:rolleyes:

I purchased a web template for MS FrontPage. I Designed it not knowing that you need to test with different browsers. I created several movie files with SWiSHMax, and embedded them in my pages. It all looks great when ran in MS IE. But now that I am testing it with different browsers, and testing it with a remote server, it doesn't look, or run the same.

I quess my question is: How do you build a stable web design that will look and run the same anywhere...server, browser, etc. :bemused:

And, if that's not enough, I'm having to incorporate PHP code for secure logon purposes, and transactions.

Question: Should I have build this site from the ground up with PHP code? Because not being the most knowledgeable person about "Which is the best way to go!". Should I scrap this and start over! :eek:

I know there are many of you out there that are very good programers, and very knowledgeable able web basics, and design. Would really appreciate some solid advice here.

Rick

    .txt files look pretty much the same in all browsers 😃

    CSS would be your best bet. PHP doesn't really deal with the design, as it processes requests on the server-side. Being that I'm not a big fan of templates, I would recommend starting from scratch. I find that tables with a little CSS spice pretty much look the same in IE & Mozilla and would probably be the safest route unless you plan on making two seperate CSS files for design and then using Javascript to determine which browser should use which file, etc. I find that it's just easier to program tables and other old-style elements as they are pretty much supported the same way in all types of browsers.

    Just my opinion...

      Ok, Thankyou, for your input. The templates are HTML. On some of the pages I used some js coding for different things. Put the thing is the PHP code with this.

      Rick

        Just stop using Frontpage, it generates the most god-awfull code and is only ever likely to produce pages that work in IE and IIS but nothing elase. Thats M$ for you. So the answer is yes, start again with a good text editor and write it in php from the ground up.

        I'm like Erik and find that tables etc are pretty fool-proof across browsers while CSS is still very iffy. Yes you can produce pages that look good in all browsers with pure css, but they ain't gonna look the same. If anything on your page is position critical then you'll end up with all sorts of IE hacks, or alternate stylle sheets for different browsers. Funnily enough, it is IE5 and IE6 that will differ the most, and god only knows what IE 7 will do.

          Yeah, I kinda, sorta figured you were gonna say somthing like that. But, When your just starting out, and you haven't a clue. "Got'cha" So, I need some direction on either getting scripts for PHP web pages. Or how about a PHP Nuke template?

          Rick

            when it comes to scripting... google & phpbuilder are your best friends. you haven't really mentioned what you are designing (that i noticed as i skimmed) so I can't really point you in the right direction. but chances are if you google some keywords that you were looking for in a script and add the word PHP SCRIPT to your search, it should narrow down your search a little better. TONS of tutorials out there for PHP, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, etc. I still don't recommend templates but your call. you'll learn alot faster if you start by creating everything from scratch.

              Hey Rick,

              PhP is just a means to create an output page, and it spits out just normal HTML/CSS/XML/... It is not a 'language' which is understood by the browser: All the code runs on the server, resulting in a normal webpage. The 'specia' thing is, that it allows to to make websites dynamic, e.g., you can modify the content of the site based on user-input/requests, and/or load them from databases. The output will always be normal valid webpages, PDF files, SWF files etcetc.

              So what you would ideally do is (Assuming my approach is ideal ;-)):

              • Build a page of the site as you would like to see it, using good old HTML, CSS, XML, validate against browsers/OS
              • See which elements need to be dynamic and
              • Create the PhP code to generate those sections, using the original HTML-based page as a template.

              I personally would not buy a template, but just build a layout-template myself.

              Have fun!

              Jelle.

                I started the web site using FrontPage, But Now I am using Dreamweaver 8.

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