[RULE] Call to arms and requirements for the website

[Rodolfo J. Paiz]

At 15:51 2/22/2004, you wrote:
>>              insert in each page pointers to chunks of PHP code (see
>>              as example the source of the current home pages)
>
>I don't know about this. I'll let the experts speak.

Not an expert, but even halfway through my first website I know it's not a 
problem.

>>news:
>
>I have news on that web site. Each news item is 1 include file. With the 
>main news page, I just include them, & list them accordingly. For the main 
>site page, I copy the 3 most recent news items to 3 different files, & 
>list the the 3 different files. I never have to touch the main site page, 
>because I have the main site page looking for 3 specific files. I admit 
>that it is a weird work around, but it requires only about a few seconds 
>of work, & a minute of checking.

I've been thinking of two possible schema for this (displaying them is not 
a problem since, as Eugene said, CSS solves that neatly):

         1. Put all news items in a directory as text files. Have the first 
line be the news headline. Have the filename provide the category and 
datestamp. Use a PHP function to get the directory listing, grep for the 
categories you want (or all if you prefer), and display the N most recent 
items in that category iteratively. Not that difficult.

         2. Instead of using a directory listing with separate files, set 
up a quick-and-dirty form to put the news items into a MySQL table. Then do 
the same as in #1 to extract the desired items.

My problem with these things is that I understand and can design the logic 
quite easily and well... I just can't code them into reality just yet. 
Frustrating. And lots of book reading. For the record, I have to solve this 
precise problem for the news section of my own website (see 
http://www.simpaticus.com).

>>threaded customizable site map:
>
>I'll let the experts speak on this. I don't know how much work it is. My 
>web site, so far, is very simple, so if I wanted a page like this, I could 
>do it by hand, which isn't the best way to do things. Maybe a bash script 
>that records all the file names of the directory tree, & parses the files 
>for relevant info?

Again, same problem as I have, and same as most websites have. I wonder if 
we really have to reinvent the wheel here or if there's a "smarter not 
harder" way to do it?

>>*LIGHT* HTML code and page layout:
>>
>>      The site structure and content must certainly become easier to
>>      understand and navigate than today, but think to people trying to
>>      know how to get RULE through a 14.4KBps modem, links, a 486 and a
>>      monochrome monitor (not to mention blind users). Let's limit as
>>      much as possible frames, nested tables, colors, JavaScript.

I took the design of www.simpaticus.com from a guy with permission. It's 
quite professional-looking, there are not that many tables and there are no 
frames. And the colors are well-selected. Is this design something that 
would be interesting to RULE? If so, I'd be happy to share it... I've made 
some changes from Dan Hersam's original as far as using PHP to make my 
page-design and modification tasks a lot easier.


-- 
Rodolfo J. Paiz
rpaiz at simpaticus.com
http://www.simpaticus.com



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