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Creativyst® Glossary
Administration Guide
v 1.4f
  1. Customizing Basics
  2. Template File Reference
  3. Style Classes
  4. Using the Administration Page
  5. Sharing With Other Sites (HlpShare.htm)
  6. Moving the Glossary Database
  7. Sell Creativyst® Glossary


1. Customizing Basics

You have complete control over the layout and appearance of pages produced by Creativyst™ Glossary. Glossary uses template files that are simply the HTML pages you will display but with a file extension of .tpl. This table lists all the template files available along with a brief description of their purpose.

  Edit.tpl Template file for the page that displays to glossarists when they add or edit a term.
  GetTerm.tpl Template file used by GetTerm.pl for displaying a single term.
  fsGetTerm.tpl Template file used to set up a the frames of a frameset view. Normally left unchanged.

  WL.tpl Template file used by GetTerm.pl to display a list of words for a given letter.
  Glossary.tpl Template file used by Glossary.pl to display all the terms for an entire letter.
  Glossary.bit Note the "bit" extension. This template file is used by Glossary.pl to display all the terms for an entire letter. It is a small bit of HTML that is repeated for each word in the list. In this way, you have total control over the format of terms and definitions within the list of definitions.

Special fields called replacement fields are placed within template files to tell Creativyst™ Glossary where to display its content within the HTML of the page. These fields look like this:

<!--~:Term -->

This replacement field tells GetTerm.pl to display the term the user is looking up at the location(s) it is placed in the template file's HTML.

Each template file defines a different set of replacement fields that can be used within. Some replacement fields are used by more than one template file though.

Customizing Glossary page displays can be as basic or as advanced as you choose. The easiest way to use templates is to examine the ones that are included and make simple modification to them. As you become more proficient with them and how they work you may want to define pages that precisely match your web-site's look. This is relatively easy for anyone who has designed web pages, and we are always here to help on the Creativyst web-site and user forums as well.

The next section contains a list of each template file and discusses the replacement fields that can be used within them.

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2. Template File Reference

Here, each template file is listed along with the replacement fields that can be used within it.

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3. Style Classes


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4. Using the Administration Page

When you installed the administration page (Admin.pl) you were instructed to secure it so glossarist and regular users would not have access to it. You may have done this by moving it to a different directory or calling it a different name. The examples here will continue to refer to the script as Admin.pl.

To invoke the administration page, type:

http://www.mydomain.com/cgi/G/Admin/Admin.pl
in your browser location bar.

The administration page will contain the administrative functions that are built into Creativyst Glossary. Currently the only function on the administration page is "Create Export File"

Use CSV to Import Terms from a Spreadsheet or Database

Use the Import File section on the Admin page to import terms you keep in a spreadsheet or database.

On your spreadsheet of terms, make the labels of the columns containing the following parts of definitions with these labels

Case doesn't matter (Term is the same as TERM). The order these columns occur in on the spreadsheet is not important. Also, other columns containing non- glossary information may be interspersed with these columns. Information in columns not labeled with one of these labels will simply be ignored.

Save your spreadsheet file as a CSV file. Open the CSV file in a text editor and cut and past from your text editor into the box on the form.

The terms and definitions from your spreadsheet/database will be automatically added to your glossary. When the Admin page returns, the box where you had pasted the CSV file will have a status message.

One note: You should limit the amount of CSV data imported each time to about 250K


Use CSV to Export Definitions to Your Spreadsheet

Use the Export File section on the Admin page to produce a CSV file containing the terms and definitions from your glossary. The CSV file your produce can be read directly by most spreadsheet and database programs.

Simply go to the Export File section on the Admin page and push the (Export:) CSV button.


Create an XML Export File (GlossXML)

All the fields in this section are optional, but we recommend adding the name of your website (Edit Community) and the URL (Edit Community URL) to ensure your copyrights are protected. As the online instructions point out, the XML file produced will be called Export.xml and placed in the glossary's DATA directory. You may give a different FILE location if you wish in the field provided.

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5. Sharing With Other Sites (HlpShare.htm)

You may share your site's glossary with other sites in a variety of ways. To help you share this content we provide a special file called HlpShare.htm that you must customize for your own site.

HlpShare.htm shows outside webmasters how to link to your glossary from their own site. It is distributed in a generic form that you must modify to be relevant to your site.

Optionally: Notes:

If you install Glossary for clients you must purchase a separate license for each client you install Creativyst™ Glossary on. You may want to be credited for any sales that result from click-throughs to Creativyst from your client's sites. While this can be done by including your associate number in the HlpShare.htm and scripts that you install, you should discuss it with your clients first, and possibly with a lawyer.

Once you've modified the HlpShare.htm file upload it to a public area in your server and direct outside webmasters who want to use your glossary to go to the page.

Other sites who use Creativyst™ Glossary may also want to include your glossary as an alternate to their own.

Anyone running a CUF™ compliant web application may want to include your glossary to be accessed when users type [glossary=some term] in there messages.

None of these things are hard, and all are made easier because the help file is already written. The modifications documented here make it refer to your glossary instead of ours.

The help file includes most possible ways you can share your terms with the outside world. You may wish to forgo mention of some features such as the framesets for example if you'd prefer to share on a word by word basis.

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6. Moving the Glossary Database

By spreading the glossary database over 27 separate files we greatly improve the performance and scalability of Creativyst™ Glossary on any host. However, this tactic also makes moving your database to a new hosting service a bit less convenient (incidentally Creativyst, Inc. provides a secure, professionally managed hosting service that understands customer service).

You may FTP each and every file down to your local machine and then FTP them back up to the new machine if you wish but you may also be able to use utilities available on your server to convert them to and from a single large file.

You can roll all 27 database files into one single file for download and upload using the facilities available on your host machine. For Windows/DOS machines the utility is generically called ZIP (a.k.a. WinZip, PKZip), and on Linux/Unix machines the utility is called TAR.

At a UNIX command line, navigate to your data directory and type:

tar -cf BackUp.tar ? nn

Then hit the enter key. This will make a file called BackUp.tar that includes all your word files (A-Z, and nn). You may download this to your local machine for backup purposes or to move it to a new service.

In a Windows, DOS console navigate to your data directory and type:

PKZip BackUp ? nn

Then hit the enter key. This will make a file called BackUp.zip that includes all your word files for download to your local machine.

To split out the 27 word files held in your .tar or .zip file, you must reverse the process.

At a UNIX command line, navigate to the directory that contains your .tar file and ENTER:

tar -xf BackUp.tar

In a Windows, DOS console navigate to the directory that contains your .zip file and ENTER:

PKUnZip BackUp.zip

Moving between UNIX and Windows might be slightly more difficult but most hosts have cross platform TAR and ZIP utilities available for this. Also, you may always work with the directory of files individually.

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7. Sell Creativyst® Glossary

We have a very generous associates program (CAP™) which approximately splits the profits after transaction, COGS, and program administration costs (for downloadable software COGS is zero)..

To participate, you must register with Creativyst to sell Glossary through referral links. If you become an associate you should include your associate number on the five ga.pl links in HlpShare.htm and also within the scripts. The associates area at Creativyst.com will show you how to do this. It is not necessary to include your associate number for click- throughs from your own site though it is recommended.

If you're interested in selling this and other products with us, or have suggestions for making our associates program even better, please refer to our associates program information page. Your feedback is also greatly appreciated.

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  Creativyst™ Glossary Terms and meanings   () © Copyright 2001-2006, Creativyst, Inc.