Here's an email I sent to the EASE-HOME forum when 15.0 was still in beta: > I'm writing this not as an L-Soft employee but as a fellow EASE Home list > owner (though I wouldn't be surprised if this became a basis for a formal > LISTSERV Tech Tip in some future issue of the LISTSERV At Work > newsletter). > > I run the EPILEPSY-L list on EASE Home, and of course, I had > customized my WWW_INDEX mail template so as to have additional > information about the list and about epilepsy on my list's home page. > > The WWW_INDEX templates was what was referred to as a "static web > template" as opposed to most of the web templates which are "dynamic web > templates". It was "static" because it did not change depending on who was > looking at it. The WWW_INDEX template was used to produce a listname.html > file on the server. The distinction between static and dynamic web > templates, the different syntaxes, as well as the lack of "dynamism" in > the home page, all have created a lot of confusion over the years. > > As a list owner, I am very happy to see WWW_INDEX become obsolete and > replaced by a dynamic web page (easier to customize, and as you can > imagine, I'm a heavy user of the customization features). As a member of > L-Soft's technical staff, it is a relief that I will never again have to > explain the different types of web pages. :-) > > Although WWW_INDEX is now obsolete, L-Soft development did spend a > lot of time and energy to make sure that existing customizations > would not break, or to at least lessen the impact of any breakage > that was unavoidable. So if you have a customized WWW_INDEX template, you > do NOT have to rush to convert to using a dynamic home page. At worst, you > may have a small amount of tweaking to your WWW_INDEX, but most people do > not have to do anything and their existing WWW_INDEX will work just fine > in LISTSERV 15.0. > > For those who DO want to convert to using the dynamic home page, here is > what I did for my list and I found it took about 15 minutes to do the > conversion. > > 1. Get a copy of your existing WWW_INDEX: > 1.a List Management -> Customization -> Mail Templates > 1.b Select Template Category: "Most Useful Templates". > (May need to click on "Select" button) > 1.c Select Template: "Obsolete [WWW_INDEX]". Click Edit Template. > 1.d Copy then entire contents of the template, and paste it in > a text editor (such as Notepad) on your workstation. > 1.e SAVE the file on your workstation. Save 2 copies of it, > so that you have one that you will not make any changes to > and can always paste back into your WWW_INDEX template if > things go wrong, and one that you can make changes to for > preparing to go dynamic. > > 2. Delete your WWW_INDEX template. Yes, I know it hurts, but you > did save a copy on your workstation, right? > 2.a Hit the Delete button in the "Edit Mail Template - WWW_INDEX" > page. Click "OK" when it asks if you're sure. > 2.b Go to your list's home page (top right of the screen should > have a "listname Home" link) to see what the default Home page > looks like. Ooo aaah! Isn't it nice? It knows you're logged in and > knows which menus to display, knows your preferences, etc. > 2.c The list description (if any) comes from the List Description > in the list header. If you want to change it, go to List > Management -> List Configuration -> List Configuration Wizard > and change the "List Description" field. > 2.d If you would prefer to specify your list description in HTML, > there is a way to make LISTSERV use the HTML Description field > instead. This could even be the easier way to redo your > customizations, if they are not extensive. (But this is not part of > the process I'm describing, so if you want to know more, just ask.) > > 2.e If you made any changes to your list description, take another > look at your home page. Maybe this is all you really wanted in > terms of customization? If so, you can stop right here. > > If you're as hopelessly geeky as I am, keep reading... > > 3. Modify your saved WWW_INDEX file that you created in step 1 to use > WWW template syntax. > 3.a Change all occurences of "&&" to "&" (in the static templates > we needed to use double ampersands to prevent them being > interpreted as the beginning of a template variable -- a > problem that does not exist in the WWW templates). > 3.b Replace "&WA_URL;" and "&WA_URL" (may