Content management - Zones, Templates, Snippets

Dynamically Generated Web Pages

In the LemLink system, web pages are generated dynamically - this means that all the pieces of information displayed on any particular page is collected together (from a database) when a reader requests a page.

The Alternative way of writing web pages is 'Statically' - each page is written beforehand in its entirety, ready to be displayed.

There are three particular advantages of dynamically generated web pages

1) It is relatively easy to make a change to all the pages in a site. For example, if the contact address is displayed on the bottom of each page in the site, you only need to change the information in one place for each page to reflect that change. On a statically generated site, you need to update every page.

2) Pages can automatically reflect changes to other pages within the site - the Home Page can include an index of articles added to the News Page, and each chapter within a site can automatically generate an index.

3) The content of a site can be maintained independently from the look - the colours, fonts, backgrounds can easily be changed for a whole site.

It is relatively easy to create statically generated web sites - but difficult to update and maintain them.
Dynamically generated sites offer enormous advantages for site maintenance.

Page Zones, Templates and Snippets

Each web page is nominally divided into a number of zones - Masthead, Title Bar, Left Margin, Body, Right Margin, Footer.

A Template determines which pieces of information are displayed in each zone.

For example, a Template may direct that there be a Logo in the Masthead, a Navigation Bar in the LMargin, the Main Article in the body, and a Disclaimer in the footer.

For the purposes of the LemLink system, each piece of information is called a Snippet. In the example, the Logo, Navigation Bar, Main Article and Disclaimer are each a Snippet.

The site as a whole has a template for Snippets that are common to every page within the site. (such as the four snippets in the example).

In addition, each page may have its own template, which will contain (or 'inherit') all the Snippets from the main template, as well as particular Snippets for that page.

For example, the Home Page may have an Index of the latest News articles.
The Search page has a 'Search' snippet.
The News Page has a 'News' Snippet,
The Calendar page has a 'Calendar' Snippet

(Each subchapter within a site may also have its own template)

There are about 20 different classes of Snippets - Text Boxes, News Columns, Indexes, Calendars, Polls, Site Maps, Galleries, Resources, Search Boxes and others.

You edit existing Snippets or create new ones from the main Site Manager Page.