[KLUG Members] not quite CMS

[Richard Harding]

On Mon, 2005-08-22 at 23:15 -0400, Steve Petersen wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 1.  There must be some way to avoid putting, say, the /same/ menu div in 
> every html page, and changing it on /every/ page when you change your 
> mind?  I ask people about this and the solution seems to be "use 
> Dreamweaver".  (Thanks, M$ slave!)  There's frames, I guess, but that's 
> supposed to be bad for reasons I don't really understand (though I do 
> think they're ugly).  The only other solution I've heard is php.  I 
> don't know php and I'm not sure what the issues might be with my web 
> host.  Isn't there some kind of "local" content management system (if 
> that's the right term) for linux that will do this for me?
> 
You have two options for this. 
1) You use server side includes. Your host has to be setup to allow
this. Start here with this:
http://http-server.carleton.ca/~dmcfet/html/ssi.html

2) Use a scripting language like PHP and such so that you can use the
include statement. To do this you have to have php support, name your
files as .php files, and then include( 'site_menu.php' ); where you want
your menu to show up. 

> 2.  I spent some time making the CSS nice on Firefox, and it checks out 
> okay on other browsers (not great on IE--unneeded scroll bars and such), 
> but it is a /disaster/ on Safari.  The CSS is kosher so I can only guess 
> Safari is messed up somehow.  Any hints about how to handle this?

This is always tough. It really depends on what CSS you're using and
combinations of specific items. The best thing to do to start out is to
post a link in a forum like sitepoint.com and people can generally help
get you on the path. Over time you begin to learn about the specific
bugs in each browser and the workarounds you need for them. 

Rick