Need Advice for Large Website

G

Guest

I have a website that I started on Frontpage about 5 years ago. I now have
upgraded to version 2003.

Our website is becoming very popular and it is very large now. We currently
have over 5,000 pages and we expect to keep growing by 2,000 pages a year for
a while. Our website is… http://www.DestinationCoupons.com

I am having a few difficulties…

1) The website takes forever to publish, so I have broken the big folders
into subwebs (this is what was recommended to me over a year ago). This is
not the best solution because every time you save a change, you have to
change the default to – "don’t save" (graphics) because they reside on the
main web – and you don’t want the same graphics in each folder.

2) At what point is Frontpage going to self-destruct on me? Is there a limit
to the number of pages I can have?

What is the best way to manage this large website?
Is there someone I can talk to at Frontpage who can assess my site and give
me some advice?
Please help!

Donna
 
T

Thomas A. Rowe

At some point (soon) you need to looking into driving as much as the site that is possible via a
database so that you can reduce your page count.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, WebCircle, MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================
 
G

Guest

It does not make sence because all pages are unique. You would have to go to
the website to see what I mean.
 
T

Thomas A. Rowe

I did take a quick look at the site, the content is similar but unique for each page, but the
design/layout is basically the same, so the similar but unique content can be loaded from a database
into a standard set of pages (templates).

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, WebCircle, MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================
 
G

Guest

Thank you Murray.
I will read up on the content manager.
Have you taken a look at my site? It's hard for me to imagine that a
database can work. Each page has unique information.
Donna
 
T

Thomas A. Rowe

The unique content of each page would be a single record in database table. The ads, etc. would be
stored in another table within the database, etc. The header and footer would be Include Pages, etc.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, WebCircle, MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================
 
G

Guest

OK. So help me understand how would this be better? It's the same
information, but in a different format. I would be concerned with search
engines spidering the pages with no content we would suffer. We have awesome
seach engine placements and I don't want to jeopardise them. Also, we have no
computer gurus here (it's obvious I'm sure) so I don't know if we can do it.
 
T

Thomas A. Rowe

Why would you think you would have pages with no content?

The same content that you currently have, would still be viewable, just that it would be add to the
page when the page is displayed in the browser or requested by a search engine, no via FP

Currently you have your pages with a .asp extension, if not using any database functions, what is on
your pages that currently require them to be .asp?

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, WebCircle, MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================
 
T

Thomas A. Rowe

How are you creating the image links, are you using Absolute URLs, like the following:

http://www.destinationcoupons.com/Index_graphics/header.gif

or are you creating them like the following, which is a Relative URL:

.../../index_graphics/header.gif

Using Relative URLs might solve the prompt to save embedded image issue you are having.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, WebCircle, MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================
 
R

Rick Budde

Donna:

Just my 2 cents worth. Upon reading your questions and
your responses to advice given, I would suggest you hire
someone who knows web and database programming to convert
your site. From the way you describe the growth of your
business, it would seem your time would be better spent
on the business side rather that learning web programming.
 
R

Ronx

Using relative links will not stop the prompt. I have subwebs that use
images from the root and other subwebs, and have learnt to live with the
prompt.
 
P

PJX

It is a huge site and you have done an excellent job.

It is fairly responsive, too, although it could be better.

The cost of 'improving' your site could be quite large. A new
employee plus software plus adding a database is going to be a huge
expense compared to what you have now. It is a huge step for the
owners to make.

As to publishing only changed pages, I don't know what frontpage does
with 5,000 pages, but on 100 page sites it happens almost immediately
(when I've only changed one page).

PJ
 
G

Guest

This is something that I am very interested in finding more about. I am
creating images as you stated below with the relative url. If I do your first
option, will that solve my problem?
Donna
 
T

Thomas A. Rowe

Try it.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, WebCircle, MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================
 
G

Guest

I am sorry. I just didn't understand exactly how it works, but I think I get
your point.
I am just wondering if maybe it would be a lot of work. We are not able to
spend alot of money on programming, etc. I am almost inclined to breakdown
the major areas (countries) into separate websites. What do you think about
that?

We have asp pages because...
1) We have adware that requires asp pages to function.
2) We were anticipating that at some point we would use a database.

Donna
 
G

Guest

Thank you for your comments. I agree that the cost would be large and most
likely cost prohibitive.

It takes my main web maybe 2-3 hours to publish (we are on satellite
connection - it's slow). The subwebs publish in a minute or two. It The
websitI understaand the database theory, but in our case I think it would be
a lot of work for a minimum gain. I think that we can come up with a more
creative solution - like separating the website into several websites. Or
something.
 

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