Hi I'm new here and pretty much an HTML novice. I have a genealogy website where people submit queries, obituaries, biographies, etc. for posting. Each submission contains an email link so that a visitor can easily contact a submitter with a question or comment. My pages are pretty much a manual operation and updating email addresses strewn across multiple pages is a real headache. What I would like to do is create one file (like Excel so that I could easily keep the submitters' names sorted) and place all email addresses in it. Then I would like to link to it in place of the regular "mailto" code. But I would like all this to be invisible to the visitor (so that clicking on the link brings up their email client in one step, rather than taking them to the address file where they'd have to click on yet another link to email). I thought the virtual include method would be just what I'm looking for, but the only examples I've seen show only one email address in the file. Does my idea make sense? Can it be done?<br />
<br />
Robin<!--content-->It really depends, do you want the emails to go to ALL the email addresses? Or do you want specific links to go to specific email addresses?<!--content-->I want a specific link to go to a specific email address. I just want to store all the addresses in one place to make the maintenance easier. I have hundreds of submitters' addresses. I could use a separate virtual include file for each one, but I'm hoping to make this even simpler and more efficient than that.<br />
<br />
What I have in mind is sort of how the "name=" command works, as a pointer. Kinda like this:<br />
<br />
<!--#include virtual="emailaddresses.htm#robinkaspar"--><br />
<!--#include virtual="emailaddresses.htm#samjones"--><br />
<br />
And then the corresponding entries in emailaddresses.htm would look like:<br />
<br />
<A name="robinkaspar" HREF=http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/archive/index.php/"mailto:[email protected]"><br />
<A name="samjones" HREF=http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/archive/index.php/"mailto:[email protected]"><br />
<br />
Does that make sense?<br />
Robin<!--content-->Sounds you need a database.<!--content-->OK tell me how. Can an Excel spreadsheet be considered a database?<br />
Robin<!--content-->Erm, not exactly. MySQL (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.mysql.com/">http://www.mysql.com/</a><!-- m -->) is a database. Of course you don't need a database. You could, if you don't have database support, store the emails in a PHP file, store the emails in variables, and then call the variables for your email links. That is, of course, if your server supports PHP. There are various other methods you could use if you want to make it easily updatable, pretty much most Server Side Languages will do.<!--content-->If you do have database support, then in this situation an Access DB would suit you well. You would need serverside code (ASP, ASPX, PHP. etc...) for this to work though.<br />
<br />
If you do not have DB support, then you can do what I have done on many occassions; write your own. Use a text file as a database and code some methods/classes in a serverside language that you will pass a few arguments to and it will return the appropriate address. In some occasions, this is more secure, since you can define your own encryption scheme
<!--content-->You guys are about to leave me in the dust. I don't have a budget to buy anything like MySQL, so that's out. I don't know what PHP means (I will research) and I don't know if I have DB support on the server side. But I will find out.<br />
<br />
Robin<!--content-->You do have the budget for MySQL: it's free. PHP is a server-side programming language.<!--content-->whoops you're right. I saw the $495 for the pro license and didn't look any farther.<br />
<br />
I found out my server does not support PHP. So tell me how I would use a database if it's supported. Or can you point me to an online tutorial?<br />
<br />
Robin<!--content-->If PHP isn't supported then you need to find out if JSP, ASP or ASPX is. If it isn't, you will have to find a host that supports some type of server side scripting. (Don't pay for it, some offer support for free)
It's the only way to get what you need done <!--content-->Thanks, I'll find out.<br />
Robin<!--content-->
<br />
Robin<!--content-->It really depends, do you want the emails to go to ALL the email addresses? Or do you want specific links to go to specific email addresses?<!--content-->I want a specific link to go to a specific email address. I just want to store all the addresses in one place to make the maintenance easier. I have hundreds of submitters' addresses. I could use a separate virtual include file for each one, but I'm hoping to make this even simpler and more efficient than that.<br />
<br />
What I have in mind is sort of how the "name=" command works, as a pointer. Kinda like this:<br />
<br />
<!--#include virtual="emailaddresses.htm#robinkaspar"--><br />
<!--#include virtual="emailaddresses.htm#samjones"--><br />
<br />
And then the corresponding entries in emailaddresses.htm would look like:<br />
<br />
<A name="robinkaspar" HREF=http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/archive/index.php/"mailto:[email protected]"><br />
<A name="samjones" HREF=http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/archive/index.php/"mailto:[email protected]"><br />
<br />
Does that make sense?<br />
Robin<!--content-->Sounds you need a database.<!--content-->OK tell me how. Can an Excel spreadsheet be considered a database?<br />
Robin<!--content-->Erm, not exactly. MySQL (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.mysql.com/">http://www.mysql.com/</a><!-- m -->) is a database. Of course you don't need a database. You could, if you don't have database support, store the emails in a PHP file, store the emails in variables, and then call the variables for your email links. That is, of course, if your server supports PHP. There are various other methods you could use if you want to make it easily updatable, pretty much most Server Side Languages will do.<!--content-->If you do have database support, then in this situation an Access DB would suit you well. You would need serverside code (ASP, ASPX, PHP. etc...) for this to work though.<br />
<br />
If you do not have DB support, then you can do what I have done on many occassions; write your own. Use a text file as a database and code some methods/classes in a serverside language that you will pass a few arguments to and it will return the appropriate address. In some occasions, this is more secure, since you can define your own encryption scheme
<!--content-->You guys are about to leave me in the dust. I don't have a budget to buy anything like MySQL, so that's out. I don't know what PHP means (I will research) and I don't know if I have DB support on the server side. But I will find out.<br /><br />
Robin<!--content-->You do have the budget for MySQL: it's free. PHP is a server-side programming language.<!--content-->whoops you're right. I saw the $495 for the pro license and didn't look any farther.<br />
<br />
I found out my server does not support PHP. So tell me how I would use a database if it's supported. Or can you point me to an online tutorial?<br />
<br />
Robin<!--content-->If PHP isn't supported then you need to find out if JSP, ASP or ASPX is. If it isn't, you will have to find a host that supports some type of server side scripting. (Don't pay for it, some offer support for free)
It's the only way to get what you need done <!--content-->Thanks, I'll find out.<br />Robin<!--content-->