New site - Page 2

dwilson · 5th December 2002, 11:21 PM

I'm only using an editor for the quick layouts, then I tweek them in notepad. I am a notepad person myself but I hate the long hours getting things lined up so I thought I would cheat.

I am about to write a java application specifically for building my product/price lists with the html and pictures. If anyone has any ideas on how to make it more generic (in case you might want to use it) let me know. I may just write an applet that will take search criteria from the user, including URLs to search and build interactive product sheets. This will be pretty specific for my purposes (building game lists with info and prices.) This will help me maintain my product lists since chips and bits are always updating it and some fall off their inventory without me knowing! It's a pain to do it manually. I can then submit it once per week and collect the data from chips and bits and be done with it!

dwilson · 7th December 2002, 05:45 PM

Ok. I got rid of the large 1's and 0's. I really didn't like them. I changed the menu and added some pages from the old layout so that people could actually buy games and stuff.

I do have a question. I am trying various ways of importing my menu so that it looks like part of the page but located in one place (because it's a pain to change on 10 different pages). Anyone have a suggestions on how I can do something like this? I am wearing out the pages in my PHP book trying to find an answer because none of the basic javascript or HTML methods looked good at all. Thanks!

SNaK3 · 7th December 2002, 07:23 PM

What menu? you could always use frames if that's any good, frames are very easy to construct with FrontPage, though some users find it a pain to view sites with frames...

dwilson · 7th December 2002, 08:13 PM

I try and stay away from frames, even though I like them, because there are still alot of browsers out there that don't support frames. I think all of the popular browsers do now but I want to construct some non-frame pages before I can start using frames. This way those people using browsers that don't support frames can still enjoy my site.

I used frames here when I was first starting out.

UH-Matt · 7th December 2002, 08:27 PM

you can do everything in tables that you can do in frames

View the source of this page!!

dwilson · 7th December 2002, 08:34 PM

The original question ( a few posts up) was how can I import info (like my site menu bar) from on source so that I can update it in one place instead of having to update it on each page? I know about frames and tables but that's not my question.

I tried using iframes and several other methods but they don't display it as if it was part of the page. they put stuff around the frames like borders, scroll bars or white background. Some methods display differently from others but none display the way I want. I want it to display just as it is in my site right now.

SNaK3 · 7th December 2002, 09:04 PM

im not sure if there is an alternative, however i am also using an iframe on my web page also.

UH-Matt · 7th December 2002, 09:27 PM

if you use php...

you can use the "include" function.

So you have a bit of code you want on every page the same... so put that code in its own .html file (so you just update this file) ... then where you want to include that code on all your other html files put..

<? include "file.html" ?>

so put the code you want on every page in file.html

then put that little bit of php above on all the pages you want file.html to be included in.

dwilson · 7th December 2002, 09:47 PM

MY GOD MAN!!! I couldn't even find that in my reference!!! Thanks you are a godsend!

UH-Matt · 7th December 2002, 09:55 PM

the include function is the best function EVER.

This is how i do all my sites.

All the top and naviation goes in top.html

All the footer and bottom bits go in bottom.html

then each page is simply..

---

Include top.html

Contents goes here

Include bottom.html

---

Makes it super easy for updates

SNaK3 · 8th December 2002, 12:44 PM

doesn't that just work like frames? ???

UH-Matt · 8th December 2002, 01:18 PM

no the include puts all the included files together into 1 html file then displays it.. no frames!

dwilson · 8th December 2002, 04:24 PM

Man I am INCLUDE CRAZY!!!

HA! I love includes! Um. Do they work in netscape and mozilla? I haven't tested that yet.

UH-Matt · 8th December 2002, 04:27 PM

yeah they do - its just PHP.

dwilson · 8th December 2002, 04:31 PM

Yeah I just tested it just now. YAY! ;D

Is anyone as excited as I am?

Now I gotta figure out how to write a site search in PHP since none of the ones that I downloaded work at all. >

UH-Matt · 8th December 2002, 04:33 PM

www.phpbuilder.com

awsome site for php code snippets

dwilson · 8th December 2002, 04:34 PM

awww! You ruined my fun! That's like telling the end of a good movie to someone who hasn't seen it!

LOL! Nah i'm kidding. thanks!

SNaK3 · 8th December 2002, 08:58 PM

lol dwilson, you've gone all "high" :P

dwilson · 9th December 2002, 02:47 AM

Ok, I think i've got a good thing going now, other than a fellow on MSN making fun of my forum. What do you guys think of my site so far? I want to attract gamers. I am thinking of starting a screenshot contest (no matter the game) and awarding $100 to the best screenshot. Not sure I want to foot $100 but it's one way to attract traffic yes?

UH-Matt · 9th December 2002, 09:16 AM

wrong.

Ive just been doing some traffic attraction for us.

1. get linked on every game site you can think of
2. get listed on www.dmoz.org
3. make sure your site is search engine optimised.
4. Spread the word (forum sigs etc.)

Once you have done the above hopefully you will start getting hits - if a site is a hobby there should be no need to give out prizes like cash - why not give somethingout out as a prize other than cash (which would cost you less) like a years hosting muahahah!