Preserved Topic: Internal site Layout.

Im making a gaming site, i wont reveal much info because i wanna keep it secreative until its done. Its going to be based on Warcraft 3, IF anyone has experience in making big sites, that have alot of info. What is the best way to layout your folders for you content, Try to visualize the best Folder tree that is the easiest to A. Update layouts(SSI) B. Has Very good Organization (I know a site that have 600 files in the root DIR, this is NOT acceptable). These are not hard guidelines to follow, i was just wondering if anyone had experince, and would like to share there goods/bads about how they set there site up, and how you wish you would have done it and so on, thx

Personally, I've only created small sites, but I try never to go more than one directory below the root directory, unless that directory contains images. Try not to be linking to images in directories that are above the directory that a page is in, unless you have a single set of images that is in every page, and is included in the template.

If it's going to be a large site, make sure you decide what the structure will be *before* you start. Then base the directories you make off of that structure; maybe one folder for "hints and tips" and one for "strategies," you get the idea.

If you have a single template used throughout the site (as I hope you do), you may want to put the images and HTML code for that template in a separate directory, and link to it with SSI. Typically, I have two files for this, one for the top of the page, and one for the bottom of the page.

I hope that helps. Hey, is Warcraft III released yet? I want to play that sometime.

No, its not out yet, but i wanna get a jump on the competiton, yes, im gonna plan it all out first. I wanted to have an images DIR, where all the images will go (screenshots, nonlayout, gameboxs, previews, and what not). Im going to be using 1 template throughout the site, so i figured i would keep the main HTML in the root, along with the layout images, and the SSI texts, Or i may put all the content html, in sub folders, not sure, waiting for more feedback

I actually wanna hear from the Doc, His site has ALOT of pages hehe

A lot of pages is the gurusnetwork.

We have a crazy directory structure going on there.

A ton of folders in the root, and a bunch of folders in most of those.

What I tend to do is create a couple folders, SCRIPTS, PAGES, IMAGES for moderate sized sites. When the sites get bigger I add directories to both the PAGES and IMAGES folder that correspond to subsections.

pages/tactics
images/tactics

That would take care of most larger sites.

Here is what I start with:

<root>
images
advertising
misc
scripts
style
templates

I tend to break things down a little further if the site is getting large. I'll have more sub folders in the /images/ folder, such as /images/templates/, etc....

Pat Richard
Web weenie
http://www.gurusnetwork.com
ICQ 23113317

Actually, having gone around Doc's page, it seems to me that he must simply have hundreds of separate folders from the root directory. I've rarely seen a page more than one directory down on his site...

Yep, and Doc likes to use JavaScript to determine where the page is. I think it's for image loading and stuff. Same script he used at GurusNetwork.com to do the highlights at the top.

Pat Richard
Web weenie
http://www.gurusnetwork.com
ICQ 23113317

Well, my site is a HORRIBLE example of how to lay out a site architecture! I was doing this for a couple of years before I started doing big sites professionally, and by that time I had thousands of people linking into my site, I couldn't move things without losing all of those links! Pugzly has the right of it, the GN is a nicely laid out website, good solid directory structure.

Basically, I would think you'd want to create an "envelope" for your site, each top-level link linking to the same display pages, and then you would insert the content into those display pages using XSSI, (we've discussed this here a few times before.) So, youi'd have something like this...

<!--#set var="which" value="$QUERY_STRING_UNESCAPED" -->
<!--#if expr="$which != ''" -->
<!--#include virtual="/content/$which" -->
<!--#else -->
<!--#include virtual="/content/default.html" -->
<!--#endif -->

And now all of your content would end up in the "content" directory, and be dropped into your format as needed. The content ID would be added after the call to display.shtml?contentID like that.

Your pal, -doc-

hi Doc!
How was the trip to Egypt?
Doc? I need your help in Photoshop if you'd like to hop over for a nanno second over there, that ward seems to be nocked out on the black pill. Could you give me advice for the gates and I've been reading the tut on GN for metal and give a couple of pointers on applying the metal tut for forged iron gates I'm a bit confused, the nurse didn't give me my red pill (promotes clarity of mind and understanding)

Doc, i see what your saying, but i dont have any experience in doing that, could u expand more, or do you have any bookmarked informative site that talk about it?