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HTML CSS File -> Multiple Combined Pages

by Kudek
8 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
Hi Warriors,

What's the best (most simple and effective) markup/programming language to manage my websites so that:

- I can write content and website menus independent of formatting
- I can have a website design that is completely customized and editable, so that I can change it at any time without needing to change every page on my site

I ask because I'm giving a website design job to a freelancer on getafreelancer.com and I want to make sure that he uses the right programming/markup language to build it for me.

Thanks!
Kudek
#&gt #> #combined #css #file #html #multiple #pages
  • Profile picture of the author pdjsolutions
    Yup,

    HTML / CSS its the best . For any changes to the design, you just need to change the CSS file and it will make changes to all the pages that you have linked the CSS file to.

    Text is very easy to format as well, as if you have multiple text boxes here and there, in multiple pages, you can set them inside a div and give properties to that div,

    you can also use many divs with the same properties by adding a class to it so that it reflects the same properties and therefore you just need a single set of codes for it.

    HTML / CSS is really very powerful. . Make sure your freelancer uses these languages.

    Btw, i design websites as well. Let me know if you are interested.

    Prateek.
    PDJSolutions.
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  • Profile picture of the author awesometbn
    Originally Posted by Kudek View Post

    Hi Warriors,

    What's the best (most simple and effective) markup/programming language to manage my websites so that:

    - I can write content and website menus independent of formatting
    - I can have a website design that is completely customized and editable, so that I can change it at any time without needing to change every page on my site

    I ask because I'm giving a website design job to a freelancer on getafreelancer.com and I want to make sure that he uses the right programming/markup language to build it for me.

    Thanks!
    Kudek
    I would recommend that you consider using WordPress (or Joomla or Drupal) for your website. That way you can concentrate on your content such as writing articles and adding photos as often as you desire, simply by using the administrative interface for the content management system. When you want to make an overall change, all you have to edit are the WordPress theme files and graphics. That would be the job you advertise for a freelancer, to get a new theme designed, or to have custom graphics created for you.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kudek
      Originally Posted by awesometbn View Post

      I would recommend that you consider using WordPress (or Joomla or Drupal) for your website. That way you can concentrate on your content such as writing articles and adding photos as often as you desire, simply by using the administrative interface for the content management system. When you want to make an overall change, all you have to edit are the WordPress theme files and graphics. That would be the job you advertise for a freelancer, to get a new theme designed, or to have custom graphics created for you.
      Thanks for your reccomendation awesometbn, but I think those content management systems are a little too sophisticated for what I'm looking for. I'm going to be creating many 20-30 page sites in short periods of time, so I don't want the added bulk and complicatedness that those seem to have.

      In response to HTML + CSS reccomendations, is that really going to do what I need with creating separate files for different parts of the webpages?

      I understand that CSS allows me to change the design of the webpage at will from one file. BUT, with simple HTML, does it allow me to have one file for the Left-Sidebar Menu, as well as one file for the page header, as well as one file for the page footer, so that if I ever want to change the content of those, I can just edit the one file?

      And I'm looking for something I can easily edit in Dreamweaver on my computer.

      In light of all this, does anybody know what it is I'm looking for?

      Thanks guys,
      Kudek
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  • Profile picture of the author Kudek
    A friend on Twitter said: "it's relatively easy to do what you're talking about with just PHP + HTML + CSS."

    So that's the solution to my question, for anybody else who was interested. I just need to learn the basics of PHP now.

    Please feel free to post any comments if you think they'll help, especially related to the basic idea of how I'd actually do this neatly and elegantly with PHP.
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    • Profile picture of the author vijayrajesh
      Well, clearly you need Wordpress to do this. Although i like WP, joomla and drupal, i first recommend WP now as it is very easy to learn and you need to learn very little PHP for that.

      If you learn php for WP, you can hack the templates in the way you want.

      Already there are lots of resources and solutions online for WP so mostly you wont need to reinvent wheel for WP.

      WP has great community and lots of free and excellent themes are already available. Well, you need content only to fill it

      Best Regards,

      Rajeshkannan MJ
      Vijayalakshmi
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    • Profile picture of the author awesometbn
      Originally Posted by Kudek View Post

      A friend on Twitter said: "it's relatively easy to do what you're talking about with just PHP + HTML + CSS."

      So that's the solution to my question, for anybody else who was interested. I just need to learn the basics of PHP now.

      Please feel free to post any comments if you think they'll help, especially related to the basic idea of how I'd actually do this neatly and elegantly with PHP.
      This is just a suggestion, but here is any easy method that I've used in the past. First you need a file called index.php and you need a couple of subdirectories like /images for your graphic files, and /tpl for your template files.

      The contents of index.php
      Code:
      <? require_once('tpl/header.tpl');
include('tpl/home.tpl');
require_once('tpl/footer.tpl'); ?>
      You'll notice it uses a PHP function to insert other PHP files. The reason for this is exactly what you described in your first post: the editing you will do is on those other files, inside the /tpl subdirectory. Those other files can include anything you want. Once you make a change there it will show up in the index.php page without having to directly edit index.php at all.

      That's the main concept. You can extend that out to multiple files, different sections like sidebars and advertising. Let me know if that helps.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kudek
        Here's what my friend told me in our e-mail exchange (about PHP):

        It's server side so all it does is take the code from the included file and insert it in the including file. No frames are necessary.

        If I have foo.php:

        <head>
        <title>mytitle</title>
        </head>
        <body>
        <?php include('content.php'); ?>
        </body>

        and content.php:

        <p>This is my content!</p>

        then a visit to h t t p : / / mysite . com / foo . php produces the code:

        <head>
        <title>mytitle</title>
        </head>
        <body>
        <p>This is my content!</p>
        </body>

        to the user's browser. That's about all there is to it.
        I don't know if this method is the same as what you're saying awesometbn as I'm just beginning to learn PHP. Please let me know if either of the two has advantages over the other.

        I hope this is helpful to more people than just me!

        Cheers,
        Kudek
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  • Profile picture of the author Kudek
    The webdesigner I'm hiring has told me he will do it using Zend Concept.

    What's is that? Is that what I want?
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