HTML5 and CSS3 All-in-One For Dummies
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If you want to make your own data based CMS to manage HTML5 and CSS3 content, you need to move from storing data in files to storing in a relational database. Each page in a content management system is often the same structure, and only the data is different. What happens if you move away from text files altogether and store all the content in a database?

The data structure might be defined like this in SQL:

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS cmsPage;
CREATE TABLE cmsPage (
 cmsPageID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT,
 title VARCHAR(30)
);
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS cmsBlock;
CREATE TABLE cmsBlock (
 cmsBlockID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT,
 blockTypeID INTEGER,
 title VARCHAR(50),
 content TEXT,
 pageID INTEGER
);
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS blockType;
CREATE TABLE blockType (
 blockTypeID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT,
 name VARCHAR(30)
);
DROP VIEW IF EXISTS pageView;
CREATE VIEW pageView AS
 SELECT
 blockType.name as 'block',
 cmsBlock.title as 'title',
 cmsBlock.content as 'content',
 cmsBlock.pageID as 'pageID',
 cmsPage.title as 'page'
 FROM
 cmsBlock, blockType, cmsPage
 WHERE
 cmsBlock.blockTypeID = blockType.blockTypeID;
INSERT INTO cmsPage VALUES (
 null,
 'main page'
);
INSERT into blockType VALUES (null, 'head');
INSERT into blockType VALUES (null, 'menu');
INSERT into blockType VALUES (null, 'content1');
INSERT into blockType VALUES (null, 'content2');
INSERT into blockType VALUES (null, 'footer');
INSERT INTO cmsBlock VALUES (
 null,
 1,
 'it's a binary thing',
 null,
 1
);
INSERT INTO cmsBlock VALUES (
 null,
 2,
 'menu',
 '
   <ul>
   <li><a href = "dbCMS.php?pageID=1">one</a></li>
   <li><a href = "dbCMS.php?pageID=2">two</a></li>
   <li><a href = "dbCMS.php?pageID=1">three</a></li>
  </ul>
 ',
 1
);
INSERT INTO cmsBlock VALUES (
 null,
 3,
 'Book I - Creating the HTML Foundation',
 '
<ol>
 <li>Sound HTML Foundations</li>
 <li>It's All About Validation</li>
 <li>Choosing your Tools</li>
 <li>Managing Information with Lists and Tables</li>
 <li>Making Connections with Links</li>
 <li>Adding Images</li>
 <li>Creating forms</li>
</ol>
 ',
 1
);
INSERT INTO cmsBlock VALUES (
 null,
 4,
 'Book II - Styling with CSS',
 '
<ol>
 <li>Coloring Your World</li>
 <li>Styling Text</li>
 <li>Selectors, Class, and Style</li>
 <li>Borders and Backgrounds</li>
 <li>Levels of CSS</li>
</ol>
 ',
 1
);
INSERT INTO cmsBlock VALUES (
 null,
 5,
 null,
 'see <a href = "http://www.aharrisbooks.net">aharrisbooks.net</a> for more information',
 1
);

This structure has three tables and a view:

  • The cmsPage table: Represents the data about a page, which currently isn’t much. A fuller version might put menu information in the page data so that the page would “know” where it lives in a menu structure.

  • The cmsBlock table: Represents a block of information. Each block is the element that would be in a miniature HTML page in other systems. This table is the key table in this structure because most of the content in the CMS is stored in this table.

  • The blockType table: Lists the block types. This simple table describes the various block types.

  • The pageView view: Ties together all the other information. After all the data is loaded, the pageView view ties it all together.

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About This Article

This article is from the book:

About the book author:

Andy Harris taught himself programming because it was fun. Today he teaches computer science, game development, and web programming at the university level; is a technology consultant for the state of Indiana; has helped people with disabilities to form their own web development companies; and works with families who wish to teach computing at home.

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