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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