Section that is Updated on Every Page?

hello. since this forum generates a lot of great solutions... I've decided to post some of my questions here.

I'd like to know how (and if there is a way) to generate a "section" that updates everytime I update that particular page linked to it.

so for example... a news section that is found on all pages of my website. but instead of having to update that section on every page, I only have to update the one news section.

kind of like CSS stylesheets, but this time with content.

I tried playing around with inline frames, however, in the end, it doesn't work with Firefox?

Anyone who has solutions, please share! Thanks in advance!

 

I don't think pure HTML will do this for you. But it's a piece of cake using any programming language. For example, PHP offers an "include" function that does exactly what you're talking about.

 

yeah. im trying to think outside the box. so im experimenting with things other than html to save my time and not update every and each page... -_-

so how would I do this using what you said?

btw thanks for replying so fast!

 

as sgtsloth said
piece of cake

using SSI - with perl or PHP or other means
i used perl - now only PHP and use SSI to insert any of my currently 4 RSS feeds into many pages to keep visitors informed of the news in that particular RSS topic

yoiu can have text modules, link modules or pics to be inserted into any page

btw

iframes and firefox
i use iframe to include my address into all relevant pages ( like donation-, order-pages, etc and it works perfectly for me in my firefox and any other browser i use for testing )

iframes is a very handy method to insert info or pics

if you have a page with an iframe example that does NOT work for you - give me the URL and i may check to see why - it may be a simple syntax error

 

oops, I got rid of inline frames a long time ago since they didn't work. so I just started updating each page one by one whenever the news section needs update.

until... i figured out CSS stylesheets! and thought if there was a way I could save some time by using more than styles, but incorporating content.

anyways. enough of that.

so how would I do this using "php"?

 

To answer the PHP issue, see PHP:include - Manual.

A more general discussion of the server side include may be found in the Apache manual.

cheers,

gary

 

assume you have a file / text module to include named which is in the same folder as the file to be inserted

text_module.htm

then the full syntax would be

<? include ('text_module.htm'); ?>

PHP:

just the code above without the 1. in front !!!

if text module in other folder - relative paths work

if doing that on a HTML-only site
make sure you enable PHP parsing of HTML files first making proper adjustments in your
.htaccess

-------- start

AddType x-mapp-php4 .html .htm .shtml
removeHandler server-parsed shtml

-------- end

the 2 lines above added will stop shtml files to be parsed for perl SSI
and enable PHP parsing of NON - .php ending files like .html and .htm files

the .htaccess lines may need to be adapted to a particular apache config on your host - above works perfect for me but i had to figure it out all on my own as the usual recommended mehtod failed to work with 1AND1 hosting apache-configuration


now
make a test HTML file
add a test module into
you see it's easy

now you need to play with you CSS to place it exactly where and how you want it to be

 

hmm. i dont quite get it. there's a lot of things in there i don't understand.

is there like an example or perhaps a tutorial. im very new to this.

oh, well. never mind. ill just get rid of the news section for now until i figure it out.

thanks you guys.

 

tutorials
what about w3schools
http://www.w3schools.com/default.asp
else just ask google for tutorials
there are hundreds out there

the sample i made you below is about the easiest i can offer its all copy and paste and in 3 minutes ready to test

 

sorry. but where do i copy all of that to?

 

hmm. I think I'm going to try inline frames again. and if it doesn't work, ill pm you guys.

right now... i have a little problem

how do i make the table so it is on the edge?
like this:


because right now, it looks like:


never mind. i found it:
topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0
lawl.

 

Did you not follow the links I gave you? The Apache documentation is very tutorial. What they cover related to the Apache web server is also applicable to server-side scripting languages such as PHP.

gary

 

hey, gary.

I looked, well skimmed, through the links you gave me.
but they seem a little bit too advanced for me. i can only do basic and some advanced html and the rest ill need to learn via school or w/e.

many of the things they said i don't really understand... :/

but thanks anyways gares, im going to tool around with the inline frames.

 

create a new html file
include all basic elements such as head
meta
body

some text

then add the include part of the code given below

then create another file with the name to be included

then run file 1 in browser and it should display the file 2
to properly place the included module use CSS

re question about tables
may be you really should consider to study the w3schools onliine tutorial
is free and highly efficient to use


and that
.htaccess

-------- start

AddType x-mapp-php4 .html .htm .shtml
removeHandler server-parsed shtml

-------- end

as said into your
.htaceess

 

You have to start reading the tutorials like the ones that Gary posted and start using them. It is complicated and difficult to skim it and understand what they are talking about. I was in the same place you are a couple weeks ago, but you just have to dive in and figure out what they are talking about. PHP includes are very simple to me now. As you are going through the tutorials and you find something that you don't understand, google it, figure it out and then go back to the tutorial. Just skimming it will not get you to where you need to be.

Good luck.

 

:/

i still have to try what hans said.
if it doesnt work then ill try looking through it when i have time

thanks everyone

 

I used inline frames once again, and yes! it worked! he he he he he he he he h e thanks everyone

 

OK well I'll try to give the best "tutorial" on the PHP aspect, which maintains SEO -- not like frames.

<?php include ('filename.html') ?>

This calls to filename.html and includes EVERYTHING that's in that file.


So, you're editing your site and there's an HTML column somewhere and you want a "list" to go in there -- say of, sold links? New pages? -- wahtever.

Put those in a file, the way you want, and remove the HTML, HEAD, BODY, META -- all those tags, as you don't want to have a "2nd" page listed in your site's source.

So, your 2nd page should be formatted something like this.

<table id="soldlinks">
<tr>
<td>
Links for Sale<br />
Link 1<br />
Link 2<br />
Link 3<br />
Link 4<br />
Link 5<br />
</tr>
</td>
<table>

HTML:

Now, that's your "include" text. You can formatt this in any way you want but I say just keep it as basic as possible, even design your site and copy that bit of source into another page. I like using the extension ".inc" just for my own refrence of ".inc-lude" so I know that it's a area of a page, that's included in another.

Now, you've got your site setup how you want and need to include this page of "pre-generated" (already made) links that can be edited in ONE file and not every page across your site.

Just a simple

<?php include ('links.inc') ?>

PHP:

And it will pull that data from your file, and put it on your site without having to update 10, 20, 500 pages.

 

lolz. I now realize that the numbering (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) is the line number. lawl. ok, I'm going to give that a try.

-----------------------------------
ok i just tried it and its not really working...

my first page (index.htm) is:

<html>

<head>
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 6.0">
<meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<title>New Page 1</title>
</head>

<body>
<table>
<tr>
<td><?php include ('links.inc') ?></td></tr></table> 
</body>

</html>

Code (markup):

and my second page (links.inc)

<table id="soldlinks">
<tr>
<td>
Links for Sale<br>
Link 1<br>
Link 2<br>
Link 3<br>
</td>
</tr>
      <table> 

Code (markup):

and when I open up index.htm , its just blank...
i think im doing something wrong.

 

Did you remember to add the code supplied above to your .htaccess file?
You need to do that to make it work.