At 09:52 09-02-00 , Rob Brosey wrote:
> On the home page I have a "This page was last updated  
> DD/MM/YY."  How could I automate this so even though 
> I may not have applied any changes, it still would give the 
> user the
feeling/appearance that the page is the most
> current.

I'll suggest it is important to be honest, as well as a cozy feel. Hence
indicating that it has been changed, when it has not, is likely to come
back and make you look foolish. (But, then, that isn't what you really
asked, either.)

You could, for example, display the current date. Unless you're of very
local geographic scope, you'll likely want to indicate time zone or region
as well.  You can display date via SSI (server permitting), via an
automatic (chron or at) update of the page at midnight, for example.

Another technique is to have a ~today in history~ file, with some past
event that relates to the industry or topic of the site. Again, SSI, or
midnight daemon update, and an advance-prepared file of goodies.

You might be more informative, by having a small file with the date and
time of the latest site update, and SSI include that on the page... for
many sites, I'd rather know that it was actually updated the prior
Thursday, then some robotic feel-good.

If you've a professional site... I'd suggest an honest approach... most
people expect a site to be quite current... but would rather know that
yesterday's price change wasn't yet updated, than get the illusion that is
was, when it actually wasn't.

If you've an advertising site for pimple-cream or whatever, I've no polite
suggestions. <g>

Safe computing,  /Harold

ps. While it might be tempting to list the current exchange rate, market
quotes, etc, if you are a bank, I'd be careful with reliability (accuracy
and dependability) and whether you might have any legal exposure in the
case of errors or omissions, relying on some third-party service...
something to consider carefully, I'll suggest.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Harold A. Driscoll                 mailto:Harold(at)Driscoll.Chi.IL.US
#include <std/disclaimer>                 http://Driscoll.Chi.IL.US

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