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SamC
White Water Yakist
3467 Posts |
 Posted - 2003-11-19 : 16:31:36
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| I've been asked to do some "client specific" content rendering. I'm at the point where I'm trying to decide where to keep client-specific content.I'm thinking of having the database yeild a client key, and ASP will use the key to include specific text files which can be maintained with any HTML editor.Anyone have a strong position on another approach such as keeping the HTML in the database?Sam |
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ehorn
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker
1632 Posts |
Posted - 2003-11-19 : 16:38:32
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| Content Rendering....Sounds like a potential case for XML/XSL |
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MichaelP
Jedi Yak
2489 Posts |
Posted - 2003-11-19 : 17:06:02
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| I'm with Ehorn here. You either need XML + XSLT or you need to store the path to CSS files in the database and have your ASP page include different CSS files depending on the customer. I'd need more detailed info as to exactly what you are trying to accomplish to give you a more detailed answer. I do the CSS lookup from the database thing to handle "branding" of the website. Every customer page is layed out the same, but the fonts and colors etc are different by customer.Michael<Yoda>Use the Search page you must. Find the answer you will.</Yoda> |
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mohdowais
Sheikh of Yak Knowledge
1456 Posts |
Posted - 2003-11-20 : 00:12:50
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Sam, do you mean part of the content will be standard, i.e coming from your system, while some of the content on the same page is provided by the client? I think it is better to keep the HTML in files rather than in the database, but there are a few things you might have to worry about. Will the files be complete HTML files or just snippets? You might have trouble ensuring compliance with the overall look and feel of the page (you gotta make sure they use the classes you've specified in your CSS) and also make sure they dont have inline styles which can screw up the looks of the rest of the page. What about malicious javascript or ActiveX controls?Owais
Where there's a will, I want to be in it. |
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mohdowais
Sheikh of Yak Knowledge
1456 Posts |
Posted - 2003-11-20 : 00:15:00
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XML shexamel, look at what you can do with CSS http://www.csszengarden.com ...absolutely stunning!Owais
Where there's a will, I want to be in it. |
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SamC
White Water Yakist
3467 Posts |
Posted - 2003-12-02 : 08:44:25
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| Thanks for everyone's feedback. Here's a bit more data.First, not gonna have time to migrate this to XML. This is goind to be an extention to SQL / ASP. Parts (just parts) of key pages will be rendered with User-specific information according to his / her organization. I can use the database to return a filename or key of some kind.I've got a variable number of parts on each page, so I can imagine the returning recordset for each page having a variable number of rowsCREATE TABLE PageParts (PartID INT, Filename VARCHAR (200))I need an ASP snippet that can read the recordset and include the Filename (containing HTML) at key points. I guess this leaves me working with the ASP file system object to include the specifc file. I understand that's a very slow object.Any other suggestions appreciated.Sam |
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ehorn
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker
1632 Posts |
Posted - 2003-12-02 : 09:22:18
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| Oracle had an article out some years back on CMS.It may be overkill for your intent/need but it might help stimulate some thought on design considerations.http://otn.oracle.com/products/oracle8i/htdocs/cms/cmsdb.html |
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MichaelP
Jedi Yak
2489 Posts |
Posted - 2003-12-02 : 12:49:58
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| Sam, Does it have to be full page snippets? Maybe you could create pages that pulled different style sheets and images depending on some variables from the database??Dynamic Includes sounds like what you are looking for, but yes, you must use FSO to get it done as far as I can tell. Do a search on Google for "dynamic includes asp" and you might find a better solution.Michael<Yoda>Use the Search page you must. Find the answer you will.</Yoda> |
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SamC
White Water Yakist
3467 Posts |
Posted - 2003-12-02 : 14:17:21
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| Thanks Michael,I'll know better what the customer wants after an upcoming meeting. I believe it is just customized text, based on the user's department. Maybe images, worst case tables.I'm working on a FSO script right now. Looks like I don't have to loop to read all lines at least...Sam |
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ehorn
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker
1632 Posts |
Posted - 2003-12-02 : 15:12:22
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| Another option, since you are planning on ASP/SQL, is to store the client content specific html itself in a DB field and use an Web based HTML editor such as Ektron http://www.ektron.com/ewebeditpro.aspx to allow the clients to modify the content and save it back to the database. Then, rather than use FSO, just pull the HTML out of the field and render the ASP page. |
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SamC
White Water Yakist
3467 Posts |
Posted - 2003-12-04 : 12:59:51
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| Ektron looks very interesting.Any other references that do comparative studies of different content rendering engines? Sam |
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ehorn
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker
1632 Posts |
Posted - 2003-12-04 : 13:39:44
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| We use Ektron eWebEditPro+XML to manage 16,000+ HTML content pages for a client. It has proved a stable and very low-cost solution and easy to integrate.You could probably find some comparative studies of this and other products online.Another decent site for info might be http://www.cmswatch.comI know our architects performed a similair study. I will see if I can track down the study or any references used for comparisons. |
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Content Rendering