I'm convinced that frames are a bad idea but loosing them is a case of two steps forward and one step back. Each page now contains a top banner, navigation side bars, common footer etc. with the obvious difficulties that arise if you need to make any changes to these elements.

Frames *are* a bad idea. "Deprecated" as we like to say around here. Why don't you consider HTML::Template's INCLUDEs. I use them for the header and nav bars, and then for address footers. The nice thing is that they can contain <tmpl_var >'s that get values from your Perl first.

Have you looked at CGI::Application? I heard a lot about it around the Monastery, and finally couldn't stand the guilt. The learning curve was about a week, but I'm a convert now. I recommend you look hard and long at it.

One question is where to keep the content (articles) - in the db or as HTML files without the common elements? And jpegs/gifs? I'm leaning towards files.

I keep all my plaintext content in the database and serve it up in <tmpl_var >'s. All my images and uploaded PDFs, etc., go in directories in the public area. I have discovered that the general wisdom is not to store images in the DB.

I envisage a setup where the CGI script would add all the necessary elements to each cut down page before serving it up.

Are talking about some type of content manager? That's what we have done. If you are storing the content in the DB I don't think the loathsome FrontPage will help (another way to update static content is with Macromedia's Contribute).

Good luck.


—Brad
"The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men." George Eliot

In reply to Re: OT: Migrating towards a Perl/MySQL/CGI website by bradcathey
in thread OT: Migrating towards a Perl/MySQL/CGI website by wfsp

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.