Re: Last Modified Date

"Dennis Marks" <denmarks (AT) none (DOT) net> wrote

There seems to be a major program with the automatic display of the
last modified date. Using the javascript "document.lastModified"
sometimes returns the correct date and sometimes 1 Jan 1970 depending
the the browser.

Using SSI LAST_MODIFIED can return the last modified date, ISP system
boot date, or many others.

The only last modified date that I have been able to use with any
consistancy is the SSI flastmod command.

Is this a common problem?

Why would you want that on your site?

Don't you want people to think your information is current?

If your site is selling something or is a restaurant and has its menu online
a "last modified" could get people wondering "Are these prices current? Or
have they gone up since then?"

Even if its just been 2 or 3 months since you last modified your site/page
it often makes me think about the content... how current is it? If the
designer hasn't modified the site in 3 months was it a big modification? Or
maybe he/she was just updating the (c)copyright at the bottom of the page?

If you update your site daily or every couple of days then your regular
users will know your site is kept up to date as they come back. If you are
adding data to the site (IE: new picture sets, new news articles, etc) then
you might put in a "WHATS NEW" section with dates on the
articles/pictures/etc

On Sun, 02 May 2004 18:02:59 -0500, Michael Wilcox
<mjwilco_usenet (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:

Augustus wrote:
Why would you want that on your site?

Don't you want people to think your information is current?

I respect my users enough to want them to know exactly how old the info
on the page is. To do otherwise is misrepresentation.

If your site is selling something or is a restaurant and has its menu online
a "last modified" could get people wondering "Are these prices current? Or
have they gone up since then?"

Those are all valid and appropriate questions for a user to ask of a
site. They are also good reasons to keep your pages updated, instead of
tricking users into thinking they are.

One thing to remember though is that it's often better to put the time
in the file manually, rather than using the lastModified even on the
server, as you often may want to update a page without updating the
actual substantial content.

Jim.
--
comp.lang.javascript FAQ - http://jibbering.com/faq/

Michael Wilcox wrote:

Augustus wrote:
Why would you want that on your site?

Don't you want people to think your information is current?

I respect my users enough to want them to know exactly how old the info
on the page is. [...]

So you should not use client-side techniques
to accomplish this, because they are unreliable.


F'up2 dcljs

PointedEars

Dennis Marks wrote:

In article <40957f5d.119838728 (AT) news (DOT) individual.net>, Jim Ley
jim (AT) jibbering (DOT) com> wrote:

Please do not write attribution novels.
<http://netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html>

[...] When updating a page it is a simple matter to add the date.

And there is a standard for meta information that can be used for this.

<http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-terms/#modified>

However, it is a certainly a Good Thing to include that information in the
visible part (body) of a document, too. Server-side techniques can be quite
useful for both, if available, e.g.:

<?php echo date('Y-m-d\TH:i:sO', @filemtime(__FILE__)) ?>

see

<http://php.net/date>
<http://php.net/filemtime>
<http://php.net/manual/en/language.constants.predefined.php>


X-Post & F'up2 comp.infosystems.www.authoring.misc

PointedEars

Michael Wilcox wrote:

Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:
I respect my users enough to want them to know exactly how old the info
on the page is. [...]

So you should not use client-side techniques
to accomplish this, because they are unreliable.

I don't. I use PHP.

1. Fine. Read "you" as "one".

2. There is client-side PHP, although it is not widely used.


PointedEars

Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:

Michael Wilcox wrote:


Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:

I respect my users enough to want them to know exactly how old the info
on the page is. [...]

So you should not use client-side techniques
to accomplish this, because they are unreliable.

I don't. I use PHP.


1. Fine. Read "you" as "one".

2. There is client-side PHP, although it is not widely used.

Example?

--
Randy
Chance Favors The Prepared Mind
comp.lang.javascript FAQ - http://jibbering.com/faq/