once established you can apply them easily. DW also does CSS2 for layouts, they have specific layout functions. I don't know how good it is since I format with tables anyway, but everything else in the program is standards compliant if you want to.

Also DW has a code view. You could code it by hand in it. Then of course wou would loose its advantages. Though the question about price can't be denied. But after using it at work and now with MX I don't feel the need to go back except for the PHP coding.

More than likely, if there are no errors I can process 1000 of them at once. It'll just be a lot of memory allocation with pointers and strings.

That's the problem if I understand you right. Are you processing (opening and loading)a bunch of files at the same time? Why not have the program process them one by one, memory requirements are lower, can be more efficient and might be able to deal with errors more easily. Unless of course I misunderstood you. But yes with Perl, Python or another scripting language you could write a very small program that process your files easily.

Personally I use Python for that kind of stuff, easy to learn, has good text processing capabilities and powerful.

Yup, Dreamweaver is too expensive for me.

Well you did ask for opinions right ;-) ? If you do this thing on a regular basis or professionally, DW or learning other tools might pay themselves easily.

Then again if you use something like Linux (free BW) you could use Quanta (free too, you can't lose ;-)

Quanta

 

DW also does CSS2 for layouts, they have specific layout functions.

I didn't know that. I was always under the impression that you couldn't do really good CSS2 layout with an editor. Hmm... Interesting.

Are you processing (opening and loading)a bunch of files at the same time?

It reads them in one by one. The two constraints are the header/footer files can't be huge (they have to be read into a string so I can replace the title/sections), and there can't be more than about 170 lines of error. The last one is kind of dumb because it's a Windows app and I used a textbox to show the errors, and textboxes have a length limit. I'd use RichEdit but that seems like overkill. My DOS/console version works fine because cout doesn't have a limit, but it's not good user interface design.

Personally I use Python for that kind of stuff, easy to learn, has good text processing capabilities and powerful.

I even thought of that (or even VBScript, which I found has all the features I needed), but I decided to pick up some STL C++, just to learn it.

Yeah, I got to check out these Linux apps. The only thing is, Photoshop doesn't have a Linux version (AFAIK) and I don't like the GIMP that much.

 

Well I did check about DW just to make sure, as I said I mostly work with tables. Anyway here's the skinny, DW does support CSS2 but non graphically. It does have a visual layout mode but after you finish it converts them to table,. So it's not that sophisticated. Though I was impressed how quickly table layout could be drawn in DW. So yes DW would be a waste is anyone expects graphical CSS2 positioning. Still it helps with the validation and stuff.

DW MX CSS2 support
Graphical layout design in SW MX

Anyway sorry for the confussion.

Anyway your little app sounds fine. That's what I like, assigning oneself projects to learn stuff. Haven't touched STL in years.

The other way I can think of is using a good text editor. I use Textpad (Notepad it so damn useless). It includes a bit of batch processing, macro recording and text search including regular expressions. The other day for example I did a search on al IMG tags on a bunch of files, it returns the result as a text file, but when you double click on a line telling you one if theresults it opens that page on the right line. Very handy in my coding.

 

As long as the program supports CSS2 layout, I don't really mind if its non-graphical. I've been coding "blind" using ED (yup, the old DOS WordPerfect Editor) for a few years now. Now, about that price tag....

I like the TextPad option though. I should check it out.

 

Yep, you can write the CSS code, apply it and then check it to see how it looks.

As far as Textpad, it's very cheap for all the functionality it provides. There is even a trial version, which is the full version that just tells you you are not registered.

 

Thanks. Yes, I'm trying it out right now. Seems alright. I'm still way too used to ED though.

 

I code by hand. When I change something on every page, it's only to easy to copy/paste what I want changed.

 

I've only used FrontPage and it works fine for me. I have no troubles managing the pages at all. Plus I don't know squat about coding (I prefer it that way ).hehehe

 

I code by hand. When I change something on every page, it's only to easy to copy/paste what I want changed.

I really don't have the patience to do that, even if it's only for 10 or so pages. Although, I still spent many hours coding a program to do it. (the program should have taken half an hour tops, but I had to learn MFC and STL at the same time)

I've only used FrontPage and it works fine for me.

That's one of the things I liked about Frontpage when I was using it. The other thing was, if I renamed a filee, everything gets updated to reflect it. Very handy, especially in the old days when Photoshop defaulted to saving images with a capitalized extensions (and you couldn't choose unless you typed it in yourself). I just renamed the pictures more than once, and I had inconsistent extensions, so I just ended up renaming all the pics to lower case and Frontpage fixed it. I don't use FP anymore because it doesn't generate the code I want.

 

I code by hand a lot too, but Dreamweaver really makes it easy to layout your pages. I think I tried FrontPage before and I didn't like it. The problem with the copy paste method is also that you could easily create errors this way.

Have you thought about using Java to write your program? It would be pretty portable and it handles the buffering for you, so you wouldn't have any visible restrictions on buffer sizes.

 

Have you thought about using Java to write your program?

Yes, but I have an aversion to seeing the Sun Java icon in my system tray, so I didn't do it. Actually, there isn't really a buffer size limitation, it's just an interface issue. The program was able to do hundreds of pages but the errors just didn't get displayed.