Vol. 1, No. 25
Accessorize Your Site

Is your Web site getting boring? Much in the way that people will start avoiding you if you don't change your clothes, Web surfers can also be notoriously picky. Let your site stagnate and you'll be waving "buh-bye" to your traffic. But fear not: Your site can be easily spruced up with the addition of a few trinkets. Interactive add-ons like message boards can make your site a hotbed of activity. Of course, you can hunker down for a month and hack Perl code to make your site the next Slashdot if you want, but if you happen to have a life, Tripod just might be able to satisfy your needs with its one-size-fits-all pre-made Web-site accessories.

The available add-ons include such interactive applications as a guestbook, discussion board, and chat room, as well as simple feeds of information, including TV listings, stock quotes, and weather. These gems are fairly robust, and are laughably simple to install. The one drawback, of course, is that you can't do much to customize their behavior or appearance — all of the code is locked away on the Tripod server, where it does what it's told but can't be modified. That shouldn't be a problem most of the time; if it turns out to be more trouble than it's worth, you're welcome to use Tripod's CGI capability to write scripts that carry out your desires to the letter.

To get started, open your gadget-needy page in our Homepage Studio's FreeForm Editor. (Not that the tool is completely freeform — your predetermined options are right there in the "Select Building Supplies" menu.) Choosing one will bring up a page where, after you specify your desired options, a chunk of code is generated for you. Simply paste this code into your page source in the appropriate spot, and — voila! — you have instant implementation.

Let's go over a few specifics. The first pre-made add-on listed is a guestbook. When you select "Guestbook," a pop-up browser will appear, bringing up htmlGEAR, the new Lycos Network site. Guestbooks on htmlGEAR are called guestGEARs. htmlGEAR is the premiere site for free add-ons and extras. If you have a Lycos Network Passport, the first page that you'll see will be the Gear Manager, where you can keep track of the Gears you've added to your sites. If you only have a Tripod membership, you'll need to upgrade to a Passport before you can get a guestbook to add to your site. This should take just a few minutes. The sign-up form will be prepopulated with your Tripod member information. We'll stick with the guestGEAR for now, but feel free to add a pollGEAR, linkGEAR, textGEAR, or pass-it-onGEAR when you have the chance. You'll be glad you did.

From the Gear Manager, you'll need to click on "Add Gear." On the next page, select the "Get Gear" button in the guestGEAR section. You'll need to choose a unique name for your guestGEAR (looks like somebody beat you to "My Guest GEAR," darn it), and provide your e-mail address, your URL, the name of your site, and some information about the site. When you've finished, click "Save & Create." You'll get a hunk of code to paste into your page(s). The code produces two links, one to "Sign My Guestbook" and the other to "View My Guestbook." That's all there is to it. Guestbooks can hold a maximum of 250 messages — after that, the oldest ones are automatically deleted as new entries appear.

The procedure to create a chat room is similar. Select "Chat room" from the Homepage Studio pull-down menu. Up pops the chat-room window. All you need to do now is select a chat room -- either create a new one by typing in a name, or select one that you've created in the past. Clicking the "Customize" link allows you to do the following: link to your chat room with a text and/or icon link, write a descriptive heading for your chat room, and customize its appearance. When you're done, click "OK." Just like before, a window full of code will appear. Select the code and copy and paste it into the FreeForm Editor, which should still be there under the pop-up window. When you view your page now, there will be a link to your new chat room. Simple, no?

Message boards are also simple to install. Select "Message Board" from the pull-down menu. Up pops the "Add a Message Board" window. You can add a link to an existing message board, create a new one, or customize one with the same parameters as your chat room. Paste the resultant text into your page. The message board can be customized further after it is set up on your site.

Additional baubles are added in the same way. For things like sports scores, stock quotes, TV listings, bestseller lists, news feeds, etc., just choose which specific pieces of info you want (such as teams, ticker symbols, channels, or genres), and how you'd like them presented. When relevant to your site's content, these can be really nice features to include on your pages.

Consider yourself lucky that today's project was so easy. When we get back into writing hard code, you'll look back fondly on these days of simple copying and pasting.

HINTS, POINTERS, AND TIPS 'O THE TRADE:

Of course, you don't want to overdo it. According to the theory of informational entropy, the more abundant the messages are, the less significant each one is. If you pack message boards, guestbooks, and chat rooms galore onto your site, don't be surprised if most of the content turns out to be disappointing. Allow people to express their opinions about the topics and issues raised by your site, but be subtle.

If the features of the pre-made guestbook, chat room, message board, or what-have-you fail to satisfy, it's not hard, really, to build your own with CGI. There are plenty of widely available, free-to-use scripts out there on the Web. Matt's Script Archive has whole sections devoted to different guestbook and message-board scripts.

Remember to clean your mouse frequently. More frequently than you'd think.

RESOURCES:

Freeform Editor

htmlGEAR

Handcrafted Archive