RE: Website Comments (PHP)

Well I was trying to make this page as close to pure HTML, as possible,
I decided to use PHP because clients don't have to parse any content,
Javascript is in my opinion a bad idea these days, People disable
javascript in their browsers to stop all the junk pop-ups etc that
happen, Javascript is too abused, and therefre I would prefer to steer
away from it, as far as your system you talk about, it went over my
head, I've only begun using PHP, and this would be my first fully
functioning PHP Site, when it's done. I know HTML, CSS, minor
Javascript, and now minor PHP, I thought ActiveX was prompted to be
allowed or disallowed, which takes us back to javascript and all
determined on client side. As this is a professional Site, I don't want
prompts, Fancy Code that has to work on the client, If it's Compatible
in all browsers It's fine with me. Most fancy javascript menu's say they
work in all browsers, but from Experience you always find bugs.
If I am wrong on your ActiveX idea, then please explain some more :) I
need feedback on where to go from here before I continue stripping the
data, Also how meta-tags are going to cause a problem, because if I get
to the end and I have to re-write everything I won't be too happy :|
I can give people the code for the text paging system if it's needed.
Thanks again
Jason

-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher Higgs [mailto:chiggs(at)unimelb.edu.au] 
Sent: Monday, February 24, 2003 2:15 PM
To: Jason; 'Davies, Elizabeth H.'; hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org
Subject: RE: Website Comments (PHP)

G'Day Jason,

At 08:34 AM 24/02/2003 -0800, Jason wrote:
>Yeah thanks for that, I was going to make it all in one database, but
>then My Step-Dad the owner of the page I'm making knows nothing of HTML
>yet alone SQL, to edit the pages when he needs to. So we made our own
>text database, it explodes by </tr> tags and then we just add a </tr>
at
>the end. It is shown in the directory page, This allows for easy text
>modifying.

Of course, a "database site" is only one answer to your problem.  You
could 
create your own mini-CMS (content management system) quite easily - in 
fact, you are already part way there.  Instead of a form that explodes
by 
TR tags, try providing a WYSIWYG interface such as eWebEditPro.  If you
are 
into XSLT, you could even get "+XML" version.

Basically the device (an ActiveX Component) converts a hidden form field

containing HTML code into a WYSIWYG window similar to MS Word.  This
occurs 
OnPageLoad  (ie. client-side and hence no server-processing 
requirements).  The configuration files are stored on the server, so you

still have full control over how the applet works.  For example, you can

customise and restrict the toolbar functionality.

Then OnPageClose, the contents are stuffed back into the form field and 
returned to the server.  At this point you can also trigger certain 
functinos such as "auto-validate" and strip out certain tags (eg 
FONT).  I've found it very useful in cleaning Word-generated garbage.

The resulting form data can be stored in your database and either cut
and 
pasted with external template files or transformed via XSLT into a web
page.

>Still unsure of meta-tags, my idea was maybe either having all the same
>meta-tags and just putting it in the index.php while echo'ing out page
>if it's set, or since php is executed first, I can put one php line on
>each content page something like <?php $metatags="Whatever" ?> and
print
>that... I'm not sure what to do, suggestions on this would also be
>great.

The advantage of this method is that you can bring otherwise hidden 
elements (eg META tags) into an editable state.  The contents of TITLE, 
keywords, description (and any Dublin Core tags) can be placed in text 
fields at the top of the form and given high priority (even using 
client-side JS to ensure they are completed before submission).

If ActiveX is a sticking point, they have just released a Macromedia
Flash 
version.  The URL for eWebEditPro is 
here:  http://www.ektron.com/ewebeditpro.cfm
(or for those in Aust: 
http://www.firmware.com.au/products/ektron/eWebEditPro.cfm )


Chris Higgs
Manager, New Learning Technology
ILFR, University of Melbourne
http://www.landfood.unimelb.edu.au/
Phone: +61 3 8344 9749  Fax: + 61 3 9348 2156 

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