[Web4lib] putting flat files online....

[Mark Gilman]

I am currently researching means to enhance our library's web presence. Lack
of a way to serve small databases, bedevils us. We have limited IT support
and server access, which takes many an open source solution off the table
(e.g. anything, such as Zope or Drupal that depend upon MySQL or PostGRE,
etc.) If I could efficiently generate flat files as web pages linked
together by subjects and other access points, that would suffice for many of
our finding aids, such as this one:
http://dallaslibrary.org/CHS/VideoFrame.htm 

I can imagine an application that would enable one to enter structured data
and then export this as HTML or XML or something that would greatly speed
the production of pages where the structure is simple.  One could presumably
figure a way to mimic a content management system by embedding the body of
these pages within headers and footers created using server side includes or
something along that line. Having said that, our web pages are mostly served
from a Unix box, without support for Microsoft proprietary extensions. I can
access PERL, but that's about it. 

To summarize: I'm looking for a way to efficiently generate flat files that
can be linked together in ways that mimic a database. Any thoughts on what
direction I might look in?
I can imagine using a similar solution to maintain pathfinders with
annotated links, etc.

Regards,
Mark Gilman
 
Municipal Reference Librarian
Urban Information Center
Dallas Public Library
1515 Young St., 6th floor.
Dallas, TX 75201
214-670-1482
http://dallaslibrary.org/cgi/cui.htm