How do the pros do it?

[linchpin311]

Hey everyone. I hope this is the right place for this post. I’m making a site for my own personal use to organize my music and pictures and other media files. I have a template that I plan on using on each page of the site, but I wanted to change a few words in each of the pages. For example the file name, file size and file format. I have over 5000 pages to create and I wasn’t really looking forward to changing each one individually.

I was wondering if there was a feature in MS Front Page (or another program) that worked similarly to MS Word’s “Mail Merge” feature. Can I do this by creating a dynamic web template? I have organized all of the data in excel; is it possible to import it somehow to Front Page?

Thanks in advance, linchpin.

[pa007]

Can't you create dynamic sites using an access database? Not sure about excel, but i think you can import data into MySQL using a few different methods. Someone with more knowledge and experience will no doubt let you know.

But you can do it yes. And there are loads of ways to go about it. Take a look at php and MySQL to get started.

Pete.

[moojoo]

If the spreadsheet has the same structure as your Database you can export it as a CSV file and inject it, I know you can with MySQL, I however never use Access. Alternately you can dump the MySQL DB into a CSV file as well and import that into Excel. Excel itself has some database connectivity built in also. You may want to read up on that.

[linchpin311]

thanks guys, i was kinda hoping i wouldnt have to touch MySQL but a database is really the only path that makes sence in this case. it seems like the easiest way to get things done and to maintain the site once its up and running.

since ive never used MySQL before im sure ill have a bunch of problems and questions, but now that i know what im dealing with i will be able to ask them in the appropriate forum.

thanks a lot guys, i appreciate the help!!

[moojoo]

It should work with Access too. One would think. But eh, it is Microsoft.

[Ryan Fait]

Databases really make things easier. Don't know why you don't want to touch 'em

[linchpin311]

I guess i was just intimitated by something that didnt have a GUI...but i took the plunge and downloaded it along with PHP earlier today. i havent done anything major yet, just toying around with MySQL, but when i figure some things out and get more comfortable with it, ill dive into this dynamic web pages thing. im sure when i get the hang of it ill have thousand of uses and wonder where it's been all my life.

thanks everyone for your support!!!
ill let you know how it turns out.

[Ryan Fait]

Ah, well. PHPMyAdmin gives MySQL a UI

[moojoo]

PHPMyAdmin is very handy as is CocoaMySQL if you have a Mac. Would love if any one knows any good free windows equivs to CocoaMySQL.

[linchpin311]

PHPMyAdmin gives MySQL a UI

Ahh, this is very good to know, i will give this a try later tonite when i get out of class! this is exciting!! Thanks!

[linchpin311]

Well i've got everything up and running and working together. I've been playing around with everything and i am starting to get the hang of MySQL. I must say, phpMyAdmin is helping me out a LOT. Special thanks to Ryan Fait for that tip. Thanks everyone else who pointed me in the right direction!!

[Ryan Fait]

No problem!

[catalystmediastudios]

There is also Navicat for Windows and Mac (I think). That's what I use for my rails apps.

[Donny Bahama]

Not sure what your development environment is like, but I find xampp (http://www.xampp.org) indispensable for developing in php and MySql. It runs an apache server with MySql and allows you to run either php4 or php5 (so you can match up with your actual web server.) It includes phpMyAdmin, too.

HTH

[JacobHaug]

Yeah xampp is good and free...but I hear Mac comes with something better!

[Ryan Fait]

Hehe.

*hugs my built-in Apache server with PHP on my PowerBook

[moojoo]

Oh yeah, got Apache, PHP, MySQL all running smooth on my MacBook Pro, edited the httpd.conf to use my sites folder as my root. mm mmm good.

[Ryan Fait]

I didn't know you could do that. I just made a symbolic link to it in my home folder. That works too

[moojoo]

hehe yeah but its easy to change, and its a pain to dig down to the server folder. Besides, the site folder makes more sense to me as a repository for well, sites. Also, I prefer to use my home folder and not the root level of the drive. Ja know? Maybe this helps. http://www.cgi101.com/learn/connect/mac.html#3

[Ryan Fait]

Symbolic links are basically achieves the same thing you're doing. Instead of setting it as the Sites folder, I just have a folder called "Web Server" in my home folder. I could move it to my desktop or whatever, but it acts like it's the Documents folder inside the web server. Rather nifty stuff. I used Tinker Tool to set up the Symbolic Link I think, but it was ages ago.