What I do now: I use the m4 macro package to generate .html files. I have macros defined in one file (macros.m4), with things like:
define(`_imt_start_clip', `<a bunch of html code>')
And I have another file (videos.m4) that uses the macros:
_imt_start_clip(`Persons name', `link to video clip', `name of jpg file')
To generate my web page, I use the command:
m4 macros.m4 videos.m4 > videos.html
which I then upload to my web site. Works reasonably well, even if it's a bit cumbersome.
What I want: A friend told me that I'd be a lot happier using Apache Velocity. I looked at the syntax and I like it a lot more than I like m4. So I want to switch.
I see some possible alternative architectures:
1) Do the processing on my local computer using flat files and upload the result to the web server.
2) Set the web server up to do the processing using flat files and upload the raw files.
Questions:
A) Are there other architectures I should consider? (Please don't bother suggesting a database. I know that's a much better answer, but I can't get approval to do that.)
B) We use FatCow to host. How do I tell the FatCow server that I want it to use Velocity? (Don't blame me for choosing FatCow. It was chosen long before I got here and I can't change that either.)
C) What files do I need, and what do I put in them to make web serving work? I.e., where does the data go and how do I link that to the .vm file?
D) If I cannot get the FatCow server to process the files, how can I do this locally? I.e., where does the data go and how do I link that to the .vm file? What command line stuff do I use to cause Velocity to generate an .html file?
Thanks, Pat