[KLUG Members] not quite CMS

[Adam Tauno Williams]

> 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 

Yes, use a scripting language such as PHP and assemble the page upon
request from fragments.  It really is quite simple, if you've learned
CSS and HTML you should be able to master basic PHP (you might only need
"include" directives) in a couple of hours.  And just about everyone on
this list uses PHP.

> mind?  I ask people about this and the solution seems to be "use 
> Dreamweaver".  (Thanks, M$ slave!)  

Gack!

> 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)

They are horrible,  although IFRAMES aren't so bad.

> .  The only other solution I've heard is php.  

Yep.
 
> don't know php and I'm not sure what the issues might be with my web 
> host.

Most web-hosts support it unless you are on some fascistic ISP.  I think
it provides functionality you are inevitably going to want anyway.

>   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 could create a CGI script,  but you're going to run into the same
ISP issues.  Doing what you want requires EXECUTION ON THE SERVER, one
way or the other.  Writing CGIs is a pain, they are very very hard to
secure, and slow.  PHP (or any other mod_'d language) is better.  

You *MIGHT* be able to do what you want with apache page header and
footer directives in a .htaccess file, maybe.  But my guess is you won't
necessarily like the outcome.

> 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?

Yep,  we have the same issues concerning stuff developed at our shop.
We determined: "Screw Safari, nobody uses it anyway - if Safari wants to
be supported they should fix their *^@*^*&( browser".  IE sucks too, but
supporting that isn't a choice.  If it works on IE6sp1 and FF - good
enough.

You can make custom css sheets and what not for different browsers and
automatically serve the correct one via Apache's mod_rewrite.  But what
a pain,  you almost need an extra body ($$,$$$$) just to maintain a site
for 0.5% of Internet users.  Mac people can use FF, and they can tell
Apple to make a decent browser.

> I should say that though I'm a linux user, it's more out of ideology 
> than expertise--you shouldn't /assume/ I can do fancy computer things.

Same here,  the definition of "fancy" is relative.  I look at the code
written by the Horde, OpenGroupware, and LDAP people - and I kneel down
in awe - because I have no-idea-what-so-ever how the &^@&*%@^ that
works.

BTW,  I finally got a Horde 3/IMP 4 test site up yesterday.  OMG!
Beautiful, simply beautiful.

http://www.horde.org - those guys rule.  And installation is now so easy
it took me about two hours to figure out why it wasn't hard,  I kept
looking for documentation as to what I needed to do....  installation is
all menu driven,  and it really tries to stop you from entering whacked
out values.  How cool is that.  The SASL people should get some of the
Horde people to come over for coffee.
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
Url : http://www.kalamazoolinux.org/pipermail/members/attachments/20050823/3c490e39/attachment.bin