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How to automatically update all your site using one template.

by ragstworiches
10 replies
Hey warriors,

Ok my plan is to create a template for dreamweaver that I can use to update certain parts of my website that run constant throughout all pages, i.e links at bottom and the top.

This to me seems difficult to do, as I guess the best way is to first create the template and then use that on all sites.

If anyone knows anything about this I would love to here from you.

Phil
#automatically #site #template #update
  • Profile picture of the author ragstworiches
    Hey Thanks,

    That is an interesting alternative, I will bear it mind.

    Phil
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  • Profile picture of the author ehicks727
    Dreamweaver has "library" capabilities in it. You can set up your nav, footer, etc. all as a separate library and you can edit the library item and then it will propogate it throughout the whole site.

    I don't think this is the BEST solution, but if you have DW, you might as well give it a try. It's easier to do than learning SSI, in my opinion. It depends on your tech prowess, I guess.

    I use PHP includes, personally.
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  • Profile picture of the author Forexwarrior
    Banned
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  • Profile picture of the author ragstworiches
    Hi,

    I am pretty up on joomla, although I have to say I prefer dreamweaver, prob jjust because I have more experience using it. I will give SSI a shot. I was thinking most warriors would be using templates to update their links on their sites?

    Cheers, Phil
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  • Profile picture of the author ragstworiches
    Hey,

    So ok I didn't use SSi it was only a little job so I used a library item which worked great. I did find some info saying you can use SSi without shtml, so that would be better I think.

    Personally on new sites I think I will use a template so it is easier from the beginning.

    I would like to learn to use wordpress one day, just to see how I find that.

    Thanks for all your help
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    • Profile picture of the author JustaWizard
      Hey ragstworitches - I've been doing exactly what you describe for a long, long time with many, many websites.

      I use dreamweaver and it's much easier than you might think.

      All I do is create a page with my header graphic, links at top and bottom - in other words, I get it all set up the way I want.

      Be sure to click Site > Define site so DW "recognizes" your site, that's easy, just tell DW where the files are on your hard drive.

      Then for the parts I want to be editable, I choose Modify > Template > mark section as editable (or similar verbiage) and then the rest will not be editable.

      Then, just click File > Save As Template.

      Then, generate a page by clicking File > New From Template.

      Mess around with a couple of test pages to see if the template / pages from template are doing what you want.

      Sometimes I have to go into the code and mess with it a bit for some things sometimes like making title tags editable and such, but other than that it's pretty smooth sailing.

      Just make up a template to play with and you'll see what I mean. Then after you work the bugs out by playing around, you'll be ready to do your "real" template.

      Doing it this way, I can generate new pages at lightning speed, SEO them, and FTP up and I'm done! Very quick, very easy. I don't need library items to do all this, very simple, very straight forward, very easy.

      And, like you said, the best part is that I can add something I want on all my pages by just adding it to the template (like a new link, or an email capture form, whatever) and I can updated literally dozens of pages all at one time!

      Hope that helps!

      Best,
      David Portney
      PS: I've been playing around with wordpress now a bit and may do new websites that way because I'm not really a great designer and wordpress can make "slicker looking" sites than I can do in DW... just a foot note to the above, I still use DW templates for all my existing sites and you can see my simplistic designs by looking at sites in my sig if you want.
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  • Profile picture of the author ragstworiches
    Hey David,

    Thanks for your input, I plan to use templates from now on, to save myself a bit of dull updating tasks.

    Phil
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    I use SSI with plain HTML pages. All it takes is a couple lines in an .htaccess file to set it up so the server parses SSI with plain HTML pages.
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    Just when you think you've got it all figured out, someone changes the rules.

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    • Profile picture of the author Kurt
      Originally Posted by Dennis Gaskill View Post

      I use SSI with plain HTML pages. All it takes is a couple lines in an .htaccess file to set it up so the server parses SSI with plain HTML pages.
      Yep...My www.pheeds.com site is a mirror of Wikipedia and has hundreds of thousands of html pages. But, I can instantly change the header, footer or side column any time through a single text file for each.

      And with SSI you can also include dynamic content from scripts installed on your site.

      As Dennis said, just add an htaccess file with the proper commands, and your server will display the pages with .html and not need .shtml.

      Every SERIOUS webmaster should understand and be able to use SSI and/or php includes.
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  • Profile picture of the author ragstworiches
    Hey Warriors,

    Thanks for your input, now I assume I am correct in thinking php includes would be a better route or the same route as ssi includes, am I right to think this. I am starting a new site from scratch so I really want to build it in the best way possible for updates and additions. Any thoughts appreciated.

    Phil
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