Skipping dailytemplate

[robotthepirate]

Is there a way to upload a page to the /d/ folder without using the dailytemplate file? Is there somewhere in workspace that will upload files to the /d/ folder on the right date in the same way that the files in the /comics/ folder get transfered?

[LibertyCabbage]

Could you be a little more specific in what you're trying to do here?

As for the automated process, all the server does with the dailytemplate.html file is copy it to /d/, rename the copied file to match the comic name, and fill in the Keentags with the proper HTML.

[robotthepirate]

Hmm. Not sure I remember exactly what I was trying to do any more. In fact I'm not sure I've ever been sure. I think that's why I wasn't very clear. Anyway my chaotic knowledge of html has almost solved the problem after about a week.

In brief my problem was this:
-Trying to use position:absolute command for my links including those to the previous and next comics.
-This rules out using next_day/previous_day tags.
-Attempting to solve this problem... I'm a bit hazy about what happened after this point.

People won't like my solution because it uses iframes but looks nice to the casual observer. I'll have to post a link to my (working) test pages when they're finished.

[LibertyCabbage]

There are two things that come to mind for this situation:

1) You might be able to position a container with a Keentag inside it, like this:

Code: Select all

<div style="position:absolute; top:300px; left:550px;">
***next_day***
</div>

2) The Keentags are essentially optional and there for your convenience. You could remove them and insert your own code; for example, a positioned image tag inside an anchor tag that links to a /d/ file. The problem with this is that you would have to manually change the hyperlinks in your dailytemplate.html file every time you update, which could get annoying after a while.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the comic file can be HTML, so you could hypothetically upload, for example, 20130520a.html and 20130520b.jpg, putting the code for your navigation buttons in the former. That way, you could upload a bunch of these HTML files at once, just changing the hyperlinks in each one.

[robotthepirate]

I could change the hyperlinks individually but only after they have been uploaded and then they would be reset by the dailytemplate whenever I did a full update. I think this was why I was trying to avoid using dailytemplate and why I asked the question. I could upload the entire page as I wanted it into the workspace/comics folder but it would only update to the public/comics folder so wouldn't create a /d/ page. This is essential what I've gone for. The problem I had with that was that the ***ad*** tag didn't work and I didn't want to anger the gods of CG by not running the ads (which is fair enough), but I've used an iframe to get past that.

1) You might be able to position a container with a Keentag inside it, like this:

Code: Select all

<div style="position:absolute; top:300px; left:550px;">
***next_day***
</div>

I didn't know I could do that! That would have solved a lot of problems.

The problem I was facing with that was that while I could manually change the hyperlinks (in the way you suggested, I did a similar thing for RTP), if I linked to a page before it was there I'd get an unsightly 404. The way I've got round it again uses iframes. Each comic page features an iframe containing the links to the next comic, dated at the next update...

So 20130517 has

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<iframe style="position:absolute; top:0px; left:0px" src="http://subconsensus.comicgenesis.com/comics/20130518b.html" allowtransparency="true" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" 
width="100%" height="1000px""></iframe>

But until the next update the page doesn't exist, so no link.

Your way is a LOT cleaner but there are a few design reasons why I'm not going to switch. Though I probably will do at some point because apparently iframes are a dying breed.

[LibertyCabbage]

I could change the hyperlinks individually but only after they have been uploaded and then they would be reset by the dailytemplate whenever I did a full update. I think this was why I was trying to avoid using dailytemplate and why I asked the question.

I looked at the timestamps on my files, and I believe you're right.

But until the next update the page doesn't exist, so no link.

One option would be to create a custom 404 page, like GU Comics did. You can do this by editing the /public_html/.htaccess file and adding the following line:

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ErrorDocument 404 /404.html

Editing the .htaccess can be tricky, though, since it doesn't normally show up in Windows. You'll probably have to mess with the folder options to show files that are hidden.

Your way is a LOT cleaner but there are a few design reasons why I'm not going to switch. Though I probably will do at some point because apparently iframes are a dying breed.

I think I'll just have to wait till the site's in a presentable stage.

[robotthepirate]

Actually no link is a good thing. No link means nothing to take you to a 404

Also CG lets you can have your own custom page just by creating a file called 404.html in the webpages folder. Works with 405s and 403/6 (i forget which).

[LibertyCabbage]

Also CG lets you can have your own custom page just by creating a file called 404.html in the webpages folder. Works with 405s and 403/6 (i forget which).

That's good to know.