a5w_Include("header.a5w") or building out each page

[Steve Wood]

I have commonly created a page named header.a5w and then used a5w_include("header.a5w") on all of my pages. That is very convenient as it places a consistent header area on top of all of my pages, includes the main navigation bar, header graphic, logged-in information, etc.

But this method also causes problems. The resulting page in a browser will have two full sets of html tags html, body, title, etc.

Under most circumstances this redundancy does not really hurt anything, even though it is technically malformed. But it does affect the page if you have some of the higher level features like show/hide controls in a Dialog. And it does not work well if you are going to set up the page with css layout.

I was curious what others do - do most of you build each page as a complete unit (even if you start with a template) and NOT bring in any other page as the header (or footer).

[Steve Workings]

Re: a5w_Include("header.a5w") or building out each page

Most of my pages also include PageTop.A5w and PageBottom.A5w. In a couple larger apps, I also have PageTopAdmin.A5w, for instance.

I've never really worried about the double tags, though don't like 'em and have to keep in mind that the 2nd one usually takes precedence over the first.

I learned to do this when I had about 40 pages up & running for a company that then went and changed its name, address and logo. I had to edit every one of those pages, and determined then that I wouldn't do that ever again.

[Pat Bremkamp]

Re: a5w_Include("header.a5w") or building out each page

Steve and Steve,

You should have come to the conference! I showed a way to resolve that problem. Perhaps for a fee.....;)

Actually, I used to put the header and footer on separate pages, but I've since moved to using session variables to hold logo names, sizes, background colors, footer color and text, etc. I got away from it because it confuses the placement of the JavaScript and some things (like show hide) stop working.

Between that and CSS, I can redo a site with 100's of pages in a couple hours.

Nowdays, I just use the include for Xbasic like checking and refreshing those session variables.

Pat

[Steve Wood]

Re: a5w_Include("header.a5w") or building out each page

"Perhaps for a fee.....". I'll remember that.

[Lenny Forziati]

Re: a5w_Include("header.a5w") or building out each page

If you are including a standard header or footer, you should always make sure that the included A5W page is not a complete HTML document, but only contains the subset of HTML tags to make a complete and valid document once it is included. By not doing this, you will get unpredictable display and functionality in various browsers. To do this, make sure you don't edit the A5W page to be included in a WYSIWYG editor.

[Steve Wood]

Re: a5w_Include("header.a5w") or building out each page

Lenny,

Understood, but that is difficult as the header (or my header) includes both component code and body html. That is, it has contents inside of all of the various main html tags -- its a complete page. So my include cannot contain only a subset of html. I guess to continue with this method I would have to create two or more "header" files and include them in the appropriate spot on each page.

[Pat Bremkamp]

Re: a5w_Include("header.a5w") or building out each page

Here's what I do (for what it's worth)

At the top of every page is

 
<%a5 a5w_include("SessionVarTest.a5w") %>

This is an Xbasic only page that tests for existance of session variables and renews if they don't exist.

 
<%a5
'==== get section info into session variables if needed
'If eval_valid("session.section.number")=.f.
 Dim session.section as p
 stbl=table.open("[PathAlias.ADB_Path]\version")
 stbl.fetch_goto(1)
 session.section.version = alltrim(stbl.Ver_no)
 session.section.number = alltrim(stbl.En_id)
 session.section.name = alltrim(stbl.En_name)
 session.section.address = alltrim(stbl.En_adr1)
 session.section.citystzip = alltrim(stbl.En_city)+", "+alltrim(stbl.En_state)+" "+alltrim(stbl.En_zip)+"-"+stbl.En_zip4
 session.section.logoname = alltrim(stbl.Logoname)
 session.section.logohigh = alltrim(stbl.Logohigh)
 session.section.logowide = alltrim(stbl.Logowide)
 session.section.logoalt = alltrim(stbl.Logoalt)
 session.section.footer1 = alltrim(stbl.En_footer1)
 session.section.footer2 = alltrim(stbl.En_footer2)
 session.section.footer3 = alltrim(stbl.En_footer3)
 session.section.homepage = alltrim(stbl.En_website)
 stbl.close()
'end if
if eval_valid("session.__protected__UserID") = .t. .and. eval_valid("session.__protected__Username")=.f.
 Dim session.pe as p
 ptbl=table.open("[PathAlias.ADB_Path]\People")
 ptbl.order("Pe_Id")
 ptbl.fetch_find(alltrim(session.__protected__UserId))
 session.__protected__UserName = alltrim(ptbl.Pe_dear)
 session.pe.firstname = alltrim(ptbl.Pe_fn)
 session.pe.lastname = alltrim(ptbl.Pe_ln)
 session.pe.company = alltrim(ptbl.Wk_CoName)
 session.pe.status = alltrim(ptbl.Ev_status)
 session.pe.number = alltrim(ptbl.Pe_number)
 session.pe.needs = alltrim(ptbl.Ev_Needs)
 ptbl.close()
end if
%>

Then for the header, I use

 
<div id="header">
<img id="toppic" height="<%a5 ?session.section.logohigh %>" src="<%a5 ?session.section.logoname %>.jpg"
 width="<%a5 ?session.section.logowide %>" alt="<%a5 ?session.section.logoalt %>" />
</div><!-- end header -->

and the footer is

 
<div id="footer">
<img id="alphalogo" height="44px" src="CSS/ASQ/alphalogo.png" width="108px" alt="Powered by AlphaFive" />
<ul class="footer">
<li>Copyright&#169 <%a5 ?session.section.footer1 %></li>
<li><%a5 ?session.section.footer2 %></li>
<li><%a5 ?session.section.footer3 %></li>
</ul>
</div><!-- end footer -->

Then, anywhere the section name, address, wesite, or user info etc are needed, I use the session variable.

So, I change the style sheet, update the "version" table, and I have a new website.

Pat

[Steve Wood]

Re: a5w_Include("header.a5w") or building out each page

Thanks - I took a full-day class on CSS last week. Best thing I could have done short of attending the conference, which I hear was a great success. I actually wanted to go, and about registered late, but I also just spent over $6000 on airfair to take the family overseas in October, and had a harder time than normal justifying the additional cost.

[Lenny Forziati]

Re: a5w_Include("header.a5w") or building out each page

Pat, for the items that are not user specific (logo, footer, etc.) you might look at using Server variables. This would let you store the values once at the server level instead of having to recreate them for every session.

-Lenny