Some of the information
may be inaccurate or incomplete. Thank you for your patience as we
continue to work at developing a useful and attractive web site.
If you have suggestions
or comments or would like to see completion of this page given special
priority, please let us
know.
For the most recent version of
the Web Templates Help...
These are the version 3_4 ECEn XML Web Template help pages.
Both the templates and the help pages may have been updated
since this version---if you want to see the most current
stable version of the templates, go here. Note, however, that some of the information contained in more
recent versions of the documentation may not apply to you if you
are using an older version of the templates.
First, Can I Ask a Question? --- the F(CIA)AQ
XML
What is XML?
What is XML?
XML is a markup language. That means it's a way of taking regular old
text and telling computers what the various parts of it are.
Why are we using XML?
What are the differences between HTML and XML?
The ECEn XML Web Templates
Why would I want to use the ECEn XML Web Templates?
Are they easy to use?
What are my other options?
Can I use Microsoft® products to edit my web pages?
What goes on behind the scenes?
What about my old-style (PHP) templated pages?
Getting Started
Howdy, World! --- Making Your First ECEn XML Web Template-Driven Page
The Howdy World Tutorial is a simple, hands-on tutorial with bits of explanation
along the way. Requires that you have access to some
web space on the ECEn web server.
Directories and Filenames
Using MS Word to edit XML
Using a text editor (like notepad, emacs or vi) to edit XML
General XML Fundamentals
General XML Fundamentals is a short list explaining several important aspects of XML, with special emphasis when XML differs
from HTML.
ECEn Web Template XML Basics
A simple class home page using the ECEn XML Web Templates
Where Do I Go From Here?
Common Tasks
Links
Lists
Ordered, unordered...
Pictures
Menus
The News Bar
Tables
Expanding and Collapsing Sections
The Beauty of 'include'
Sample Pages
Sample Class Page
Sample Faculty Page
Sample Research Page
Common XML Files to include
This should include both XML files that can be downloaded and
included as well as the locations of typical 'canonical' files
to include.
Troubleshooting
Broken XML: finding mis-matched tags
Broken XML, cont.: '<' and '&' run amuck
Whitespace between tags, and in general
Broken .phtml Files
Bugs in the ECEn Templates
Getting Help
Special Tricks/Tips
Web Forms
Special Text Features
The wonders of Copy and Paste
Escaping into 'real' HTML
Focusing on the Content
ECEn XML Web Templates Reference
The ECEn XML Web Templates Reference contains a
detailed listing of the XML tags and their
contents in (roughly) document order. If you're wondering what
a particular tag does or whether there's a tag to do what you
want, this would be a good place to look. It can also serve as
a sort of crash-course for the templates for advanced users and
those who prefer a steep learning curve :).
The reference page is quite large and may take a while
to load.