some organization/stucturing questions

[Anon]

I've spent the last week reading up on php so I can redo my current site (www.geocities.com/mistergecko2000/). As the site is mainly static, I mainly want to make it easier to add new information, articles, and pictures, and to be able to easily change the look of the site. I think I can handle the coding itself, but I'm not really sure how to best organize things to keep management simple. Here are my three main concerns:

1. Link Database
   In html you'd use a plain old static link, but how can I take full advantage of php+MySQL for this? I'm thinking of maybe an ID system where in the backend code I would type in something like "[link ID=23]". Then php would check to see the current url for the page with an ID of 23 and substitute a regular html tag. Is this what people use or do they use a system where it only checks when the browser click the link. To me that seems slower for the browser since it would have to make a trip back to your server first before following the link.

2. Reusing Images
   I have a lot of photos on my site which are repitions. For example, there would be a thumbnail on the home page, then a couple more larger sizes of that same image. It makes sense to me to use the ID tag style like I'd use for links here. But would it be better to have a seperate copy of the file (which would mean seperate IDs too) for each size or have an image processing add in to php dynamically resize them according to info contained in the tag? If resizing them would be to cpu intensive, would it still make sense to use the ID tag system?

3. META Information
   Each article or bit of information would have meta information ideally. Is it better to have a master database of meta info or should I put the info direcly onto the page?

Thanks for at least reading my questions. I just though it would be better to ask first than write the code and then find out I didn't use the correct method. So if you know anything please reply.

[tasistro]

1. Link Database

Sometimes I use a type page.php4?pageID=## and the scripts checks out what to include acording to ID this means code and data are included on the fly (more intensive than static php page) Sometimes I use a more specific script like events.php4?event=##. In this later case the functions are hardwired, but content isn't.

The first structure requires a more modular approach (functions/classes) the second is more monolitic (although you can and do break it up to smaller includes).

2. Reusing Images

I recomend a second copy if you have the space. Else resize on the fly (CPU is an issue and quality could be one too depending on what you use to resize).

3. META Information

Dbase is better so it META data better represents actual content.

Saludos
Gerardo

[Anon]

Thanks