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The Berlin Monday Peace Event (MPE) Website
http://www.montagsdemo.ixy.de
-- Information for Webmasters --
Overview <<
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- General <<
The pages are written in HTML4.0/Transitional. Up to now, attempts with XHTML, especially in conjunction with Cascaded Style Sheets (CSS) for the layout, have shown a certain unreliability in style rendering on some (older) browsers. This is sad. Maybe we go PHP some day...
- Page structure; color palette <<
Pages (except the gallery) comprise of a three-column table, which is due to the page head layout. Tables, though not very convenient, are still the most stable layout method. The table layout ensures an adequate display independently of the size of a browser window.
Following the head is the navigation bar (NavBar) spanning across all three colums (but is a table itself). - Temporaray announcement banners for important events make a good eyecatcher if placed as broad tables underneath the NavBar.
Below the NavBar, the pages are devided 2:1 w.r.t. the head row. On the left-hand side (2 columns) we have all the text, links, and docs (docs in their own tables) row by row (<tr>). The first row contains in its right-hand cell (1 column) the Issues section with an inline frame that loads "issues.html". The amount of text on the left determines the height of the first row and thus, the height of the inline frame window (but anyway, a minimum height of 960 pixels has been set for this window).
The following COLOR PALETTE is used for all pages:
* MPE blue - #6699FF (background)
* White - #FFFFFF (text; doc backgd)
* Dark blue - #000099 (headlines; int links; date and row backgd; also text)
* Brick-red - #993300 (important stuff; names in Issues page)
* Yolky yellow - #FFCC00 (external links)
* Pale blue - #88B4FF (backgd for index and NavBar fields)
* Black - #000000 (doc text)
- Web structure <<
[language folder]- index (start page, incl. links), issues (contents of the Issues frame), arc (documents archive), webmaster info,
|_ [/templates]- HTML templates;
[dok]- collection of downloadable documents;
[img]- Place all graphic elements (incl. thumbs, excl. Gallery) here.
[Galerie]- The gallery folder is an autarc website, being connected only through a navigation bar link.
- Web host and links to MPE <<
Our web address is a free alias provided by Webtropia (that's why the funny ..ixy.. in the URL). Webtropia redirects to the German start page (index.html) on the 'physical' web server where all data is being stored. Redirection occurs through an invisible frame set. This is the reason why deep-linking from outside to any of our physical pages or documents is not recommended: The 'official' link is always the alias, and it does not know any subfolders or files except the target of the redirection! This is a sort of a drawback, but on the other hand, the benefit of it is greater flexibility with the physical web hosting, which is likely to be on a private webspace of one of the MPE activists and might be subject to change from time to time. In such a case, only the redirection has to be adopted (at Webtropia), without changing (and re-promoting) the official URL.
How to do it <<
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For keeping the file size small and the code readable it is strongly recommended to use a TEXT EDITOR or a text-based HTML editor (such as free "1stPage2000" [www.evrsoft.com/1stpage/]), rather than a system like Frontpage or even worse, browser-included graphical editors (as they come with Mozilla or Netscape).
For the most important elements of our pages, TEMPLATES are given in the respective files ("arc_templates.html" for the Documents page, "issues_templ.html" for the Issues page, and "announce.bak.html" for announcement banners, so far). Furthermore, the page sources include COMMENTS (in the form <!--[comment]-->) on all important parts and elements. Please adopt this habit for the sake of an easily on-going progression of the site.
Maintaining and updating of the site should therefore not be too difficult, provided a basic knowledge of HTML. Every-day maintenance can be done with COPY&PASTE in most cases, though. Especially the Issues page is a convenient c&p job.
When modifying pages... <<
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- Links: <<
Internal links should take a relative form (eg., ../upfolder/file). Attention: Links to internal targets from within the "Issues" section must come with a 'target="_parent"' option in the <a>-tag to open on main page rather than in the Issues section!
External links should open a new window (target="_blank").
Generally you would want to set a 'bold' attribute <b>..</b> to a link text, so the link becomes more distinct. Blue-colored (internal) links override the default color definition for links. This is done by setting the <font color="#000099">..</font> tags around the link text (within the <a href=..>..</a> structure).
(Here the CSS would work fine, btw.)
Deep links are legal (as long as there is no special technical protection to the target)!
[BGH (German Federal Court) verdict July 2003, see c't magazine vol. 16/2003 p48, or www.heise.de/ct/]
- Advanced HTML and scripts: <<
Please avoid excessive use of stylish scripting and effect stuff in favour of general browser compatibility and stability of the site. When using scripts, frames or similar, always provide a no-script (no-frame) option. Keep in mind that the primary purpose of this site is to reach a broad audience and to deliver serious information.
- Backups: <<
Always keep BACKUP COPIES of modified pages. (Especially with more than one webmaster messing around at a time - perhaps we should incorporate a Mod History page...)
- Report changes: <<
All major modifications of the contents or structure should be reported to the MPE community (eg., via montagsdemo@web.de). Besides, this is a good way of reminding them the site is still up - and you have once more done your job ;)
The Documents page (arc.html) <<
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(Templates: arc_templates.html)
1. [General]: Provide downloadable version of the documents if possible and store them in the folder "../dok/". Use relative links for internal references and let external links open a new window.
2. [Text]: ORIGINAL document text should be set in BLACK, whereas descriptive or additional text, notes, explanations... by the WEBMASTER should be in BLUE (font color="#000099") to maintain a uniform style.
3. [Paragraph]: Use <br><br> for paragraph separation (rather than <p>..</p>) to avoid redefining the font style. Each table cell as whole is set paragraph through <p>..</p>.
4. [Legal]: Respect the copyright and other legal agreements and restrictions. Don't forget to name reference sources!
5. Last not least: Mind, this is a public documents archive, not a forum, not a guest book, not a partisan or promotion site. Choose contents and words carefully. - Statements should not contradict the basic principles of the Monday Peace Event.
<<
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D. Palloks, June 2004
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