Easy web page maintenance

David Chamberlain

Web gurus, this ought to be an easy one. Just looking for basic strategies here, but currently beyond my experience realm. I have a grandson now, almost 11 months old, and have been taking the requisite zillion pictures of him. Since family and friends are spread out all over the globe, the easy solution was to put together a web page with selected pictures and descriptions so everyone could see. So far, it's a big hit. The problem, of course, is updating the the thing, which is becoming harder and harder, not only in selecting which pictures to make available, but also in updating the HTML page itself. I currently have a 56K dial-up to my ISP, and 10MB of space, which is plenty for the 30 or so pictures I have up there. I would like to be able to add just a few pictures every couple of weeks, or every month or so. So what I am looking for is the strategy for making this easier. Once I decide on a few good photos, I shrink them down to make thumbnails for the HTML page. Clicking on the thumbnail will display the full-size photo. Right now, I have to go and edit the HTML page by hand and then upload all the new stuff to the ISP. The HTML doesn't change very much as the structure and layout are fairly static. It's really only the filenames and descriptions that are changing, but I have to edit everything by hand. Not too difficult, but time consuming. I guess I am thinking about an XML file with the name of the photo, the thumbnail, a description, etc, and then the HTML is generated automatically? I type in some basic info into a file, upload file and photos to the ISP, and the new page is updated automatically? What is the best way of keeping the maintenance of this project to a minimum. Right now, the updates are becoming few and far between, because it just takes too long to update everything by hand. There has to be a better way. Dave "You can say that again." -- Dept. of Redundancy Dept.

palbano

Dave, just make yur grandson do it!!! sheeeeesh ! :laugh:

Jon Sagara

Hi Dave, Take a look at this program: Gallery[^] It's a (mostly) PHP program that uses a MySQL database to organize the backend information. I don't know if your hosting setup will allow for it, but this program is very slick. Failing that, Photoshop allows you to select a batch of photos and export thumbnails and all of the HTML needed to create a static gallery. I don't know if you can add descriptions (I suspect you would have to do this manually), but this is also a very convenient option for quickly creating galleries. Good luck, Jon Sagara Hi! I'm Melanoma, Moley Russell's wart. -- Uncle Buck

Roger Wright

David Chamberlain wrote: There has to be a better way. There is, but I have yet to master it. I have a website for a very busy club, and it really should be updated daily. But there's no time for it! I'm trying to put all the content into a database, then build a set of pages for updating just the database. The HTML won't change - the structure will be static, but the paragraphs and pictures will be easier to edit. Plus, I could then farm out the updating to other members, each to his/her own activity and no knowledge of HTML required, and not deal with it at all.:-D Look into ASP and ADO for handling your pictures; I think it would work well for you. It is ok for women not to like sports, so long as they nod in the right places and bring beers at the right times.
Paul Watson, on Sports - 2/10/2003

pete mcquain

You could set up an XML file containing the picture information: Then have an XSL or client-side script that represents the static parts of the page and renders the HTML with the contents of the XML file that you upload. Hope that helps... -pete

David Chamberlain

Yeah, but he still drools quite a bit and that makes the keyboard sticky. "You can say that again." -- Dept. of Redundancy Dept.