NAME
      Web::Scaffold -- build minimalist fancy web sites

SYNOPSIS
      use Web::Scaffold;

      Web::Scaffold::build(\%specs,\%pages);

DESCRIPTION
    Web::Scaffold is a module that allows you to easily and quickly build a
    fancy web site with drop down menus an a variable number of columns.
    This is accomplished with a simple specification and a series of minimal
    html page includes that are written in very basic html.

    In its simplest form, your web will have the following structure:

      pages/        contains minimalist html pages
      public_html/  contains the index page and
                    any non Web::Scaffold pages
            images/ contains web site images
            lib/    contains javascript library(s)

    The index pages requires Server Side Includes (SSI) and is as follows:

      <html>
      <!-- page name "index.shtml"
      place your comments, revision number, etc... here
      -->
      <!--#exec cmd="./pages.cgi" -->
      </body>
      </html>

    Alternatively, you can use the included pages.cgi script as an example
    to build your own more sophisticated cgi or mod_perl application.

CONFIGURATION
  build(%specs,%pages)

    A web site with drop down menus can be complete configured with two hash
    arrays. The %specs array configures the style and form of the site and
    the %pages array configures the menus and column layout.

    %specs
        The specifications for fonts, menu, links, colors

          %specs = (

          # directory path for 'html pages' relative to the html root
          # i.e. public_html/        defaults to:
          #
                pagedir         => '../pages',

          # directory path for 'javascript libraries' relative to 
          # html root         defaults to:

                javascript      => 'lib',

          # font family used throughout the document
          #
                face            => 'VERANDA,ARIAL,HELVETICA,SAN-SERIF',

          # background color of the web page
          # this can be a web color like 'white' or number '#ffffff'
          #
                backcolor       => 'white',

          # Menu specifications
          #
                barcolor        => 'red',
                menudrop        => '55',        # drop down position
                menuwidth       => '100px',     # width of menu item
                pagewidth       => '620px',     # recommended
          # meNU font specifications - class='NU'
                menucolor       => 'black',
                menuhot         => 'yellow',    # mouse over
                menucold        => 'white',     # page selected
                menustyle       => 'normal',    # bold, italic
                menusize        => '13px',      # font points or pixels
                sepcolor        => 'black',     # separator color

          # Basic link font specifications - class='B'
          #
                linkcolor       => 'blue',
                linkhot         => 'green',
                linkstyle       => 'normal',    # bold, italic
                linksize        => '13px',      # font points or pixels

          # Page Text font specifications - class='PT'
          #
                fontcolor       => 'black',
                fontstyle       => 'normal',
                fontsize        => '13px',

          # Heading Text specifications - class='HT'
          #
                headcolor       => 'black',
                headstyle       => 'bold',      # normal, italic
                headsize        => '16px',
          );

    %pages
        The specifications for menus and pages. Menus can be single link or
        a series of drop down menu depending on how you specifiy the page.
        The page names are the keys to the hash and are used as the menu-bar
        link text. All page files are placed in the 'pages' directory.

        FILE NAME SYNTAX:

        Files are named with the 'key' name of the page as the lefthand side
        and a suffix designating the file's purpose as the right hand side.
        For the required page 'Home', they are as follows:

         # [optional] page used if there are not individual pages
         # NOTE: neither a Default page or individual page is required
          Default.meta          # meta text loaded after <title>
          Default.head          # optional additional <head> text
                                # that is on every page, end of page
          Default.top           # optional body text that appears
                                # on every page before menu-bar
                                # i.e. logo, etc...
         # for each individual page
          Home.meta             # meta text loaded after <title>
          Home.head             # optional additional <head> text
          Home.top              # body text that appears before
                                # menu-bar. i.e. logo, etc...
          Home.c1               # column 1 content
          Home.c2               # column 2 content
          Home.cn               # column 'n' content

          %pages = (

          # REQUIRED page
          #
                Home    => {
                    menu        => [qw(Home Page1 Page2 Page5)],
          # optional title text - if missing, 'heading' text will be used
                    title       => 'page title',

                    heading     => 'Text under menu, over body text',

          # number of columns and column width in pixels
                    column      => [20, 200, 400],    # three columns

          # optional
                    submenu     => [qw(Page3 Page4)], # drop down menu

          # optional trailer bar
                    trailer     => {

          # a named page
                        links   => [qw(Page5 Page6)],

          # optional right hand side text. if there are no links then the
          # text will be placed on the left hand side of the trailer bar
                        text    => 'Copyright 2006, yourname',
                    },
                },

          # next page
          #
                Page1   =>      ... same as above
                },
          #
          #     ... and so on

          # and for debug... example
          # load this page segment as source in a single window

                'Home.top' => {

          # copy prototype page from this one page.

                    debug       => 'Home',

          # optional location if not in the 'pages' directory
          #
                    location    => 'path/to/filename',
                },
          );

OPERATION
    The sample index.shtml and pages.cgi script may be used together with
    the above specification and configuration data to produce a multi-page
    web site with with drop down menus. Each of the sub-pages specified in
    the ./pages directory may be prepared in a simple text editor with
    'basic' html formating. LINKS WITHIN THE PAGE may be regular html or to
    take advantage of the MouseOver and STATUS reporting features of
    Web::Scaffold, may be specified using the special syntax:

      LINK<#page_name#optional link text#optional status text#>
    or
      LINK<#URL#optional link text#optional status text#>

    URL syntax is as follows:

      uppercase word        "LINK"
      less than symbol      <
      delimiter (any char)  #
      page name or url text ./dir/file or http://....
        [optional]
      delimiter             #
      link text             optional text for link
      delimiter             #
      status bar text       optional browser status bar text
      delimiter             #
         required
      greater than symbol   >

    Where the first syntax refers to a named page in the %pages array and
    the second syntax refers to a real URL optionally followed by the text
    to appear as the "link" text and in the status bar.

    Line breaks are not allowed in LINK<#text>

    Web::Scaffold builds the page with menus and incorporates the various
    include files (page.head, page.top, page.c1, page.c2, etc...) to produce
    a website that can be easily and quickly maintained by simply editing
    the page includes.

AUTHOR
    Michael Robinton <michael@bizsystems.com>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE
    This notice does NOT cover the javascript libraries. Those libraries are
    freely usable but copyright and licensed all or in part by others and
    have their own copyright notices and license requirements. Please read
    the text in the individual libraries to determine their specific
    licensing and copyright notice requirements.

    Copyright 2006, Michael Robinton <michael@bizsystems.com>

    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
    under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
    Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
    option) any later version.

    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
    WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General
    Public License for more details.

    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
    with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
    59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.

