    <h2>1 - Overview</h2>
    <p>

      TBD

    <hr>
    <h2>2 - Understanding properties</h2>
    <h3>2.1 - General</h3>
    <p>
      Properties are the building blocks of SimpleSite. They make the difference. A property is a key-value pair. The key is used to
      reference the property in a theme, and the value is inserted on the place of the reference while parsing.

    <h3><a name="propfmt">2.2 - The key-value format</a></h3>
    <p>
      Most SimpleSite properties are specified in <i>property
      files</i>. These files are for instance all the
      <code>.item</code> files in sections, but also the
      <code>content/defaults</code> file.
    <p>
      The format of a property file is quite simple. Every key-value
      pair is seperated by the parser at the first colon (:) it
      encounters. For instance, these properties are valid:
    <p>
      <code>title: A simple website<br>description: This site contains: foo, bar and fubar.</code>
    <p>
      It is possible to include comments in property files. Like in
      perl and csh scripts, comments start with a #.
    <p>
      <code># This is comment.<br># Everything after the bracket will be ignored.</code>
    <p>
      A property value can be quite lengthy. There's nothing wrong
      with that. It is possible to make a property value span more
      than one line. This is done by placing the property value
      between <-- and -->. Example:
    <p>
      <code>description: &lt;-- This is a
      multilined<br>text. There is nothing wrong with
      that,<br>if the ending tag is specified<br>like this
      --&gt;</code>
    <p>
      That's basically all you need to know to make your own property files. 
    <h3>2.3 - Reseved properties</h3>
    <p>
      For some special purposes, the SimpleSite parser generates
      properties automatically. The automatically generated properties
      are the following:
    <p>
    <ul>
      <li><code>site_theme</code> - This is the theme that is used on
	the current page.</li>

      <li><code>page_id</code> - The name of the current page,
	<i>without</i> it's extension.</li>

      <li><code>section_id</code> - The directoryname of the current
	section. Only valid in section scope, ofcourse.</li>

      <li><code>item_id</code> - The id of the current item. This is
	the name of the item file without its extension. Only valid in
	item scope.</li>

    </ul>
    <hr>
    <h2>3 - The content</h2> 

    <h3>3.1 - The site</h3>
    <p>Every site has data elements that are the
    same on every page. For instance, the name of the Company or the
    name of the author of the page. All this global data goes in the
    <code>content/defaults</code> file. This file, as every data file
      in SimpleSite, is in the <a href="#propfmt">key-value format</a>.
    <p>

    <h3>3.2 - Pages</h3>
      The idea is, that a web site consists of a number of pages. In
      SimpleSite, each of the pages to be generated is represented by
      a subdirectory in the <code>content/</code> directory. Data that
      is global for the scope of the current page, goes in the
      <code>content/<i>pagename</i>/defaults</code> file. The data in
      this file acts the same as the site-wide information in
      <code>content/defaults</code>, but it is only valid in the scope
      <code><i>pagename</i></code>. In the file you can override the
      data specified on site level. For instance, if the maintainer of
      every page on your site is X, but on page Y it is person Z, you
      can define on site-level X as a page_author, but in the file
      <code>content/Y/defaults</code> you can put Z's name.
    <p>
      <h3>3.3 - Sections</h3>
    <p>
      In each sub page, you can define sections. Sections are simple
      list-like things which allow you to group data. You could
      have a links page with sections for gaming, one for programming,
      and so on.
    <p>
      Sections live on your SimpleSite as subdirectories of the page
      you want them to be in. Additionally, you must explicitly tell
      the simplesite parser you are using sections. You do this by
      making a <code>content/<i>pagename</i>/sections</code>
      file. This file is in the by now well-known <a
      href="#propfmt">key-value format</a> :-)
    <p>
      At section level, you can again specify specific properties
      belonging only to the current section. They go in the file
      <code>content/<i>pagename</i>/<i>section</i>/defaults</code>
      file, as you might have guessed.
    <h3>3.4 - Section Items</h3>
    <p>
      Every section can display a list of items. Items are specified
      in files in the section directory, in files with
      <code>.item</code> extensions. Each item defines a set of
      properties. For instance, when you are making a links page, each
      item could represent a link. In this case you would specify in
      the .item files the url of the link, the title of the linked
      homepage, and maybe a short description. As long as you use one
      naming convention in both your item files for this page and for
      the theme, everything should go ok.
    <hr>
    <h2>4 - Themes</h2>
    <p>
    <h3>4.1 - General</h3>
    
    <h3>4.2 - Extra files</h3>

    <hr>
    <h2>Appendix A. Naming conventions</h2>
    <p>
      Practically, you can give any property you define a unique
      name. With SimpleSite however, such a use of properties isnt
      recommended. 
    <p>
      We recommend a property name in the following form: 
    <p>
      <code>level_name</code>
    <p>
      For instance, the site level properties could be ones as
      <code>site_author, site_email</code> and
      <code>site_title</code>. On item level, they could be
      <code>item_url, item_title</code> or <code>item_text</code>.
      This way, you have always a clear view on what properties you
      are using when creating the look of your site. We also recommend
      you first make a design on paper on what properties to use, or to
      use an external GUI SimpleSite editor, for instance <a
      href="http://www.nqsisi.org">nqSiSi</a>.
    <p>
    <hr>
    <address><a href="mailto:Arjan Scherpenisse <A.Scherpenisse@zap.a2000.nl>">Arjan Scherpenisse</a></address>
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Last modified: Sun Dec 19 12:42:03 CET 1999
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