Simple Content Management System (CMS)

Adrienne wrote:

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed "Steven (remove wax and invalid
for reply)" <unspam (AT) hal-pc (DOT) orgwax.invalid> writing in
news:42c9cd43$0$2225$a726171b (AT) news (DOT) hal-pc.org:


I only have a few pages up at my own site
(www.techlanguage.com) and I want to add about 6 more, while keeping
the same look and at the same time keeping it flexible so that I can
change the content quickly. At the rate I'm going it will take a
l-o-o-o-n-g time.


You'll shave a lot of time off if you stop using tables for layout and let
CSS handle it. You would also do better to use semantic markup, use
headings instead of presentational markup. Make a template, and use
includes for the menu. Since you're on Apache, use PHP.

1. I have read some web pages that talk about how great it is to let CSS
handle tables, but I have not found a clear explanation of how. Any tips?

2. What's the difference between semantic and presentational markup?

3. A couple of people have told me I need to learn PHP. What's the best
way to start?

--
Steven

Steven (remove wax and invalid for reply) wrote:

3. A couple of people have told me I need to learn PHP. What's the best
way to start?

http://www.hudzilla.org/phpbook/

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed "Steven (remove wax and invalid
for reply)" <unspam (AT) hal-pc (DOT) orgwax.invalid> writing in
news:42ca1ed2$0$2226$a726171b (AT) news (DOT) hal-pc.org:

1. I have read some web pages that talk about how great it is to let
CSS handle tables, but I have not found a clear explanation of how.
Any tips?

When you let CSS handle positioning instead of tables, you'll make it a
lot easier on yourself, less debugging, faster pages, better SERPs.
Here's a short version:

<div id="header">
<img src="logo.png" alt="">
</div>
<div id="menu" class="noprint">
<ul>
<li><a href="home.php">Home</li>
<li><a href="contact.php">Contact</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div id="content">
<h1>Page Title</h1>
<p>Some content</p>
</div>
<div id="footer" class="noprint">
copyright info
</div>

Then define the CSS:
#header {height:100px;}
#menu {width:20%; float:left}
#content {margin-left:21%}
#footer {clear:both; font-size:80%}

Of course, this is really, really simple, but I think you get the idea.
You have a lot more control with CSS.

Here's Brucie's list of CSS tutorials and other fun and giggly stuff:
css tutorials and other fun 'n giggly css stuff:
http://www.css.nu/
http://www.mako4css.com/
http://www.richinstyle.com/
http://www.blazonry.com/css/
http://www.w3schools.com/css/
http://www.websitetips.com/css/
http://www.htmlhelp.com/reference/css/
http://www.pageresource.com/dhtml/indexcss.htm
http://www.climbtothestars.org/coding/cssbasic/
http://www.htmlcenter.com/tutorials/index.cfm/css/
http://www.freewebmastertips.com/php/content.php3?aid=48
http://www.canit.se/~griffon/web/writing_stylesheets.html
http://www.utoronto.ca/ian/books/xhtml2/exerpt/css-4a.html
http://idm.internet.com/articles/200101/csstutorial1a.html
http://www.greytower.net/en/archive/articles/tsutsumi.html
http://www.westciv.com.au/style_master/academy/css_tutorial/
http://webmonkey.com/authoring/stylesheets/tutorials/tutoria l1.html

layout examples:
http://www.glish.com/css/
http://www.csszengarden.com/
http://www.wannabegirl.org/css/
http://tantek.com/CSS/Examples/
http://www.saila.com/usage/layouts/
http://www.bluerobot.com/web/layouts/
http://www.benmeadowcroft.com/webdev/
http://www.xs4all.nl/~apple77/columns/
http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/css/edge/
http://www.htmler.org/tutorials/3/1.html
http://css.nu/articles/floating-boxes.html
http://webhost.bridgew.edu/etribou/layouts/
http://www.roguelibrarian.com/lj/index.html
http://css-discuss.incutio.com/?page=CssLayouts
http://ecoculture.com/styleguide/r/rollovers.html
http://thenoodleincident.com/tutorials/box_lesson/index.html
http://www.webreference.com/authoring/style/sheets/layout/ad vanced/

rounded corners:
http://www.albin.net/CSS/roundedCorners/
http://www.webweaver.org/dan/css/corners/
http://www.guyfisher.com/builder/workshop/css/corners/

