By psiegers on

Hi all,

I have a simple series of static HTML pages. I would like to create a Drupal static HTML website, where I won't need the node system but simply need to set up a menu that points to static HTML pages. I have setup a menu and try to point the menu items to say "files/v10/slide01.html" but that doesn't work. How can this be done most simply?

I also need the main static HTML to show up when the Home page is requested. So instead of creating blocks and nodes with content, I simply need to point to the main HTML content page. How can I best do this?

I'll need to use Drupal's CMS capabilities later on, but for the moment this is what I have in mind. Any simple "how-to" example for just one page would help me in the right direction.

Many TIA,
Pieter

⋅ Categories: Drupal 4.6.x

Comments

bwv’s picture

bwv commented

is create a page, write (or copy and paste) your material into the text area, save, then use ural alias under admin to give it an .html extension if that is what you wish. user access control to limit anonymous users to read only and voila, you are done. think of a node as a web page with an html extension.

this sounds simple but you will likely have some trouble at first, just keep trying and reading and asking specific questions and you will get it.

psiegers’s picture

psiegers commented

Hi bwv,

I'll look into your suggestions and report back later on my findings.

I'll need some more specific instructions on how to link the created HTML page after it's finished. Could you help with that?

To have a better idea of what I´m talking about, see
http://cammpc.com.mx

Cheers and thanx, Pieter

Cainan’s picture

Cainan commented

Use the Front Page module to allow for a static front page.

the Menu system doesn't allow for non-drupal links, so instead, create a new block, and use HTML to create the links to the static pages.

psiegers’s picture

psiegers commented

Hi Cainan,

thanx for your suggestion - so the menu doesn't allow for simple HTML links? I found out that trying adding a taxonomy vocabulary and generating a menu using categories didn't work either - they all link to an area inside 'admin', I suppose this is the database because there's no physical path that starts with that.

I'll install the FP module and see what I can do with that. Would that also allow me to point the Home page to a static HTML page which then shows up in the content area (where normally the page's links show up).

To have a better idea of what I´m talking about, see
http://cammpc.com.mx

Cheers, Pieter

stevryn’s picture

stevryn commented

As far as I know. If you go to admin - menus - add menu item, you can set the path to be external. I have external links in my menu as well in custom blocks.

psiegers’s picture

psiegers commented

Hi stevryn,

how do external links look like?

FYI, my Drupal v4.6 installation runs on a Windows 2003 Server host.

I've tried using a menu with paths like
http://camm.pietsieg.com/index.php?q=files/v10/slide01.html
but they don't seem to follow the virtual path "files/v10/slide01.html" I had in mind.

So please give some examples...

Cheers and thnx, Pieter

stevryn’s picture

stevryn commented

I am perhaps confused, are you trying to create a link to an external site, for example google or is the link to a local document?

First off I would use clean urls. Forget that annoying ?q=

To access a file that is in your files directory, maybe try using
files/v10/slide01.html

with clean urls turned on.

with out clean urls I am not sure of the syntax. Try using
http://camm.pietsieg.com/files/v10/slide01.html

stevryn’s picture

stevryn commented

example I gave and I got to something on your site. Not sure what!

psiegers’s picture

psiegers commented

Yes, the links are local and should display in the content area - the white area on the page.

I've tried to change to Clean URLs but got an error message:

"It appears your host is not configured correctly for Clean URLs. Please check for ModRewrite support with your administrator."

BTW, ModRewrite is an Apache extension, right? If I'm running on IIS6, is there any support?

BTW (and anyway), I've managed to let something show up: instead of using fixed paths to .html files, I now use simply "node/4" or "node/5" etc using content pages. It works but I can't get rid of the Title still. Take a look at http://www.cammpc.com.mx - this is however not what I'd like to see as the end result. Instead of pointing to jpg or png images I want to have plain HTML, without the Title being shown.

Another pointed me to the module staticHTML, I installed it so right now I'm looking if I can use that. My host installed the Zend Optimizer which is required by the module.

I now only need to point to the JPEG/PNG images, and then I can start creating the corresponding HTML pages and embed the required cross-linking.

Many thanx sofar! :-)

Cheers, Pieter

Heine’s picture

Heine commented

I'll need to use Drupal's CMS capabilities later on, but for the moment this is what I have in mind. Any simple "how-to" example for just one page would help me in the right direction.

Could you perhaps explain why you want this exact setup instead of using 'page's?

