Standardized web page set-up Nov10 '05

I’ve recently begun developing a standardized structure for all new web pages I create. My problem was that as I constantly start new web pages, for business or personal use - I always find myself having to set-up everything from scratch. This includes the initial HTML or PHP files, the CSS files, the JavaScript files, etc.

As I learn more about web development, and better ways to create and manage web pages - I apply these principles across all of my sites.

I guess I could call these principles the "Matthom Standards." In a nutshell - it’s my own, customized way of setting up web sites.

For example - at the root of my site, I typically start out with an index file - one of which controls my entire site. That index file has various PHP scripts, that apply "virtual directories," and other such things. In combination with an .htaccess file at the root, URL redirects are immediately in effect.

The point is... I use those same two set-up files, for every site I begin.

From there, I create a folder called css, which contains my style sheets - which are, initially screen.css, and print.css.

After that, I create a folder called scripts, which contains my JavaScript script file, and I typically call that file scripts.js.

I also use a generic images folder, that which contains all images.

As you can see, many elements are the same, across all of my sites. There are certain things that need to be in place - right "off the bat."

I could even go as far as standardizing the actual structure of the elements, in the HTML file. I’ve been trying to use the same elements in all of my sites, which typically comprises of these four, in this order:

<div id="header">

</div>

<div id="navigation">

</div>

<div id="content">

</div>

<div id="footer">

</div>

This is usually my foundation, and I can apply style sheets to change the appearance - across different sites.

So... to make a long story short - I’ve begun developing an HTML interface, which prompts me for site-specific things - such as custom images, custom 404 pages, etc.

You see, although there are many things that are the same - there are obviously things that are also different, across different sites.

With the help of PHP file functions, such as fopen and fwrite - I am able to dynamically create the initial files, in my FTP directory structure.

This will, hopefully, save me a lot of time, when starting up new web pages.

Categories: Efficiency , PHP , Web Development

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