Templating question

All,

I'm currently researching a better way to build websites (I work for a small
web-dev shop) and was hoping someone here could give me some opinions.

We're currently using Dreamweaver as our main tool, and though I love the
program itself, we want to break free from Dreamweaver templates. I have
been writing PhP now for a good 5 months, and feel VERY comforatable with
the language, and we currently use a combination of Dreamweaver templates
with PHP includes. So basically, we'll include 'htmlheader()' type functions
to build the page on the fly using PHP functions.

My question really is regarding the value of dogging the DW Templates all
together. If I can call all PhP functions for the page builds, and even
write the side navigation based on pageIDs - is it worth taking the next
step and building JUST PhP pages? I know the advantages of PhP, and know the
disadvantages and advantages of DW Templates, but what are the disadvantages
of building ALL of our pages in JUST PhP and freeing ourselves from the DW
Templates? Am I getting into more complications with a move like this?

Thanks in advance.

Hi,

I didn't really understand your question. However, I only use php
to do my job. It can write javascript on the fly depends on what pages is
generating. Those script can be written by yourself or download from
somewhere or even copy out from DW. I found there is no problem with only
php codes. For me, I havn't use any page generator ever, I start writing my
first web using NotePad since 1996 and now using TextPad. To see what pure
php code can do, you can visit some of my job below.

http://premier.vhosthk.com
http://www.tfehk.com
http://www.hongkongtourism.com.hk (this is a chinese website and
needed GB2312 to view)

Hopes this help.

Danny Wong


"Jon" <jonra@netins.com> ¼¶¼g©ó¶l¥ó·s»D:dpu37j$di1$1@news.netins.net...
> All,
>
> I'm currently researching a better way to build websites (I work for a
> small web-dev shop) and was hoping someone here could give me some
> opinions.
>
> We're currently using Dreamweaver as our main tool, and though I love the
> program itself, we want to break free from Dreamweaver templates. I have
> been writing PhP now for a good 5 months, and feel VERY comforatable with
> the language, and we currently use a combination of Dreamweaver templates
> with PHP includes. So basically, we'll include 'htmlheader()' type
> functions to build the page on the fly using PHP functions.
>
> My question really is regarding the value of dogging the DW Templates all
> together. If I can call all PhP functions for the page builds, and even
> write the side navigation based on pageIDs - is it worth taking the next
> step and building JUST PhP pages? I know the advantages of PhP, and know
> the disadvantages and advantages of DW Templates, but what are the
> disadvantages of building ALL of our pages in JUST PhP and freeing
> ourselves from the DW Templates? Am I getting into more complications with
> a move like this?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>

I did exactly the same thing - but mainly so I could edit my sites from
wherever I was.

Check out the URL below - I give my CMS code away...

http://www.pluggedout.com/index.php?pk=dev_cms

I may have explained it wrong. I don't mean templates as in pre-written
sites or code. We write ALL of our sites from scratch, including the design,
graphics, PHP code inolved and any back end DB running the system.

My problem really lies in Dreamweaver templates. Basically, it's a way to
apply a templated page to ANY page on your site. You give the template what
are referred to as 'editable regions', and then you can apply that template
to any page on your site and simply edit the regions. The problem is it's
somewhat of a catch-22 - All files using the template must be "Checked-out"
(or essentially downloaded, saved and uploaded) just to apply any changes to
the site template.

I'm wondering if there's any way PHP can help us template a site without
having to use DWT (Dreamweaver Templates) files. Someone on another
newsgroup suggested a PHP template engine called "Smarty", however when I
went to that site it appears that this must be configured server-side, which
unfortunately isn't going to be an option for us as we have no control over
the host. I'm basically looking for some ideas on a better way to build our
sites, and possibly using PHP to do so.

"Danny Wong" <info@pfseng.com> wrote in message
news:43c34526$1@newsgate.hknet.com...
> Hi,
>
> I didn't really understand your question. However, I only use php
> to do my job. It can write javascript on the fly depends on what pages is
> generating. Those script can be written by yourself or download from
> somewhere or even copy out from DW. I found there is no problem with only
> php codes. For me, I havn't use any page generator ever, I start writing
> my first web using NotePad since 1996 and now using TextPad. To see what
> pure php code can do, you can visit some of my job below.
>
> http://premier.vhosthk.com
> http://www.tfehk.com
> http://www.hongkongtourism.com.hk (this is a chinese website and
> needed GB2312 to view)
>
> Hopes this help.
>
> Danny Wong
>
>
> "Jon" <jonra@netins.com> ¼¶¼g©ó¶l¥ó·s»D:dpu37j$di1$1@news.netins.net...
>> All,
>>
>> I'm currently researching a better way to build websites (I work for a
>> small web-dev shop) and was hoping someone here could give me some
>> opinions.
>>
>> We're currently using Dreamweaver as our main tool, and though I love the
>> program itself, we want to break free from Dreamweaver templates. I have
>> been writing PhP now for a good 5 months, and feel VERY comforatable with
>> the language, and we currently use a combination of Dreamweaver templates
>> with PHP includes. So basically, we'll include 'htmlheader()' type
>> functions to build the page on the fly using PHP functions.
>>
>> My question really is regarding the value of dogging the DW Templates all
>> together. If I can call all PhP functions for the page builds, and even
>> write the side navigation based on pageIDs - is it worth taking the next
>> step and building JUST PhP pages? I know the advantages of PhP, and know
>> the disadvantages and advantages of DW Templates, but what are the
>> disadvantages of building ALL of our pages in JUST PhP and freeing
>> ourselves from the DW Templates? Am I getting into more complications
>> with a move like this?
>>
>> Thanks in advance.
>>
>
>