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Millersville University Animal Museum Collection
Home Page

This is the home page for the web site automatically generated by the Museum Archive import/export utility. The first thing you want to do after reading this is to change the text on this page or replace this home page with one of your own.

The new function in the import / export utility makes static pages (that is, pages that are created and then do not change). This is different from the Musarch Web Server, which reads your data directly and dynamically generates a web page upon request. The Web Server is more powerful, but the static web site is easier to deploy. You just generate the Object web pages and the three index pages, and then send everything up to a web host and you are finished!

Check out the Object pages:

What does the utility do?

  • The utility makes a web page for each object in the database.
  • It copies your Object's images to the webexport folder (located in your installation folder).
  • It creates a thumbnail image for every image copied.
  • It creates 3 index pages - sorted by Object Name, sorted by Keyword, and sorted by Category.

In the generated files, there are links at the top of each page to help you navigate among your Objects. Each Object has its own web page.

You have complete control over the content of these pages:

  • You make the entries in the database;
  • You can change the look and feel of these pages by changing the images and styles;
  • You can use an editor to modify the HTML source code that has been generated.

Some tips:

  • For an easy way to change the look and feel of all pages, replace the web page images with other images that are the exact same size.
  • The css file (cascading style sheet) controls the rest of the look and feel - a very powerful concept. You change one file and all of your pages reflect that change.
  • To remove a piece of data from view, apply a style that moves it out of viewing range.
  • To remove a piece of data from both the view and from the source code, edit the source code.
  • You can use a text editor to search and replace code in a range of files.
  • Play around with it - you can always just regenerate the entire site from scratch!

Feedback is appreciated.