--
Tips for posting to the forums

psiegers’s picture

psiegers commented

Hi Heine,

I need to simply link to HTML pages because I don't want the title (nor responsible or publishing time) to appear when publishing content; I've tried to publish a page and all it does is create a link on the Home page with some admin info, and that's something I don't need; I don't need a publishing system using nodes but simple links to static HTML for now.

So why use Drupal anyway? Well, later on I'll do need other CMS functionality for my client's project and that's why I want to set up initially on Drupal - otherwise it would be sufficient to just place some static HTML on a host and I'm done - this is not the case however.

To have a better idea of what I´m talking about, see
http://cammpc.com.mx

In the area where it says "Welcome blah blah" I'd like to show up the content of a simple HTML page, or a

.

If I just can remove some section tags inside the XTemplate,xtmpl I'm using for the theme, please let me know what exactly.

Cheers, Pieter

stevryn’s picture

stevryn commented

Via the admin - themes - configure

Unselect display post information for the content types you dont want it to show on, if you create a "page" as your "front page" then for example, you can unselect "display post information on" page

psiegers’s picture

psiegers commented

Hi again stevryn,

I could do that - thanx - but still when publishing a page the page is not shown but the LINK only - and a Title that I also would like to disappear. Using content pages is just not what I need. It should display some HTML page uploaded to say the directory "drupal/files". That shouldn't be so hard job for a CMS, would it?

Cheers, Pieter

psiegers’s picture

psiegers commented

For all:

To have a better idea of what I´m talking about, see
http://cammpc.com.mx

Ah, and my Drupal v4.6 runs on a Windows 2003 Server host environment. It has PHP 5 installed.

Cheers, Pieter

laura s’s picture

laura s commented

Just create the page you want. Then link to it in the menu item you've created.

Or is this not the site that you're trying to build?

Laura
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nathandigriz’s picture

nathandigriz commented

This looks like it only works on 4.5 but it allows Drupal to do the same thing as Joomlas built in function does.

http://www.hivemindz.com/drupal_statichtml_module_v4_5

You might try it on 4.6 and report back. Since Drupal lets you set the opening URL this should work for you.

psiegers’s picture

psiegers commented

Hi nathandigriz,

thanx for the pointer - I downloaded and installed the module, but it now asks to install the Zend Optimizer (this happens when I try to enter the module section in Drupal's administer) - although this wasn't mentioned in the requirements section on the page you mentioned.

I very well may not be able to get this installer installed on my Windows 2003 Server host (I'm still waiting for their reply though), so isn't there any other module option that just enables plain HTML without any other requirements? That would make things a lot easier!

Cheers and TIA, Pieter

nathandigriz’s picture

nathandigriz commented

I downloaded this and now I see that it is encrypted with Zends tool. This is the reason you need Zend optimizer installed. I am running WinXP and have installed the Optimizer to my WAMP installation but not on IIS. But checking the Zend site show that there is a Windows version of the Optimizer.

Sorry, I saw another link to something called wgHTML ? But I can't find it. I am misspelling it or something.

the search here sucks!(all app searchs do I guess)

But here's another to try http://drupal.org/node/33531

nathandigriz’s picture

nathandigriz commented

Both modules are kind of cool. I like the staticHTML better though as I can just post content using Dreamweaver. It nice not having to use a browser and WYISWYG editors. Addictive. I see why poeple use eblogger and such now.

psiegers’s picture

psiegers commented

Hi again nathandigriz,

my host was so kind to install the Zend Optimizer :-)

I have followed the install from staticHTML, however first I'll need to modify config.php to set up the full path to the static HTML pages.

While I'm doing that, would you be so kind to give me an example of how you would add a new page, and above all make the Home page link to a static HTML? That would help me a lot...

Thanx sofar! :-)

Cheers and many TIA, Pieter

nathandigriz’s picture

nathandigriz commented

First I created a vocabulary "test" and a folder named "test". I used the settings and pointed to the vocabulary.I then went back to Dreamweaver and created a new sub directory under test called "test1". I then surfed to localhost/test1/ and got nothing. Then I fired up Dreamweaver and created an index.html in the test1 folder with a link to test.html. I then created a test.html. So when I looked at Drupal after a refresh then I saw "test" in the navigation block, clicked on it a got a page with an iframe with index.html in it. I clicked on the link and got test.html. Later I added a test2 subdirectory directory to the test directory and checked Drupal. there was another link added under test. So I had a new link for each subdirectory.

I have not checked nested subdirectories though. I have no real use for such a module but it seems to work okay. The same as or maybe better than Joomla since the navigation is auto generated and in Joomla you have to go to the control panel to set things up.