RE: new "print this page" functionality

Hi! I like your idea. Half less files is definitely a good thing. I have an idea, though: Why not process the non-print version (which is processed anyway), and leave the printable version in HTML, as it is now, so it doesn't need to be PHP processed - this provides for less load on servers. It could be achieved with something like: <!--<? man_top(...); if ($print) { ?>--> print-only stuff <!--<? } ?>--> stuff common to both <!--<? if (!$hidenotes) { ?>--> notes <!--<? } manualFooter(...); ?>--> Notably, as the things are right now, this would require a lot of PHP in the "HTML" version, but it can be helped by removing the function lists from function pages and leaving only the bare minimum needed to function (e.g., for strstr): <!--<?man_top('strings', 'strspn', 'strtok', array('ref.strings.php', 'Strings')); if (0) { ?>--> is all that's really needed: - the home link is the same on all the pages, so it doesn't need to be specified - first parameter specifies which of the indexes to show on the left (e.g. they can be in index.param.html) - the next 3 parameters are the "prev", "next" and "up" links. if they are arrays, they function the same as now, if not, a link to function.param.html is made. if the up link and the section are always the same (I'm not sure about this), even the last parameter could be eliminated, making the whole thing just one line. Since the source is publicly available, this would not be a serious issue, as nothing new is revealed, and the additional bandwidth required would be negligible. Then, error.php would only need to do this: - extract the language and send headers - include() manual functions (man_top, etc.) - include() the required file Any thoughts? Mitja -----Original Message----- From: Gabor Hojtsy [mailto:gabor@hojtsy.hu] Sent: 7. junij 2002 15:41 To: webmaster@php.net Subject: new "print this page" functionality Hi! I managed to implement one of my ideas regarding PHP.net. There were so many problems with printeable files (extra size to update the mirror, and to host it), so I decided to implement this simple thing first to show how do I think it would be easy to solve this problem. http://www.php.net/manual/en/print/function.echo.php The solution here is to introduce a new virtual "print" directory under the manual directories (much like how the html directories are phisically there now). This can be handled with our error redirection tool, pointing the request to http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.echo.php But two thing need to be preserved: 1) It's a page with "print design" on it. 2) If the user clicks on a link, it should bring him to the next page in "printed design" For the first thing, I have introduced the $PRINT_PAGE variable. If it is set, the manual page shows up in the "printed design". To retain the design the error handling is not performed with a redirect, but with an include, so relative links are still relative to the virtual print directory. Note that this is in a testing phase, but it would definitely be available to replace the html directories, speeding up mirror updates significantly. Possible options: 1) show navigation 2) show user notes (printable form) 3) collect links and print them in a list at the bottom The first two are relatively easy to implement. They are not implemented, because this is not the choosen method to provide printed pages right now, and so I decided not to invest too much work into it ;) The third can be achieved with an output buffer, and then a preg collecting all links from the text and printing it out as a list at the bottom... I would like to ask you guys if you think, that this would bog down the servers (too much memory usage because of output buffers), or if it's ok, and so can be implemented. These may all be added to the print dir, but as this method is quite flexible, we can invent any new names for new methods, like "/manual/en/printwn/function.echo.php" for "print with notes", etc. Goba