[Mylo]

An assignment is coming up in a few weeks to create a basic html website, however I want a good grade, so I want to go a little more advanced, seperating data from HTML and things hence I have a few questions.

Things I can use are Microsoft Access, XML, Javascript, and HTML. The site is offline, however it could go live. So I want to be able to account for both states. Data that needs to be included on the webpage includes things like text, links, files, and images.

I think that the administrator would prefer to use something like access and export the data to XML instead of hardcoding HTML. So I am thinking, would it be best to let access export data to XML, then load XML into HTML with Javascript?

I want to have the least trouble possible with modifying data. Updating the HTML every time to add content seems ineffective, so this is why I am thinking of this way.

I'm supposed to use Dreamweaver, but notepad is fine for me so I hope I'm not forced to use it. But just incase, is there any tools in Dreamweaver that will assist in the above process and setup?

What are your opinions? Is this the way to go? Or would you do something else? How can I improve the process?

Normally I wouldn't go this far, but this has inspired me. I have basic knowledge in all languages above. I don't have access at home, so I can't really trial things out, I'd also rather not waste time testing things, since I have another assignment to work on. I want to get things started quickly and efficiently.

As for PHP (which I was planning to learn soon anyway), would this be in more useful and effective in any way? I want to keep PHP code minimal though, as I think more HTML style code is more accepted, though the assignment doesn't say explicity what I can use. However, being a server side technology, this make cause trouble for development. I'm happy to use it though if I can use it to make a decent improvement in how data is read.

Thank you very much =)

This post has been edited by Mylo: 22 January 2012 - 11:54 PM

[RudiVisser]

For loading data PHP will be your best bet as it's, for a start - more reliable.

You can of course have an XML document stored next to your HTML document which loads a Javascript file which then loads in the XML document - but there's not much point.

PHP would be more beneficial for you as it would show that you're not doing it to show off. I mean, if you're having all of your data in an XML file, what if the client has Javascript disabled? Your page wouldn't work.

With PHP since it's server side (you can still have the XML file!) then your data is always available on the page and doesn't rely on the client.

I'm sure you knew most of that already, but you should see what I mean.

[Mylo]

Excellent point, I had never considered Javascript being disabled (That would of been bad thanks!).

It looks like I will go with that, it's a useful language anyway. I can use Javascript for animation, though that'll be the thing on my todo list since it's not so essential and may take time.

Now I have some questions on how to properly use XML, but I'll make a new thread.

Thank you

[Dormilich]

just a side note, processing XML uses a lot of memory. depending on what you need to do and what size the XML is, it might be a point to check which XML processing approach to consider.

[Mylo]

Well assuming it does go live, it wouldn't be very busy anyway, and it would be small.

Is there a way to load data such that once it's loaded, it doesn't need to load again for the rest of the session?

Also, considering it is memory intensive, would it be best to have seperate XML files for each page, or one large one to read from? I guess it matters how Access does it?

[Dormilich]

it matters which programme uses the XML. I can't tell how good Access fares with XML and what the XML exactly is for (this is the most important thing to know).