slants: http://www.infimum.dk/HTML/slantinfo.html
centring: http://stone.thecoreworlds.net/www/centre/
lists: http://www.alistapart.com/stories/taminglists/
pure css menus: http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/css/edge/menus/demo.html

master compatibility charts:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~ppk/css2tests/intro.html
http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/css/index.html
http://macedition.com/cb/resources/abridgedcsssupport.html
old:
http://www.immix.net/html/CSSGuide.htm
http://devedge.netscape.com/library/xref/2003/css-support/

hiding CSS from crappy browsers:
http://centricle.com/ref/css/filters/
http://www.ericmeyeroncss.com/bonus/trick-hide.html
http://www.w3development.de/css/hide_css_from_browsers/

css checkers:
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/csscheck/

cascading style sheets, level 1 specification
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1.html
cascading style sheets, level 2 specification
http://www.w3.org/tr/rec-css2/cover.html
cascading style sheets, level 2 revision 1 working draft
http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-CSS21-20020802/

2. What's the difference between semantic and presentational markup?

Presentational markup is any markup which affects the presentation of an
element, and is not structural. Presentation is also a lot easier in
CSS.

Semantic markup means using markup to make up the structure of a
document. Use P for paragraphs, H1 through H6 for headings, Lists for
lists (menus and such), blockquote to quote a block of text (not for
indentation).

3. A couple of people have told me I need to learn PHP. What's the
best way to start?

I started at <http://www.php.net> or just Google for PHP tutorial, there
are plenty of good ones.

--
Adrienne Boswell
http://www.cavalcade-of-coding.info
Please respond to the group so others can share

Adrienne wrote:

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed "Steven (remove wax and invalid
for reply)" <unspam (AT) hal-pc (DOT) orgwax.invalid> writing in
news:42ca1ed2$0$2226$a726171b (AT) news (DOT) hal-pc.org:


1. I have read some web pages that talk about how great it is to let
CSS handle tables, but I have not found a clear explanation of how.
Any tips?


When you let CSS handle positioning instead of tables, you'll make it a
lot easier on yourself, less debugging, faster pages, better SERPs.
Here's a short version:

div id="header"
img src="logo.png" alt=""
/div
div id="menu" class="noprint"
ul
li><a href="home.php">Home</li
li><a href="contact.php">Contact</li
/ul
/div
div id="content"
h1>Page Title</h1
p>Some content</p
/div
div id="footer" class="noprint"
copyright info
/div

Then define the CSS:
#header {height:100px;}
#menu {width:20%; float:left}
#content {margin-left:21%}
#footer {clear:both; font-size:80%}

Of course, this is really, really simple, but I think you get the idea.
You have a lot more control with CSS.

Here's Brucie's list of CSS tutorials and other fun and giggly stuff:
css tutorials and other fun 'n giggly css stuff:
http://www.css.nu/
http://www.mako4css.com/
http://www.richinstyle.com/
http://www.blazonry.com/css/
http://www.w3schools.com/css/
http://www.websitetips.com/css/
http://www.htmlhelp.com/reference/css/
http://www.pageresource.com/dhtml/indexcss.htm
http://www.climbtothestars.org/coding/cssbasic/
http://www.htmlcenter.com/tutorials/index.cfm/css/
http://www.freewebmastertips.com/php/content.php3?aid=48
http://www.canit.se/~griffon/web/writing_stylesheets.html
http://www.utoronto.ca/ian/books/xhtml2/exerpt/css-4a.html
http://idm.internet.com/articles/200101/csstutorial1a.html
http://www.greytower.net/en/archive/articles/tsutsumi.html
http://www.westciv.com.au/style_master/academy/css_tutorial/
http://webmonkey.com/authoring/stylesheets/tutorials/tutoria l1.html

layout examples:
http://www.glish.com/css/
http://www.csszengarden.com/
http://www.wannabegirl.org/css/
http://tantek.com/CSS/Examples/
http://www.saila.com/usage/layouts/
http://www.bluerobot.com/web/layouts/
http://www.benmeadowcroft.com/webdev/
http://www.xs4all.nl/~apple77/columns/
http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/css/edge/
http://www.htmler.org/tutorials/3/1.html
http://css.nu/articles/floating-boxes.html
http://webhost.bridgew.edu/etribou/layouts/
http://www.roguelibrarian.com/lj/index.html
http://css-discuss.incutio.com/?page=CssLayouts
http://ecoculture.com/styleguide/r/rollovers.html
http://thenoodleincident.com/tutorials/box_lesson/index.html
http://www.webreference.com/authoring/style/sheets/layout/ad vanced/

