Automate Story Creation and Listing

[Matthew Schwarz]

Hello.
I post several news stories a day. I usually just open the most recent one
(like 18.htm), copy and paste the new content into the same file, and then
save it as the next number in sequence (like 19.htm).
Then I open the page that lists all the stories and add a new row with a
link to the new story.
See http://www.c7f.navy.mil/news/news200903.htm as an example.

Does anyone have any idea how I could automate this process locally? I
figure there are ways to do it using scripts on the server, but unfortunately
I don't have that option.

I figure there must be a way to put any new stories into text files, named
appropriatiely 18.txt, 19.txt, or whatever. And then open Frontpage and run a
macro that goes through and "processes" them. Or maybe there is a 3rd-party
software that could do it?

I do something similar with my photos using Jalbum. I created the templates
and I just drop photos into a folder, run the skin from Jalbum and it
processes all the photos. It puts them in a index page and it also creates
the individual "slide" pages as necessary. See
http://www.c7f.navy.mil/imagery/galleries/monthly/2009/03-March/index.htm.

Unfortunately, Jalbum won't process txt files or I'd use it....

 

[Steve Easton]

Mathew
Unless you can switch to asp or asp.net and set up a database solution,
I think the method you are using is about as efficient as can be.

imho, it takes the same amount of time to create a .txt. file as it does the actual html page,
and if you have FP set to publish changed pages only, it is only a matter of a couple
of mouse clicks to publish the changes.

By the way, nice looking and informative site, and thank you for keeping folks abreast of what is happening
in *Our* Navy.

--

Steve Easton
LCDR USN(ret)

Microsoft MVP FrontPage

 

[Rob Giordano [MS MVP]]

excellent pix there too!



--
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Rob Giordano
Microsoft MVP Expression