I have a website hosted by networksolutions, and I'm trying to figure out how to integrate a google calendar in it and make it look good (ie, fully customized). This page apparently details how to do it, but I get past the first few paragraphs and I'm suddenly totally lost. How do I add PHP files? What do I do with them? How do I edit CSS without messing up the entire website (they have a "edit CSS" option, but it apparently affects the whole site)? Does any of this even apply to networksolutions? What the heck am I talking about???? All I want to do is make a listing of events that aesthetically conforms with the theme of the website. Anyone have a sufficiently patient, kind heart to guide a poor, lost, website maintenance newb?
Anyone a website guru?
- Thread starter RWIndiana
- Start date
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
What page? I'm no web programmer and I'm not the one who'll be able to help you, but linking the page you're trying to understand will certainly help others to figure out what you're trying to do and how to get you there.
Oh me, must have been more flustered than I thought. http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2012/04/integrating-google-calendar-with-your-website/
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I'm guessing you're using their web page builder and trying to apply all of this to a template they created for you?
You probably CAN add PHP if you know what you're doing, but most of the time you're going to wind up creating more work for yourself by customizing a template than if you were just making a simple page that contains the relevant code.
I very deliberately stay away from web page design precisely because the people who know how to do it are incredibly undervalued and under-appreciated for their skills. Tannin and Buck are probably the two guys here with genuine design skills and I think there are a few others who do back-end work.
In its raw-est, most basic form, and assuming that the server you're using is PHP-enabled (servers running *nix in some form generally are), you can pop PHP code in pretty much anyplace you'd like, just like any other HTML.
<?php
(paste in your PHP snippet)
?>
So the important question to ask is, can you edit the source files on their site building tool, or do they give you some kind of weird GUI that does not allow that?
You probably CAN add PHP if you know what you're doing, but most of the time you're going to wind up creating more work for yourself by customizing a template than if you were just making a simple page that contains the relevant code.
I very deliberately stay away from web page design precisely because the people who know how to do it are incredibly undervalued and under-appreciated for their skills. Tannin and Buck are probably the two guys here with genuine design skills and I think there are a few others who do back-end work.
In its raw-est, most basic form, and assuming that the server you're using is PHP-enabled (servers running *nix in some form generally are), you can pop PHP code in pretty much anyplace you'd like, just like any other HTML.
<?php
(paste in your PHP snippet)
?>
So the important question to ask is, can you edit the source files on their site building tool, or do they give you some kind of weird GUI that does not allow that?
Just to clarify, servers running Linux/Unix are not at all guaranteed to have PHP support or even more likely. The support is based on the integration with the web server component such as servers like Apache or Nginx. These servers can run also on other non-unix/linux platforms such as Windows so it's not an OS-level probability it's a web-server level scripting language parser. Even simply installing Apache does not give you PHP support. It has to be added as a module.
To clarify the support and abilities of your web hosting provider, copy and paste the following code into a basic text file and save and name "info.php". Upload it onto your web host using FTP in a location that you can publicly access and then access this file through your web browser by pointing it to the URL. There is typically a folder named "web" or "www" or even "public_html". Anything in these folders is typically the home of your website/domain. Once you point your browser to this file name you should get a page full of a shit-ton of info. If you do, it's a good indication PHP is supported. You do not need to post the results of the page here as some of the info should be kept private. If you simply see the same code that you pasted into the file, this means PHP isn't configured and nothing parsed it.
Code:
<?php
// Show all information, defaults to INFO_ALL
phpinfo();
?>Reference.
Once you get past that point we can help you with the integration that you're looking for. If this doesn't make sense, ask more questions.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I'd be absolutely shocked to run across a configured-for-shared-hosting web server that didn't have PHP enabled.
oh yes, that made lots of pretty things! I also figured out how to log into the file manager for the site (I'm not technically the owner of the site, so I didn't know the ftp username and password until a couple of minutes ago). I was able to create the file right on the server.
What's the next item you're stuck on? I know there were several things but pick one. From the quick reading of the example page you linked to, I don't know how PHP fits into this for you.
I think I *might* have figured out how to do what I want, thanks to this page here: http://james.cridland.net/code/google-calendar.html
However, now the whole website is down so I can't do a thing. But it works on my local apache/php server at least. I'm hoping I can use one of the php blocks that their website builder tool provides to make an event listing on the side of the page.
However, now the whole website is down so I can't do a thing. But it works on my local apache/php server at least. I'm hoping I can use one of the php blocks that their website builder tool provides to make an event listing on the side of the page.
Tannin
Storage? I am Storage!
Sounds as though you are on your way, RW, Most of what you learn in this field you learn by just mucking in and trying to figure stuff out, one step at a time (same as life, really!) using the resources you can find on-line and it looks as though you are heading in the right direction there. There is heaps to learn - years worth of study, decades worth maybe - but no-one ever learns all of it, we just figure out the bits we need as we go along.
When you get stuck, post again and someone will doubtless be able to help.
When you get stuck, post again and someone will doubtless be able to help.