ParaJoe Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 I'm trying to put together a webpage for my club. I went to Godaddy.com and the domain name that I want is available. I have found a bunch of hosts with varying costs. I'm not sure which software I want to use to build the site. A couple of people have recommended Front Page but I don't know where to get a copy of it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AustinMike Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 I'm not all that savvy in web page design, but I run our club's site. I use PHPWebSite, which is a freely available package. Lunar Pages hosts my personal web site and they have it out there already for you to use (with a bunch of others.) They're cheap and the support has been good. PHPWebSite isn't fancy, but it's easy to do a web site quickly and I like that you don't have to use any software on the client side. You can setup accounts so other people can contribute. Austin Lone Star Practical Pistol Club -Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlamoShooter Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 I did one of the self build sites a few years ago... it was ok,but a pain to maintain. go with a pro like some of the ones on this forum. Free is no bargain when it takes up all your nights untill 2 am for a week or more and causes your work to suffer durring the day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBunin Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Well, Personally, I use a good text editor like UltraEdit, or Editpad. All the website generators and such write HTML code that you'd cringe to look at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParaJoe Posted February 19, 2007 Author Share Posted February 19, 2007 Mike, don't be bashful. The Austin Lone Star page looks great!!! That's exactly what I am looking for. I did one of the self build sites a few years ago... it was ok,but a pain to maintain. go with a pro like some of the ones on this forum. Free is no bargain when it takes up all your nights untill 2 am for a week or more and causes your work to suffer durring the day. Which pros are you talking about? I don't want anymore work. As the club's secretary, setup/teardown stages, range improvements, prize table coordinator, and whateverelsetheyneed guy, this is quickly turning into a job, not a hobby. Thanks for the sugestions and keep them coming. Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AustinMike Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Mike, don't be bashful. The Austin Lone Star page looks great!!! That's exactly what I am looking for. Well, thank you! I can't take full credit. Shred, XRe, and DJPolo all contribute to it too. It was pretty easy to do with the package I used. The beauty is that it is all server side, so contributers don't need any special software on their systems. You just login, do your edits, and submit, all from any web browser. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJPoLo Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Mike, don't be bashful. The Austin Lone Star page looks great!!! I agree. Mike did a great job creating our new web site with a sleek, user-friendly design. -Chet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParaJoe Posted February 20, 2007 Author Share Posted February 20, 2007 Mike, don't be bashful. The Austin Lone Star page looks great!!! That's exactly what I am looking for. Well, thank you! I can't take full credit. Shred, XRe, and DJPolo all contribute to it too. It was pretty easy to do with the package I used. The beauty is that it is all server side, so contributers don't need any special software on their systems. You just login, do your edits, and submit, all from any web browser. Well would you guys mind if I happened to borrow some of the ideas that you have up? It looks like I could just use yours as a template of sorts. Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ampleworks Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 PM me specific questions and I'll gladly answer any that you may have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AustinMike Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 Well would you guys mind if I happened to borrow some of the ideas that you have up? It looks like I could just use yours as a template of sorts. Mind? I'd be flattered! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCNet Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 ParaJoe, I don't know much about webpage design, but I have dabbled a little with it. One option for a web authoring tool (if you decide to go that direction) that may work for you is Nvu. It's a free open source tool that works on Windows, Mac, or Linux and has a pretty good network of people helping out via forums and a wiki. You can find additional information at http://www.nvu.com/index.php I know a couple of people who seem to like it, and the price is right. Take care, RCNet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 Ferget' Front Page now!!! You really want to do what Mike suggests and use a php scripted web portal system like PHPWebsite, or E107, or even WordPress. Thes types of open source (freeware) scripts are a complete website in a package that allows you to skin and customize the content while providing a lot of standard features like forums, chatboxs, PMing, news items and so on... Do a Google search on E107, PHPWebSite, or WordPress and read a bit. I think you will like this direction better than any other method out there as far as ease of use and update goes. You will need someone with a little server side savvy to get it initially setup. You