J
Justin C
The in-house web-site is about twenty pages. Most of
the pages are the front end to perl programs that
perform various tasks. The index page at the base URL
contains links to each of the other pages. The pages
each have their own directory, and are index.cgi so
that, from the top level, the link is self explanatory,
eg: http://inhouse/postage_calculator/.
Every time a new program is added (or a new static
page), a directory is created and a standard template
is copied to the directory. The template takes care of
layout, template items, linking style.css, and looks
for either body.txt or program.pl in the current
directory which then takes care of the pages purpose.
The site is getting complex, several modules have been
written to take care of common tasks (database look-ups
mainly). The more I look at the site the more I know
there must be a better way, it's time consuming to add
new modules to each of the existing templates, and
check that none have been missed, and that nothing gets
broken by the addition.
I'm sure I should do away with the 'site' concept, the
whole pages and directory tree structure, and have just
one program at the base URL, and that one program call
methods for whatever task is requested. I think I
should also implement a system by which the program
remembers data submitted between calls rather than
relying on hidden form fields, or a tmp file and
relying on the infrequency of use to prevent requests
clashing (user 2 getting the results of user 1's
query).
The current site uses the CGI module. I believe this is
no longer flavour of the month. It has served well
enough, but there has been some serious head-scratching
trying to bend it to fit some of my requirements, I
look forward to learning something new. I think I could
make CGI fit, and I am familiar with it, but if there's
a better way then that's what I'd rather be doing, as
much for learning something new as for doing this
'right'.
I welcome any suggestions, or pointers to
documentation, for where I might start or how I might
proceed.
I have considered CMS for this, but that doesn't seem
as appropriate for programs, which tend to hang around
for years, as it does for 'news' stories which tend to
update often. I'm very happy to be disuaded of this if
someone thinks I should be going with CMS.
Thank you for any comments, suggestions, pointers to
reading matter.
Justin.
the pages are the front end to perl programs that
perform various tasks. The index page at the base URL
contains links to each of the other pages. The pages
each have their own directory, and are index.cgi so
that, from the top level, the link is self explanatory,
eg: http://inhouse/postage_calculator/.
Every time a new program is added (or a new static
page), a directory is created and a standard template
is copied to the directory. The template takes care of
layout, template items, linking style.css, and looks
for either body.txt or program.pl in the current
directory which then takes care of the pages purpose.
The site is getting complex, several modules have been
written to take care of common tasks (database look-ups
mainly). The more I look at the site the more I know
there must be a better way, it's time consuming to add
new modules to each of the existing templates, and
check that none have been missed, and that nothing gets
broken by the addition.
I'm sure I should do away with the 'site' concept, the
whole pages and directory tree structure, and have just
one program at the base URL, and that one program call
methods for whatever task is requested. I think I
should also implement a system by which the program
remembers data submitted between calls rather than
relying on hidden form fields, or a tmp file and
relying on the infrequency of use to prevent requests
clashing (user 2 getting the results of user 1's
query).
The current site uses the CGI module. I believe this is
no longer flavour of the month. It has served well
enough, but there has been some serious head-scratching
trying to bend it to fit some of my requirements, I
look forward to learning something new. I think I could
make CGI fit, and I am familiar with it, but if there's
a better way then that's what I'd rather be doing, as
much for learning something new as for doing this
'right'.
I welcome any suggestions, or pointers to
documentation, for where I might start or how I might
proceed.
I have considered CMS for this, but that doesn't seem
as appropriate for programs, which tend to hang around
for years, as it does for 'news' stories which tend to
update often. I'm very happy to be disuaded of this if
someone thinks I should be going with CMS.
Thank you for any comments, suggestions, pointers to
reading matter.
Justin.