Question

If I update the code on my CSS stylesheet, all pages that pull the code from that sheet will be updated with the adjustments made. Is there a way to do this with actual information that can be viewed a web page(s)? I want to make changes on one page and have all desired pages adjusted.

can anyone push me in the right direction or direct me to which tags I would use?

Thank you

Answer 1

There are several ways to do this, although none quite like CSS.

Server Side Code

This includes languages like ASP.NET, PHP, Ruby, and many others. Using server side code, you can create content areas that are usually controlled by a database (MySQL is a free database). When you store your content in a database, you can then pull that content out via server side code and place it on the page.

AJAX

AJAX is a relatively new method that also usually leverages the use of a database. Basically, when you need content, you send a call to your server (or database) via Javascript and it responds with the content you requested. You can then format the content how you wish. There are literally thousands of questions on StackOverflow about how to use AJAX. Most of them will reference jQuery.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

While this is similar to the first two methods I listed (in that they usually leverage one or both methods) CMSs are different because they abstract the need to actually do any of the work yourself. They are usually pre-built systems where you just plug in your content and make some tweaks and you’re good to go. Some examples of CMSs are WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.

jQuery.load()

If you get into jQuery at all, there is an easy method you could use to kind of replicate what you’re trying to accomplish (one file that controls all your content). While it is definitely not the most highly-recommended method, so long as your site is not too big, it could work nicely. Basically you would put all your content into an .html file and separate them into divs with ids. Then to pull content from that file, you would use jQuery.load() plus the page fragments option (scroll down a bit on the jQuery.load() page) to pull in the desired content. Again, this is not really how I would go about doing it, but it is an option for a small bit of content you want to quickly change on the fly without incurring the overhead of setting up and maintaining a database.