Website Project - Need advice
I am a webdesigner, but my main niche is in design. I can do some php and other scripting, but nothing elaborate. I have a potential client that has a job that may take alot more knowledge than I currently have. This could turn into a big project, so I don't want to turn it down. Basically the project is a redesign of a current site that has around 3,000 pages. They want the standard graphics and layout, which I can handle, but they want the whole site to have a link they takes the visitor to a visually impaired version. I believe I can do this with php using style sheets, an if/then statement and an include statement. Most of the pages are in frames, so the content pages are just the content. My main concerns are giving a quote upfront and possibly getting in over my head. Can anyone give me any advice?
kb posted this at 03:06 — 22nd August 2004.
He has: 1,380 posts
Joined: Feb 2002
Number 1- Since you're redesigning...dont use frames
Number 2- you can setup pages like
<?php
// index.php
$title = \"Index\";
include('/path/to/server/includes/header.txt');
echo \"body of the page\";
include('/path/to/server/includes/footer.txt');
?>
My recommendation is you build a standard page generator, that grabs text from a database, and header and footer.txt are the html and css/necessary php formatting the site
jcooper posted this at 05:54 — 22nd August 2004.
They have: 5 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
I wasn't planning on using frames, but thats how it is now, just thought that was a turn in my favor, since no design elements are there. Quick question... what does the $title="index" accomplish? Like I said I am new to php. Can you setup a database or similar for the titles of the dynamically created pages? I do think I will have to go through each page to define style sheet variables, get rid of any tables, etc. Maybe not though... I like your idea. I will have to research the site to see what the possibilities are.
Thanks
vb8 posted this at 06:42 — 22nd August 2004.
He has: 4 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
Wow, 3000 pages.. Are all the pages currently in HTML format? If so, I would recommend making a admin backend first and a content manager. Forms that connects to a database and manually copying and pasting each page. Although its alittle time consuming, I think that it would benefit you the webmaster and also a great learning curve for you as well. Good luck with your project
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jcooper posted this at 16:00 — 22nd August 2004.
They have: 5 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
How would I do that? Also, any ideas on what to charge. I used a formula that avg. each page at 10 min. each. That would be 500 hours of work. If I did an hourly charge of just $25 per hour thats $12,500. Like I said, this project is larger in scope than any I've done before, but I do think I can do it!
kb posted this at 20:01 — 22nd August 2004.
He has: 1,380 posts
Joined: Feb 2002
$title = "Index" sets you up for a few things:
1- It would vary by page (Contact, Calendar, etc)
2- It would set you up for a database connection, and choosing the table related to that page
3- It would be used to generate a page title Mypage: <?=$title?>
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