The Modular Web Page
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Peter's latest article shows us how taking a modular approach to design websites can save us time, maintenance, and insanity.
A modular approach to page design can save time in developing and maintaining a web site. A page template may be created and the different components of the page plugged in where appropriate. No tools other than a text editor are required. This will involve “including” files within one another. Since this necessitates server-side processing some kind of server will be required. To test the code presented here we will be using a PHP enabled server. This can be done quite readily if you are using Apache web server with a Linux distribution. If you are running Windows and Personal Web Server or Internet Information Server you will need to ensure that they are PHP enabled.
This article will take a modular approach to creating web pages. It is often the case that all pages on a web site incorporate some identical features. The top, the sidebar and the bottom of a page might be identical throughout a site. Only the content in the centre of the page changes. If a site has multiple pages and each one of them has the same graphic at the top, the same links in a sidebar and likewise with copyright and site information at the bottom it makes sense to create a template that can be repeated. Why cut and paste many times when you don’t need to? Even more importantly, you greatly simplify the maintenance of your web pages. If one of your links changes you only need to update it in one place. As noted above the ability to include files will require some kind of server-side technology. We will be using PHP but you could as easily use ASP or Server Side Includes. However, you will have to change the syntax and file names accordingly.
Next: Designing Your Page Layout >>
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