Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:20:23 +0200 From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> To: Martin McCormick <martin@dc.cis.okstate.edu> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Automated Production of Web Pages Message-ID: <20090618182023.fc008be0.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <200906181155.n5IBtfU1046242@dc.cis.okstate.edu> References: <200906181155.n5IBtfU1046242@dc.cis.okstate.edu>
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On Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:55:41 -0500, Martin McCormick <martin@dc.cis.okstate.edu> wrote: > This needs to be some sort of script application so we > can feed it automatically and not have to manually build each > page. > > Is there any open-source platform which makes this > especially quick and easy? I've found that a source file from : separated valus serves well for the (sometimes changed and appended) source data, and a Makefile that does everything else. From this Makefile, I simply first call a preamble HTML file, then a simple awk script that adds the data lines, sourced by the CSV file, in HTML format, and finally a HTML file with the rest of the page. The command "make install" would then automatically upload it. > Of course, as one who likes to script > repetitive tasks, I can attest to the fact that that first > script is murder at times but the time you spent building it is > payed back the next time when it runs automatically at 3 A.M. > and only took 15 seconds to run. Really, it's not a big deal, no "murder at times". The easiest way is you start with one HTML file that represents what you want to have in the end, then cut it into three parts (the preamble, the changing part, the footer) and the replace the changing part by a script. Well, you can even (ab)use cpp for this. HTMLPP=cpp -C -P -traditional The advantage is that you have separated parts for everything. The preamble file changes the look of the page, e. g. via CSS. The CSV database contains the changing data, and the awk script contains the description how the data should be displayed. This separation makes it very easy if you want to change of of the different aspects I mentioned. > So, are there php-based or other packages that help > automate this process? Forgive my polite disagreement, but according to your description which sounds to describe a relatively easy problem, PHP looks like really too much, "too big" for this job. (I don't use PHP very often, so my opinion might not be the best one to rely on.) > That's why I love Unix. If you love UNIX, why not following its philosophy? Keep the thing simple. Make one solution that solves the problem best, nothing more, nothing less. As you said, it may take some time to get it running, but when it runs, it will run nearly forever. -- Polytropon >From Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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