Posted by Sandy Pittendrigh on 04/05/06 00:43

rlee0001 wrote:
>>...and the relevant page_id changes each time the database is reloaded.

> Not if you don't use an autonumber field. A number is just as static as
> a string. There are advantages of using a string but "staticness" is
> not one of them.

Possible yes. But maybe not so easily.
I currently use a CMS that I wrote, that walks down through
a "source" directory tree, finding files (including special mime types
of my own invention) and then creates logical pages in a schema.
pagePainter.php gets passed a page_id and then recursively writes
out complete html pages (with consistent navigation, look and feel)
as static html, in a parallel directory tree to the soruce tree.

Works great. I can manage hundreds of pages with a little editing
and a mouse click. I could use a static, non-changing number as
the lookup key, but it would take some head-scratching to figure
out how to generate the same unchanging number for each page, upon each
database reload. It would be easy to concatenate a path string
from the source tree and use that as a unique lookup string.

But, my current 'generate static pages' system will not work
for pages that would have a built in forum or bulletin board
at the bottom of each page. So now I want to figure out
how to have dynamic pages whose lookup key doesn't change
for each database reload.

>
> Why are you using pagepainter.php? What does this script do? I'll ask
> again, what is wrong with this:
>
pagePainter.php exists at one location. It takes a lookup key
and they (actually either, depending on an optional parameter)
either generates dynamic or static html.


> /pages/manual/chapter1/engine_repair/carburetor.php

carburetor.php is a script? I don't want to write a different
script for each of several hundred pages. I want one script
to dynamically generate several hundred pages from one script,
where each page differs from the next according to the information
that comes from a mysql query....a query that pagePainter.php
makes.

> Another words, why are you passing the path as a parameter instead of
> allowing the visitor to navigate to the URL directly? The URL being
> passed as a parameter has nothing to do with putting an interactive
> comments section at the bottom of the page.

the url doesn't exist until pagePainter.php creates it.


> Also, I wouldn't worry about search engines indexing a dynamic site.

That would be good news.
That was the punchline question of my original post.
Search engines didn't always index dynamic pages. Maybe it's not
an issue anymore. I'm a programmer, but not a web developer
by trade. The web stuff is a hobby.....so I'm good at it,
but I don't always keep up with the latest gossip
and developments. There was a time when dynamic links
were a search engine problem and question.

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