Automatable Website

[Joe Pesci]

Is it possible to have an online web page that allows me to change the layout.

For instance, say I wanted to drag the left column to the right or change the background colour etc. Almost like a web builder does.

Thanks

[DC856]

Is it possible to have an online web page that allows me to change the layout.

In a word, yes. That's kinda what most of modern web design is built for. Essentially it is the whole point of CSS Zen Garden.

It is possible, with planning, to have one HTML markup for just about every client -- and just change it with different CSS files.

With a CMS system, you have skins and the ability to turn different modules on and off.

However, what you mean when you say automate may be something else. A very user annoying something else. If you're talking about changing the layout with any frequency on any one site, then you're going to annoy users.

If you want more on target comments, you're going to have to extend the courtesy of filling commenters in on what goals you're trying to accomplish.

I realize context is not necessary for building a site. But it helps a lot when you're trying to communicate effectively.

[Joe Pesci]

Hi DC.

There are a couple of things I want to do:

1 - I want the ability to change the design of the website. For example I want to change the frameset view, the colours the fonts background etc. The way I want to do it is to have, visual content that will change the layout with a mouseclick or a mouseover. So, for instance, if someone wants no frames,they click that, then they hover over a few font options then click to apply etc so it creates a progressive view.

2 - I want to create a music listening site where viewers can create their own playlist with search or view options. For instance, if someone wants to listen to Jazz in the style of be-bop then there will be the options to click these values so it creates a filtered playlist or folder view.


Hope I have made myself clear.

Thanks for your help.

[mlseim]

Joe ...
About Part 2 ...
That is done using MySQL.

You have a MySQL database with rows of information. Each row is the MP3 filename, description, genre, song id, etc. When someone wants to listen to Jazz, it sets a cookie for them, such as genre=3. If a cookie exists, each page will automatically query the database for genre=3 (which would be "Jazz"). That person would only see those, nothing else.

A different MySQL table would contain the user's playlist. And yet a different table would contain the user profiles ... username, id, password, other user info, etc.

You would need to have an admin script (for you, the admin), and user login, profile edit, and other scripts for the user to select songs, pick genres, and build their playlist.