or may not end with ";") > throughout your customizations with "&+SCRIPT;" (must end with > ";"). > 3.c Replace "&LISTNAME;" and "&LISTNAME" with "&+LISTNAME;" > throughout your customizations. (All these replaces are why I > recommend using a text editor rather than trying to do them in the > template editor in step 4). > 3.d Look to see if you used any other &variables or .Commands > > Note: You might not have any changes to make in step 3. I did > because I'm hopelessly geeky. Most normal humans would > just have used the name of the list rather than &LISTNAME > and so on... > > 4. Create customized "top" and "bottom" templates. > 4.a Look at your saved WWW_INDEX file. Somewhere in there, > you may have some "navigation code" that looks like this: > > .IM WWW_NAVIGATION > .bb &SEARCH ^= '' > <hr> > <A href="&WA_URL;?REPORT&&z=4">Archive Search</a> > .eb > </b></font></td></tr></table></td> > <td valign="top" class="body"> > > <table width="100%" cellpadding="5"><tr><td class="body"> > <font face="arial" size="+1"><center><b>Archives of &LISTADDR</b> > <p><i>&TITLE</i></center></font> > > Note: You might not have the above, depending on which > version of LISTSERV was running when you made your > customizations. > > And further down (perhaps directly following the navigation), > you may have something that looks like this: > > <hr> > <font face="Arial" size="-1"><b> > <ul STYLE="list-style-image: url(/archives/images/ls1-bullet.gif)"> > .bb &SEARCH ^= '' > <li>&SEARCH;Search the archives</a> > .eb > .bb (&KWD(SEND,1) ^= OWNER) and (&KWD(SEND,1) ^= OWNERS) > <li>&POST;Post to the list</a> > .eb > .bb &KWD(SUBSCRIPTION,1) ^= CLOSED > <li>&SUBA;Join or leave the list (or change settings)</a> > .eb > <li>&LMGT;Manage the list</a> (list owners only) > <p> > .DD &DD > </ul> > > Again, depending on the version you customized, it > might look different, but there is basically some > amount of code surrounding the line ".DD &DD". > > Basically, you want to throw out all the L-Soft supplied > code and split your customizations into 2 parts: > > - All customized HTML above the .DD (or between the > Navigation code and the .DD) (the "top") > - All customized HTML below the .DD (the "bottom") > > 4.b Go to List Management -> Customization -> Web Templates > 4.c In the bottom section of this page, under Create New Template, > provide a name for the top of your customizations. I called > mine BODY-WWW_INDEX-TOP. Starting the name with "BODY-" > imparts a bit of "magic" to the template, as you'll see later. > 4.d Paste in your "top" customizations. Push Update button. Push > Back button to get back to the main template editor page. > 4.e Repeat 4.c and 4.d to create a template for the bottom > customizations (e.g. BODY-WWW_INDEX-BOTTOM). > > 5. Make WA use your new top and bottom templates. > 5.a Go to your list's Home page > 5.b At the top right of the page, click on the link for > "Edit Page" (this function is described in more detail > in the document that Sandra mentioned in her email)> > 5.c Click on "BODY-A0". This opens a window with the template > editor for the template called BODY-A0. > 5.d Before the first line of this template, add a line to > include your top template, e.g.: > > +IM BODY-WWW_INDEX-TOP > > 5.e After the last line of this template, add a line to include > your bottom template, e.g.: > > +IM BODY-WWW_INDEX-BOTTOM > > 5.f Click on Update > 5.e Go to your list Home page and see how it looks. > 5.f If you need to make modifications to your customizations to > make them work better with the new look, the Edit Page > function will give you links to your new templates if you > started their names with "BODY-" like I told you to. > (That's the magic). If my technique failed miserably for you, just > delete your customized BODY-A0 template to revert to the default > WA-generated home page. If you hate this and want to go back to > your old static page, just recreate your WWW_INDEX mail template > from the unmodified version you saved in step 1. > > In case you're curious, here's the resulting Home page for my list: > > http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/epilepsy-l.html > > -- Francoise Becker There is only one LISTSERV(R) -- the product that launched the email list communication industry in 1986. To discover the story behind LISTSERV, visit: http://www.lsoft.com/corporate/20anniversary.asp