[WEB4LIB] creating links in batches (not pretty, relatively e asy)

Dobbs, Aaron DobbsA at apsu.edu
Sun Apr 1 22:53:17 EDT 2001


Not the prettiest or easiest solution:
(and is a violation several web design mantras, btw)
(the above parenthetical statement is an understatement)

Insert a column with nothing but: 
<a href="
in it 
*before* the column with the URL in it

Insert a column with nothing but: 
</a> 
in it
*after* the Title column

Basically the column headers will look like this:
(assuming, of course, you want to alphabetize by Title)

| Copy of Title Column | <a href=" | URL | "> | Title Column | </a> |

Save the file as a text file (not delimited if you are prompted)
(copy to a new .xls & delete the left hand Title Column first if you 
don't want the Title to show up twice in a row)
Rename it with an .html extension
Voila, a static page. (but not a nicely laid out page)

The harder to set up but easier to maintain and much nicer looking way 
would be to import your links to Access create an ODBC connection on your 
web server to the Access Database and write an .asp page (syntactically 
it'll be murder but worth it when the pain is all over)

I'm attaching two files for you to customize if you go the .asp route.
These pages will need to be modified to match your Access Database fields
and the ODBC name of your Access Database (it's easiest if you put the 
Database & pages in the same directory)  Currently the fields are:
"Title", "Subject", "AltTitle", "Subject" from a specific query 
"QRYWebAZ" and the ODBC name is "IR"
Other modifications will be needed in the header & footer sections to 
match your library's design layout

I have done something similar to what I describe with .asp at the 
following URL: http://library.apsu.edu/inform/2_39_3.asp

Immodest plug
If you'd rather, I also consult on the side (I'm inexpensive & flexible)
/Immodest plug

-Aaron W Dobbs
Information Services Librarian


-----Original Message-----
From: Heather Samuels [mailto:blueskies88 at hotmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2001 9:07 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] creating links in batches instead of one by one


Our library recently exported an Excel table into HTML and posted it on our 
Web site.  We want to create a link in each row.  However, because the table

is extremely long, it would take forever to input each link one at a time.  
Is there a way to create the links all at one time?  Thanks.

Heather
blueskies88 at hotmail.com
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