Making Pure HTML Websites Intelligently?

AMV

I've been developing web sites with PHP for years, and like most of us, I use PHP to modularize my site's layout. I can use includes and other mechanisms to separate my headers, footers and other reused components of my HTML and design so that only the content has to change, and so that changes to header/footer files immediately take effect throughout the site. Simple enough. I do, however, have a few "bill paying" jobs lined up ahead of me, doing sites that are 100% pure HTML. No code whatsoever, including simple includes for headers, footers and the like. The problem is, it's been so long since I've actually made a pure HTML site, I've completely forgotten (and lost touch with) any intelligent ways to go about this. If memory serves, I literally had to copy the ENTIRE design framework accross each individual page in order to keep the design and interface constant. Naturally I'm not to keen on this, so my question is, are there any good ways to modularize or otherwise intelligently design and lay out a PURE HTML site these days? If you had to make a 100% HTML site, how would you approach it to minimize the overhead of making design changes later on? Thanks.

EDIT - Naturally, software like DreamWeaver and FrontPage can automate this process to abstract it from the end user without resorting to code, but if there are any non-program-specific alternatives anyone knows of, that'd be great.

stolzyboy

not really a good way of doing this, you could however use JavaScript to include your stuff, I suppose

what i usually do is create the site what it will look like, nav everything, then always have a template.html file i make my new pages off of

then if you have a decent html editor, like HomeSite, you can always utilize the search and replace tool to replace nav/etc...

but nonetheless, much more of a pain in the ass to do than having header/nav/footer includes

planetsim

i do exactly what stolzyboy make the template of the design.. make sure you have comments added for yourself so you know e.g.

<!-- content here --!>

Just so you know where content, banners go etc.

drawmack

yeah the template thing works but you may want to look into using xsl/xml --> why is there a no coding allowed rule? does the host allow server side includes? you could use server side includes if possible. I think I would do my best to talk the client out of this pure html decision. I would base my argument on the amount of money it saves them in the long run. Throw some math at them they don't understand with a bottom line that's in their favor and they'll probably agree with you just so they don't look stupid. (sales 101 day 2)

planetsim

nice one there.. yes using a server side language will allow the company to have future growth tell them that. and what drawmack said..

superwormy

I would actually do this in PHP...

I've done several sites by following a process like this:

Build all your pages, relying on PHP, using include(), etc. BUT don't rely on POSTed or GET data, AT ALL.

Ensure that there is one file include()d at the BEGINNING EVERY PAGE, and a second file ( you can leave them empty for now ) included at the END OF EVERY PAGE.

In that beginning file, turn on output buffering with PHP.

At the end file, ob_get_contents(), save it to a file, use PHP_SELF only minus the .php extension, save it as .html instead.

And there ya go, you're done. Just visit every page, or even go get httrack or a similar spider ( wget or something ) to visit the pages for you, and they automatically generate the HTML versions.

satyricon

I usually tend to use a template with tags in... And at the end of the main php file just replace the tags with the content generated by the php.

I try to use as little HTML in my PHP as possible, or at least, put it all in one place (or place it near related to the object). This makes it simple. Most of the colour and fonts are setup in individual .css / .html files.