Weird HTML Question

Factual Questions
1

At my place of employment, we put together a singular, large, HTML file that is later broken down by our server into multiple pages, by virtue of the <pagebreak></pagebreak> command.

Often, our documents will have 30 or more of those tags, which equates to a lot of pages. However, because of this unique setup, it’s a pain in the ass to test the various hyperlinks prior to the page going live, as they’re essentially non-functional until they’re online (since they’re linking to the pages designated by the “pagebreak” command, which isn’t active until the server physically breaks the pages up).

Are there any HTML programs that can read the <pagebreak> commands and display it as such so the hyperlinks work in a test environment?

2

Pages breaks are not HTML code. They are part of the CSS standard. See Paged media

Why don’t you create an identical test page on the server and test it? As long as no one else knows the existence of the page, feel free to test away.

3

Because we sadly don’t have test pages…it’s an old, archaic system.

4

So if the web page is called foo.html you can’t copy it, call it foobar.html and post it to the web site? Even archaic web sites can do that.

5

It’s not a direct FTP; we input everything into fields and it’s then processed by some CGI script.

6

Oh, crap. You guys are ancient. So why can’t you get your sysadmin folks to create an identical CGI script that outputs to a different file name? No, go, eh? Any chance you guys can move into the 21st century? Say PHP or ASP or something better than CGI?

7

Heh, well, if it were that easy, it’d be done by now :slight_smile: You know how big corporations work.

So I take it there’s no program that can mimick it then?

8

Install CGI (and probably Perl?) on your own machine to mimic what the server does, maybe?

9

Clearly this is a joke. Because it is that easy. It’s easier than CGI scripting, anyway.

10

Well, seeing as how I have no control over the backend, there’s not much I can do.

11

A couple of lines of Perl or VBScript could do the job easily enough. You’re not a developer, I take it?

12

No, I’m merely a writer.

13

At some point in this mix, someone has access to the web server. Surely there is a business need for what you ask so that the sys adsmin for the server should be able to assist you. If there is no business need to do what you ask, I wouldn’t sweat it.

Getting back to your OP, why can’t you install a web server on a local PC, complete with Perl and test there. Apache and IIS are both free.

14

Sounds like a clear case of needing to complain upstream, focusing on how making this change would increase your productivity a zillion percent. The higher upstream you can go, the better.