Site rebuild

[novus]

I have a large web site (several thousand pages) with constantly changing
content that requires updating numbers of times per day. Much of this
content is "included" across numbers of pages. I make heavy use of scheduled
includes and nexted include pages.

I have recently upgraded (W2K -> XP, FP2000 -> FP2003) and want to use this
a an opportunity to rebuild the site from the ground up I would appreciate
any advice, both in general, but also on the following topics.

a) Maintain on local PC - publish to ISP (with FP extensions)
I have 56K connection and although each publish is slow, I thought I would
stick with this (optimising the HTML a litlle during the publish.

b) Use Dynamic Web Templates throughout.

c) Possibly use Access DB to replace much of what I currently do with
include pages and scheduled include pages. However there may be speed
issues. A typical page (eg What's on April 4th) would draw content of say 12
short paragraphs (currently stored as small include pages). The adavantage
of sticking with includes is that I can easily include internal hyperlinlks.
I am comptetent in both FP and Access but haven't used the 2 together. i
don't wish to learn CGI or other languages at this stage.

d) Possibly look at making more use of navigation shortcuts - eg multi-level
drop down menus - pozsibly using J-bots

e) Stick with FP conventions where possible (themes, navigation etc) even
though they don't always give the most elegant look and feel.

Any siuggestions will be be welcome.

novus

 

[Jim Buyens]

-----Original Message-----

I have a large web site (several thousand pages) with
constantly changing content that requires updating
numbers of times per day. Much of this content
is "included" across numbers of pages. I make heavy use
of scheduled includes and nexted include pages.

I have recently upgraded (W2K -> XP, FP2000 -> FP2003)
and want to use this a an opportunity to rebuild the
site from the ground up I would appreciate
any advice, both in general, but also on the following
topics.

a) Maintain on local PC - publish to ISP (with FP
extensions) I have 56K connection and although each
publish is slow, I thought I would stick with this
(optimising the HTML a litlle during the publish.

This is what I would do, unless I could get DSL or cable
modem.

b) Use Dynamic Web Templates throughout.

DWTs are very cool, but not on FP2002 and earlier server
extensions. They only work properly on disk-based Webs
and on Windows SharePoint Services (a component of
Windows Server 2003).

c) Possibly use Access DB to replace much of what I
currently do with include pages and scheduled include
pages. However there may be speed issues. A typical
page (eg What's on April 4th) would draw content of
say 12 short paragraphs (currently stored as small
include pages). The adavantage of sticking with
includes is that I can easily include internal
hyperlinks.
I am comptetent in both FP and Access but haven't
used the 2 together. i don't wish to learn CGI or
other languages at this stage.

Almost any time you can reduce the number of static Web
pages by drawing information from a database, you're
better off going with the database. However, this can be
awkward for free-form text.

Also, you would have ASP or ASP.NET fundamentals, and
some VB, and some ADO.

d) Possibly look at making more use of navigation
shortcuts - eg multi-level drop down menus - pozsibly
using J-bots

Noncommittal. I'd have to know what the several thousand
pages contain. When a database can provide both you
content and your navigation, it's a wonderful thing.

e) Stick with FP conventions where possible (themes,
navigation etc) even though they don't always give
the most elegant look and feel.

Most people outgrow these.

Any suggestions will be be welcome.

Several thousand Web pages in one site is way too many.
Break your Web into subwebs containing at most a few
hundred pages. Or even better, reduce the entire site to
50 or 100 pages that get variable content from some other
source.

Jim Buyens
Microsoft FrontPage MVP
http://www.interlacken.com
Author of:
*----------------------------------------------------
|\---------------------------------------------------
|| Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 Inside Out
||---------------------------------------------------
|| Web Database Development Step by Step .NET Edition
|| Microsoft FrontPage Version 2002 Inside Out
|| Faster Smarter Beginning Programming
|| (All from Microsoft Press)
|/---------------------------------------------------
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