Simple Site Design

October 2, 2004 1:10 AM

Help needed for a complete programming novice. I'm trying to design a simple web page to help out a colleague.. (more inside)

I've got a very simple html page which consists solely of a single href link to another page. That link is to an address in this format

http:///www.testwebsite.com/test/1234567.stm

1234567 is, obviously a variable - I'd like for the web page I've built to ask the user, possibly via a javascript window, what that variable should be, and then when the user clicks on the link, they see the page they want to go to.

I'm pretty sure this should be possible - I've seen novelty websites do it - but I don't even know what the right terminology is, so can't google it. Links would be much appreciated.

posted by ascullion to computers & internet (5 comments total)

That sounds really weird. I don't think it has any terminology because it's so weird.

I can't think of how that interface would be expected or natural on the web. Can you tell us more about what you're trying to do?

Anyway, like this?
posted by holloway at 2:44 AM on October 2, 2004

Not quite.. it's really hard to explain..

You know novelty web pages which 'friends' send you links to - I can't remember a link to one right now - but they ask you questions stupid questions about yourself and then work it into the web page you see. Normally you enter the data into what look like little javascript pop-ups.

Well, that's the sort of user interface I was thinking about. the user would enter the 7-digit number into the pop-up, and be presented with a link which would link to that number..

does that help?
posted by ascullion at 3:17 AM on October 2, 2004

Although, actually.. I might be able to make it work with what you've put up! Will report back..
posted by ascullion at 3:21 AM on October 2, 2004

That is fantastic... with a little bit of adaption, it works! Exactly as I wanted. holloway, you are a star.
posted by ascullion at 3:25 AM on October 2, 2004

holloway, you are now officially on my list of people to ask for help when I have no idea how to ask for help (which is most of the time). Very cool.
posted by taz at 4:15 AM on October 2, 2004