search internet.com

Database Journal: The Knowledge Center for Database Professionals find a web host with: CGI Access DB Support NT Servers UNIX Servers Telnet Access advanced search Get FREE Development Info via your Email! FlashKit GIF.com HiermenusCentral webdeveloper Jobs Java Boutique JavaScript.com JavaScript Source ScriptSearch StreamingMedia World WDJ WDVL WebDeveloper.com WebReference.com XMLFiles.com

Click here for a list of Dr. Website's most frequently asked questions (and answers!).

Dr. Website® Archives 2001

Question:
Dear Dr. Website:
Love your e-mail. I am a new subscriber and I wanted to get a list of sites that you like to help me set up meta-tags on the following site:

http://www.musicfromtheheart.com

Thank You,

Answer:
META tags are an important topic for web developers, as they provide the information that search engines use to provide search results, which in turn drives traffic to your site--or your competitor's site. Here are a list of articles that should get you up to speed in no time:

META Tagging for Search Engines http://www.wdvl.com/Location/Meta/Tag.html

Designing Page Content for Search Engines http://www.wdvl.com/Location/Promotion/Search/Body.html

Strategies for Indexing and Search Engines http://www.webreference.com/dlab/books/html-pre/43-0.html

and even a META tag article I wrote some time back for WebDeveloper.com:

Back to Basics: META Tags http://www.webdeveloper.com/html/html_metatags.html
Thanks,
-- Dr. Website

Question:
Dear Dr. Website:
I was wondering about how you get to submit button on forms to send the form results to your email account? I know this is a pretty dumb question, but how is it done?

Answer:
This is a common question, as many folks don't have access to the CGI-BIN directory for their site, or don't know enough about programming to create a script to handle the form. As such, here is an easy way for you to use a form and a mailto which will allow you to get the results of the form sent to your email address.

<FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="mailto:youremail@home.com" ENCTYPE="text/plain"> <INPUT TYPE="TEXT" VALUE=""> <INPUT TYPE=SUBMIT> </FORM>

Thanks,
-- Dr. Website

Question:
Dear Dr. Website:
I'd like to allow our site's visitors to be able to search our site's directory, as well as our site's news archives, but I'd like them to be able to use the same search form, and select the area they'd like to search by clicking one of two radio buttons. If they select the "news" radio button, the results will come from the news archives; if they select the "directory" radio button, the results will come from our website directory.

Answer:
There are two ways you can accomplish the task. You can do it on the server side; that is, the routine that actually does the search will recognize which radio button is selected and responds accordingly. Or you can do it on the client side, and depending on which radio button the user selects, they will be directed to the appropriate routine. I choose the client side version, because to use the server version would require a different answer depending on the scripts, language, your knowledge of scripting, etc.

So what we do is this: depending on the radio button the user selects, we simply change the form's action--that is, we just direct the form to a different routine on the server end.

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> <!-- function formaction(form){ if (form.stype[0].checked == true) document.sform.action = "/search/result.asp"; else document.sform.action = "/directory/result.asp"; document.sform.submit(); } file://--> </SCRIPT> <CENTER> <FORM METHOD=POST NAME=sform ACTION="/search/result.asp" onSubmit='formaction(this); return false;'> <TABLE CELLPADDING=3 CELLSPACING=0 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT><TR VALIGN=TOP> <TD VALIGN=MIDDLE ALIGN=LEFT> <INPUT NAME="search" TYPE="TEXT" SIZE="10"><BR> <INPUT TYPE=SUBMIT VALUE=" SEARCH "> </TD> <TD VALIGN=MIDDLE> <INPUT TYPE="RADIO" NAME="stype" VALUE="news" CHECKED> site news<BR> <INPUT TYPE="RADIO" NAME="stype" VALUE="directory"> website directory <INPUT NAME="max" TYPE="hidden" value="10"> </TD> </TR> </TABLE> </FORM> </CENTER>

Understand that this does require that the variables are the same for each routine (i.e. there must be a field named "search" that is used in both routines).
Thanks,

-- Dr. Website

---

Visit The Dr. Website® Archives.
Click here for a list of Dr. Website's most frequently asked questions (and answers!).
Send your own question to Dr. Website®.

---