Need efficient way to post "library closing" message

Hi Kathy,

I would use a server-side include (SSI). For something
common to each  
page, such
as the footer, I use SSI files. My thought on this, since
you need it  
to appear at the top
of certain pages occasionally, is that I would create an
external  
file with the XHTML
content needed and then add the SSI line to the location you
want the  
content to
appear in each page. I think that if you put an empty file
in place  
when you don't
need content, that there will be no browser complaints. I
have not  
tried an empty
SSI file on all browsers, so I could be wrong.

Heather H. Ebey
Web Technologist
School of Library and Information Science
San Jose State University
http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/

On Nov 30, 2006, at 9:05 AM, Kathy Gaynor wrote:

>
>
>
> In the past, we have added a message to the top of
selected pages  
> on our web
> site to inform our users of the library's closure over
the winter  
> holidays.
> For example, we would add a message to our home page,
main database  
> page,
> our request forms, "Ask a Librarian" email
reference form, etc.  
> There are
> probably about 18 pages that were involved.  We thought
that we  
> should add
> this message to more than just our home page as users
may take various
> routes to get to a specific page.
>
> I'm wondering if there are other more efficient ways to
handle this  
> other
> than manually adding the message to each page and
deleting it after  
> we come
> back to school in January.  We recently revised our web
site to be  
> XHTML
> compliant and to use style sheets.
>
> Thanks for any suggestions you might have.  Our web
site is at
> <http://library.webste
r.edu>.
>
> Kathy M. Gaynor
> Reference Librarian
> Emerson Library/Webster University
> 470 E. Lockwood Ave.
> St. Louis, MO 63119
> (314) 961-2660 x7811
> kgaynorwebster.edu
>
>
>
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 Here is the code I use that I include in my template, I use
Dreamweaver.  The IFRAME is quite simple actually.  The URL
points to
the php script on a server in my office.  It is RSS2HTML. 
You can find
it very easily on the web.  It can also be done as a
javascript,
although I don't use that since the IFRAME handles stuff so
well.  The
blog software is blosxom and the server uses Ubuntu as an
operating
system. The blog has different RSS feeds for different
categories of
content.  I can set the feed I want to point the script to
in individual
pages or leave it to my default "announcements"
feed. It is very low
maintenance.  Many sites actually host the RSS2HTML script
so you could
go through them and just use one of the Blogger farms out
there such as
Blogspot.com.  I actually started this since I had an old
"obsolete" IBM
PC 300GL that was going to be thrown out.  I wanted a place
to teach my
self to install and set up Linux and Apache.  It has been
running since
January 28, 2005 with no downtime at all.  I learned a lot
along the way
and am still learning.  If the server does finally give up
the ghost, I
would move to using a blog on blogspot and use one of the
hosted
RSS2HTML sites, or take an old laptop and rebuild.

It is important to realize I am not a programmer or a script
writer
beyond just a few basics.  I can read and alter scripts but
have seldom
written any from scratch.  I beg, borrow, and steal (with
permission)
code from others and adapt it to our needs.

You can how it works via our website at http://library.morris
ville.edu.

 <p><span style="color: #006633;
background-color:#ffcc00;
text-decoration: none; "><strong>Library
News</strong></span></p>
        <iframe width="215"
height="300"
src="http://lib2.morrisville.edu/rss2html.php?rss_
url=http://lib2.morris
ville.edu/blog/announcements/index.rss&amp;rss_chars=800
&amp;rss_target=
_top"></iframe>

Wilfred (Bill) Drew 
Associate Librarian, Systems and Reference
Morrisville State College Library
E-mail: mailto:drewwemorrisville.edu
AOL Instant Messenger:BillDrew4
BillDrew.Net: http://billdrew.net/
Wireless Librarian: http:
//people.morrisville.edu/~drewwe/wireless/
Library: http://library.morris
ville.edu/
SUNYConnect: http://www.sunyconne
ct.suny.edu/
My Blog:http://babybo
omerlibrarian.blogspot.com


"They that can give up essential liberty for a little
temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety." Ben Franklin, 1759




  
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