News page updating from text document

[Freakboy]

Hi Guys,

I'm new to web design and in need of a little help. I was given the task to redo our website (bosses to stingy to get a professional) and the problem that I see coming is the news page. They want to be able to update the news page dynamically from a text document saved on the server/specific location. This is so that the HR/PR lady can just edit the text document and then the page will automatically be updated. She then doesn’t have to touch the site/web server.

Any ideas how to accomplish this?

 

[Nod]

If you use php, you can use the "file_get_contents" function.

This function is similar to file(), except that file_get_contents() returns the file in a string, starting at the specified offset up to maxlen bytes. On failure, file_get_contents() will return FALSE.

file_get_contents() is the preferred way to read the contents of a file into a string. It will use memory mapping techniques if supported by your OS to enhance performance.

The link also contain a lot of examples, and solutions to problems.

 

[Freakboy]

Thanx Nod, will give it a try.

 

[Nod]

Oh, and have a look at nl2br to convert the newlines to breaks in html.

Description
string nl2br ( string $string [, bool $is_xhtml ] )

Returns string with '<br />' or '<br>' inserted before all newlines.

 

[PsyWulf]

I had a nice little Java newsreader I grabbed from an opensource coding site. Could read and format text nicely from a wittle .txt file you post on the site.

Just look around and pick a technology

 

[mh348]

Why don't you install Joomla on the web server, then the admin lady can just update via an back-end web interface.

 

[Nod]

Why don't you install Joomla on the web server, then the admin lady can just update via an back-end web interface.

I thought of Drupal (or Joomla) too, but they might be using a custom CMS already, and the lady doing to update might be very challenged when it comes to technology. From experience, most HR/PR people are

 

[FarligOpptreden]

Why not just use XML/XSLT? Train her in the syntax of your XML file and let XSLT do the wonders for you. That way, you don't need any CMS or server-side coding...