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View Full Version : .HT Files - Tool To Make Templates Even Easier To Use, Sites More Maintainable



aburt
09 Oct 2009, 04:22 PM
I've used HTML/CSS templates for sites for years, and love them, BUT have been frustrated at the redundant effort involved in setting up and maintaining the pages. Changing the navigation when it's embedded in every page, or adding an ad banner, so many little changes require editing every file. Not my cup of tea... so I wrote a tool to keep web site template themes apart from the content.

I've used this for years now and love it. Saved me hundreds if not thousands of hours. (Not to mention much easier on the whole than trying to merge custom code with Drupal/etc.)

What I do is use ".HT" files. .HT is a file type that combines the template at run time, like a CMS would do, but without any hooks inside the content pages. None. They're 100% unique page content. It 's sort of like how a .css file moves styles to one place -- but this does it for the template's HTML.

This link--

http://tech-soft.com/ht

-- details what I did and how you can do it too. It's released under a Creative Commons license. Hope folks find it useful.

-- Dr. Andrew Burt