Best program or script for creating a site content link list?

Question

I'm helping a friend put up a site with about 700 (so far) devotional messages he's written over the past several years, and I'd like to find some kind of script that will let me create topical lists of links, but not get bogged down in having to type and/or save 700 separate file names. I'd like to be able to input, for example, a date as the file name, input the content and then output each page as either an HTML or PHP file, and then a list of files by date under each topic?

And if I could make a shameless plug for the site, it will be at http://www.ixtheus.net when I'm done. :-)

I'm not familiar with Dreamweaver. I guess I'll have to download a trial version to see what features it offers. How would I go about making a link list with Dreamweaver?

Answer 1

Are these all separate files now? How are they shown and organized at present?

You can do this with shtml (which are server side include files) Turn each "message" into a text file, if they aren't already, and put those into categorized/topical directories. Make a display page and use the "links" as a key to display the appropriate message text when the page is called. PHP can do this and probably easier than SHTML. You can then use a directory read for each category and let the output be the link to the display page with the filename as the content. May be the easiest method. So the result would be a site with a page of "topical" listings, when clicked would "read" the correct directory and output a list of filenames which could then be clicked to read.

However, I think the best way to do it would be with a CMS that allows "Categories" which can be your topical names etc. (phpwebsite, zoomla, etc) Then just put each text file name in as a database entry to make them a "page" for the site. (Paste each message which is still alot of pasting or do a database import if they are in some order now.)

OR You can probably still use the "include" method within the CMS so you don't have to retype or copy all of them separately just make a page to display the entry for the text file so that when that "page is called" the text is used for the display. Sort of like a local RSS feed. This way you only enter something like the Title for the page header and the text filename for the body of the page. (phpwebsite lets you do a page insert within the body so it would be easy to combine with a directory read php page to create the directory links based on date.) Will take a little work and some customized pages but still would generate a nicely organized site. If you go this route and have say 10 topics you only need to generate 10 pages then let the directories make up the entries for those 10 pages.

A site map would look like 10 directories with each file showing under the correct directory.

Answer 2

You could try Macromedia Dreamweaver. it's great for designing and coding. and can also be used for uploading files.