rounded corners:
http://www.albin.net/CSS/roundedCorners/
http://www.webweaver.org/dan/css/corners/
http://www.guyfisher.com/builder/workshop/css/corners/

slants: http://www.infimum.dk/HTML/slantinfo.html
centring: http://stone.thecoreworlds.net/www/centre/
lists: http://www.alistapart.com/stories/taminglists/
pure css menus: http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/css/edge/menus/demo.html

master compatibility charts:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~ppk/css2tests/intro.html
http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/css/index.html
http://macedition.com/cb/resources/abridgedcsssupport.html
old:
http://www.immix.net/html/CSSGuide.htm
http://devedge.netscape.com/library/xref/2003/css-support/

hiding CSS from crappy browsers:
http://centricle.com/ref/css/filters/
http://www.ericmeyeroncss.com/bonus/trick-hide.html
http://www.w3development.de/css/hide_css_from_browsers/

css checkers:
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/csscheck/

cascading style sheets, level 1 specification
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1.html
cascading style sheets, level 2 specification
http://www.w3.org/tr/rec-css2/cover.html
cascading style sheets, level 2 revision 1 working draft
http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-CSS21-20020802/



2. What's the difference between semantic and presentational markup?


Presentational markup is any markup which affects the presentation of an
element, and is not structural. Presentation is also a lot easier in
CSS.

Semantic markup means using markup to make up the structure of a
document. Use P for paragraphs, H1 through H6 for headings, Lists for
lists (menus and such), blockquote to quote a block of text (not for
indentation).


3. A couple of people have told me I need to learn PHP. What's the
best way to start?


I started at <http://www.php.net> or just Google for PHP tutorial, there
are plenty of good ones.

WOW.

Thanks. I had found a few things, but this is a great list.

Steven

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed kchayka <usenet (AT) c-net (DOT) us> writing in
news:3j071hFng89kU1 (AT) individual (DOT) net:

Adrienne wrote:

div id="menu" class="noprint"> <div id="footer" class="noprint"

You can drop that class altogether, just put in your print stylesheet:

#menu, #footer { display:none }

I like to keep clutter out the HTML whenever possible.

Actually, in _my_ stylesheets, I do have it that way. I copied this markup
from another thread where someone wanted to know the difference between ids
and classes, and I was demonstrating both in the same element.

--
Adrienne Boswell
http://www.cavalcade-of-coding.info
Please respond to the group so others can share

Steven (remove wax and invalid for reply) wrote:

Adrienne wrote:

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed "Steven (remove wax and invalid
for reply)" <unspam (AT) hal-pc (DOT) orgwax.invalid> writing in
news:42c9cd43$0$2225$a726171b (AT) news (DOT) hal-pc.org:

I only have a few pages up at my own site (www.techlanguage.com) and
I want to add about 6 more, while keeping
the same look and at the same time keeping it flexible so that I can
change the content quickly. At the rate I'm going it will take a
l-o-o-o-n-g time.

You'll shave a lot of time off if you stop using tables for layout and
let CSS handle it. You would also do better to use semantic markup,
use headings instead of presentational markup. Make a template, and
use includes for the menu. Since you're on Apache, use PHP.


1. I have read some web pages that talk about how great it is to let CSS
handle tables, but I have not found a clear explanation of how. Any tips?

Get a good template and modify it. realworldstyle.com comes to mind.

2. What's the difference between semantic and presentational markup?
Semantic: <li> for lists, <p> for paragraphs, <cite> for citations, etc.

Presentational: the language of Mordor, which I will not utter here.

3. A couple of people have told me I need to learn PHP. What's the best
way to start?

PHP is wildly popular because it is easy, but Perl with CGI is more

powerful, and _almost_ as easy. See perl.org, and cpan.org, and
follow the links.

Tools like the w3c validator are written in Perl. You get (virtually)
2 programming languages for the price of one learning period. Perl is a
great general purpose language as well as a language for networks.
--
mbstevens
http://www.mbstevens.com/cgi/mkatt.pl?name=coding/glue