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Re: Application to Create Web Structure/Tree view?
Subject:Re: Application to Create Web Structure/Tree view? From:"Mark Baker" <mbaker -at- omnimark -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 4 Feb 2000 13:53:06 -0500
Joe wrote
> We're looking for a tool that will generate a hierarchical picture of an
entire
>Web site
Note that a web site is not necessarily hierarchical in structure. It is a
web. Any page can link to any other page.
Hierarchies are a subset of webs, but unless you deliberately constrain your
site to actually be a hierarchy, it probably won't be possible to map it
accurately as a hierarchy.
You can generate a hierarchy by starting from the home page (supposing every
page is reachable from the home page) and then following links and
eliminating any duplicates. This will produce a hierarchy, but its sequence
and levels will depend on the incidental order in which links appear in
pages. It may not be a good representation of the structure of your web
site.
Forms, and other types of dynamic content can also create a problem. There
may be pages that are only accessible by filling particular values into a
form. Pages may be generated from a constantly changing database.
If you use a specific navigational template for your site, it might be
possible to write an OmniMark program to follow just the links that occur in
that template and generate a hierarchy that way, ignoring all other forms of
linking. But the program would have to be written specifically to recognize
your navigational template.
---
Mark Baker
Senior Technical Communicator
OmniMark Technologies Corporation
1400 Blair Place
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada, K1J 9B8
Phone: 613-745-4242
Fax: 613-745-5560
Email mbaker -at- omnimark -dot- com
Web: http://www.omnimark.com