should also do a little research on what portal script you want to run and then look at what it needs in the way of MySQL support (database)and whether the ISP you choose has it's php configuration set properly. If you get into an ISP with a fiixed PHP config and your script choice needs a feature enabled, or changed, you are SOL. Here is what a basic E107 web portal looks like after install and before any user configuration/skinning: http://www.makumozo.com/E107/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgnoyes Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 No, let's state this even more bluntly. Frontpage is horrible; it generates the dirtiest, nastiest, microsoft-centric html code you'll ever see. What does that mean? Well basically, your website will look great on Microsoft Internet Explorer, but will look like crap everywhere else (Firefox users, Apples, etc). Many of the features of Frontpage (counters, photo galleries, form controls, database access) are also dependent on server side extensions being installed and/or your hosting server being windows-based. Most affordable hosting will be on linux-based machines, which eliminates all use of the microsoft database access methods. As to the front page extensions, they will run on linux-based servers, but some server operators don't want to do this. Most will, but the thing is, you need to check the health of the server-side extensions from time to time as they tend to break by themselves. Frontpage is so ill-thought-of now that Microsoft itself has finally dropped it and wants you to buy its successor product Web Expression, which supposedly generates much cleaner css-based html code. All I can say it, it couldn't be any worse than FP. I use adobe dreamweaver. It's generally considered the industry standard for web development. It's also expensive. And then there are those that will just open up notepad or some other simple editor and start hand-coding html code, and they're welcome; that's like writing a program in machine language. Don't get me wrong, you really should acquire an understanding of html and css style pages; it'll make you a better webmaster. But you don't have to immerse yourself in it ALL the time. Here's a wordpress USPSA site: georgiaipsc.com. What you need to realize going into wordpress is that, being a simple platform, it offers basic, simple functionality. To really make it stand up and sing, though, you have to add a series of "plugins", that is, 3rd-party written extensions. Nothing wrong with that in concept, you just have to be aware of it. The event calendar, php includes, videos, and flash content in georgiaipsc.com are all as a result of adding the correct plugins. Wordpress can be fun, and as a content management system/blog, you have the advantage that you can delegate maintenance to other people, as well. And I'll have to look at E107; never saw it before. I had played with content management systems before; wordpress was the first one I ever got to do anything really useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shred Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 The latest versions of FrontPage don't make total crap anymore, but it's still worth avoiding unless you have it free already (it is better than any of the freeware I've tried, though not a lot). The PHP site Mike used for ALSPPC works well, just remember that the 'back' button is not your friend when editing pages. If you do use PHP, somebody associated with the server (either ISP or webmaster) needs to keep an eye on the security lists-- people are always finding holes in PHP apps and you don't need hackers getting in and trashing your pages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Boudrie Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 Kim at USPSA designed www.nroi.org, www.frontsightmagazine.org and www.uspsa-nationals.org using the "moveabletype" package she installed on the USPSA server. NO, THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU CAN CALL USPSA AND ASK HER FOR HELP WITH MOVEABLE TYPE. DON'T EVEN THINK OF IT. If you sign up for Linux based hosting, look for a server that has control panel software you can use for server administration (Cpanel, Plesk and Ensim are three of the biggies - USPSA uses Cpanel) and, if you're into Linux, shell access. If you ask nicely, I may even be able to find room for you club on the USPSA server (under your own domain name), provided the main entry page is "USPSA centric" (ie, not a general club a page that requires you to dig three levels deep to find the USPSA matches) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AustinMike Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 You should also do a little research on what portal script you want to run and then look at what it needs in the way of MySQL support (database)and whether the ISP you choose has it's php configuration set properly. If you get into an ISP with a fiixed PHP config and your script choice needs a feature enabled, or changed, you are SOL. +1 to that. Our club site resides on a server that is essentially leased disk space only. No CPanel, no shell access, just ftp only. It was a pain to get the site running initially, but they were cooperative and even made changes to their PHP settings to get our site running. Much easier if you shop around and find a hosting service that has a nice control panel and setup scripts that simplify the installation of the web site framework that you want to use. Lunar Pages has worked well for me personally and they seem to stay on top of the security patches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParaJoe Posted February 20, 2007 Author Share Posted February 20, 2007 Well, this is a lot of info to sort through. So we've narrowed it down to php based for sure, not using Front Page, and maybe E107. And it looks like we are going with Lunarpages. I'll have to work out some details for sure but this is how I'm leaning for the user friendliness. Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted February 21, 2007 Share Posted February 21, 2007 Sounds like you are getting squared away. Glad to hear you are on the script path. Make sure to get someone who is slick with server stuff to do your initial setup and maybe even help you with skinning. Portal scripts are the schiznit for features and ease of upkeep in the long run. Security is no big issue if you start with a well developed script system in the first place and run on a well secured commercial server. Not a worry for this type of site anyway (informational only) IMO. BTW, try to resist a lot of hacking to the portal script if you can help yourself. It makes it harder to update as new versions of the scripts are released without re-doing all the hacks. Much better to learn how .tpl files work (basically html chunklets) and just write a whole new skin than to work against the script when customizing portal scripts (don't ask me how I know this). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tightloop Posted February 21, 2007 Share Posted February 21, 2007 we have such talented folks on the forum, why would you look elsewhere? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParaJoe Posted February 23, 2007 Author Share Posted February 23, 2007 (edited) Ok here's what I have so far. It's not much but I'm learning and plugging along. Sage Website Can someone tell me how to remove the PhPWebSite logo from the top of the page and insert something that looks better? Also, how do I put pics on the page that I have on my host? I tried linking and everytime the page loads it wants a password. Also, how do I configure the page so that the "Login" box doesn't show up everytime? Thanks in advance for the help. This would not have gone anywhere if it wasn't for y'alls help. Joe Edited February 23, 2007 by ParaJoe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AustinMike Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Can someone tell me how to remove the PhPWebSite logo from the top of the page and insert something that looks better? Go to the directory for the theme your are using and edit theme.tpl. It will be something like <h1 align=center><img src=/themes/Default/images/mainlogo.gif></h1>. You'll have to do this anytime you change templates. Also, how do I put pics on the page that I have on my host? Make sure the pictures are somewhere visible to the outside world and just use img src, like above. Also, how do I configure the page so that the "Login" box doesn't show up everytime? While you are logged in as an administrator, go to Control Panel, User Administration, Settings, uncheck Show Login Box. To get back in yourself to make edits, you'll need to go in through http://www.sagepistolleague.org/admin. There's a forum with good info here: http://www.phpwsforums.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharyn Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 (edited) Can someone tell me how to remove the PhPWebSite logo from the top of the page and insert something that looks better? Another way is to choose an image that "looks better" (an image of your choice) and name it poweredby.jpg then upload the image to www/themes/Default/images and say "yes" to overwrite. Try to keep the dimensions similar (340x94 pixels) to maintain the constraints. edited to add: Ooops! make sure the new image is a .jpg don't just name it as one. Sorry. Edited February 23, 2007 by Sharyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParaJoe Posted February 28, 2007 Author Share Posted February 28, 2007 Well you guys have gotten me off to a kick arse start. I can't seem to figure out another thing though. How do you insert pictures into the pages? Mike, on your ALSPPC website main page there is a pic in there. I am trying to do somewhat of the same thing. I pulled the code from the center part of that page, tried to mimic it with my filenames, and I got nuttin. I tried even using image tags like I would on this board and I still got nothin. Can't seem to figure this one out. On another note, this PhPWebsite is pretty easy and user friendly once you figure out how things are supposed to work. I'm getting better with it. Sage Pistol League's Website Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AustinMike Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 When you edit the section/page, just add the img src tags and have the images either in the root directory or specify the full path. Ours just looks like this: <div align="center"> <img src="Roy4Web.jpg"> <img src="MarcyC4Web.jpg"></div><br> Don' t forget in phpwebsite, you have to save the section your are editing, then click the save page button at the bottom of the editor page! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParaJoe Posted February 28, 2007 Author Share Posted February 28, 2007 (edited) Yeah, the "Save Section" and "Save Page" have gotten me a few times. I finally got the pic to work but the code looks different than yours somewhat. Well crap, if I write it in here it works and you can't see the code. This is the only way I could get it to work but it's going now. Thanks for your time, if I have anything else I'll be sure to ask here. JOe Edited February 28, 2007 by ParaJoe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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