Re: [Phpwebsite-developers] Development Questions

[Shaun M. <sh...@ae...>]

On 20 May 2005, at 05:40, Neal Schilling wrote:

> I had some questions about the development of phpWebSite that I was
> hoping someone could answer for me.
>
> Why is the transitional version of XHTML used rather than the strict?

Historically, it started as transitional some years ago because it  
was a more practical solution moving from the previous version and at  
the time browsers weren't very good at strict compliance. Some still  
aren't.

Also many features can't be done in strict. For instance,  
target="_blank" on links. Transitional is pragmatically a better  
solution currently. However, the intention is to move to stricter  
XHTML compliance and the removal of embedded HTML inside the php code  
itself, replacing it with templated code and broadening the use of CSS.

> Most the table tags could be replaced by <div> tags and the CSS  
> could be
> what is effected by the templates. If development is going in this
> direction, I would be happy to help with the coding to get there.

I'd disagree partly. Tables are much more flexible for layout than  
using CSS when used sparingly. The main problem is how to make a 3  
column layout where the columns collapse when there is no content in  
the column. With a table it will collapse the column to zero width.  
Since you have to cope with many different presentations inside a 3  
column layout with a single theme.tpl file, tables are more flexible.

You can however change that yourself if you don't need to be that  
flexible - just edit the theme templates.

There's also nothing wrong with using tables for many of the places  
they are used in phpWebSite as much of the data presented is tabular.  
I find it quite daft that people go to great lengths to reinvent the  
table using reams of CSS and co-opting things like definition lists  
for purposes they weren't intended for.

There are also problems with containing content within divs and  
problems with disparate heights.

These problems will become less and less as both we as developers  
understand the issues and we expand the use of xhtml in phpwebsite  
but until Internet Explorer is fixed, there's a lot of issues that  
can't be resolved with XHTML Strict, even if we force on hasLayout or  
hack around in CSS.

Maybe IE7 will be truly wonderful, fix it's box model, switch on  
hasLayout, support PNG, support CSS2.1+. Maybe not. But it will be a  
while before we can rely on decent standards support.

>
> Is there a module to create static content? I'm looking for a way to
> ease the load on the server, and as the content is not updated often,
> that would be an easy solution.
>

Not currently. Spiggy did one some time ago which would index html  
pages but not generate them. phpWebSite isn't really set up for  
generating static content.


> Keeping this project in beta status? What features still need  
> testing or
> development?
>

Have a look at the Fallout tree in CVS. This is where phpWebSite is  
heading. Many of the embedded old-style HTML issues have been  
addressed already.

http://res1.stddev.appstate.edu/cvs/cvs.php


Shaun
aegis design - http://www.aegisdesign.co.uk