Organica Web

How does this website work? Would it be possible for you to leverage the work I've done on the actual site mechanism for a site of your own? The answer is yes! OrganicaWeb, the set of HTML, asp.net, vb.net, CSS and JavaScript tools and framework that I've created, was intentionally designed for any site, though it's strengths are in information presentation as you see here, rather than online store sites or sites that require a lot of user input. Still, even for those uses, OrganicaWeb can easily be extended as needed.

As noted in my page describing the History of CilwaWeb, the previous incarnation of my site relied on legacy ASP Classic conventions, as evidenced by its dated practices in server-side scripting and content management. Modern web development standards, such as improved scalability, security, and compatibility, demand adopting frameworks like ASP.NET. ASP.NET offers a robust infrastructure with advanced features such as server-side control libraries, streamlined data handling with LINQ, and built-in support for modern authentication methods. Additionally, maintaining an outdated platform increases technical debt and the risk of vulnerabilities, while transitioning to ASP.NET allows for responsive design, faster load times, and seamless integration with cutting-edge web technologies. As my site continues to evolve, adopting ASP.NET ensures future-proofing, better developer productivity, and an improved user experience.

On the other hand, I'm 73 and, as long as I've been doing computer stuff, the technology is advancing faster than I can keep up. Luckily, so has AI (articial intelligence); and so I've been able to do stuff in a few months that would have taken me years to learn the old-fashioned way.

That said, AI is far from flawless. It makes a better tool than assistant, because you can't just ask it to do something and then assume the result is what you wanted. Consequently, there's still some value to my sharing my code in these pages. After all, even if few actual people read it, it can (and will) be used to train future AIs and thus the world will gain from my experience.

One more thing I should mention before we dive into code: The irony that readers of my website shouldn't notice any difference! I am not using this occasion to spruce up the appearance of my web site; all these changes were intended to make the background processing more efficient and easier for me to maintain.

Why Organica Web?

By: Paul S Cilwa	Posted: 11/30/2024		Page Views: 15
Why a website's framework matters, and why OrganicaWeb is a good one.

I started OrganicaWeb because I needed a framework that could handle my personal website with over 2,000 pages without becoming unwieldy. Most other frameworks require you to use online editing tools, which might work for sites with a dozen pages but falter beyond that scale. They often neglect crucial features like automatic site navigation and force designers to manage mechanics over content. Tools like the extensive CSS framework from W3Schools are powerful but overly complex and don't address navigation. OrganicaWeb natively supports page banners, global navigation, and content panels, combining ASP, HTML, CSS, VB.NET, and JavaScript to let designers focus on what matters most: the content.

The Fundamentals of ASP.net

By: Paul S Cilwa	Posted: 11/30/2024		Page Views: 14
A very brief overview, one might say a CONCEPT of an overview, of how ASP.net differs from ASP Classic.

As I began to transition from ASP Classic to ASP.NET, I immediately noticed a fundamental shift in how web applications are constructed. ASP Classic allows us to mix server-side VBScript directly with HTML, leading to code that was often messy and difficult to maintain. This was primarily due to the language it was written in: VBscript, which is not an object-oriented language.

Organizing Your OrganicaWeb Site

By: Paul S Cilwa	Posted: 11/30/2024		Page Views: 15
With folders and subfolders it's easy to create, manage and maintain a website with OrganicaWeb.

To create an OrganicaWeb site, you have two choices: Either create a site from scratch, or copy a template project. Anyone can do the latter; but this section of my site is about understanding it all. So we'll start from scratch, which means starting Visual Studio and telling it to create a new project of the type ASP.NET Web Application (.NET Framework). That brings up the configuration dialog.

WebFileInfo

By: Paul S Cilwa	Posted: 11/30/2024		Page Views: 26
HostPaths and SitePaths and OwnerPaths, Oh, My!

When I was nearing completion of this site's latest code incarnation, I realized I needed a better way to handle pathnames, especially the thumbnails representing each page, working correctly and consistently. That's why I created the WebFileInfo class, which extends .NET's FileInfo class, to simplify accessing pages within the website. It converts between different forms of pathnames: HostPath (relative to the hosting computer, starting with "c:"), SitePath (relative to the site, starting with "\"), and RelativePath (relative to the referencing page, starting with "..\" or no special leading characters at all, in the case of a simple file in the same folder, for example, an image on a page). This class became an essential building block I hadn't anticipated but ultimately helped me wrap my head around the various ways a site must handle file paths.

A Ribbon of Time

By: Paul S Cilwa	Posted: 7/28/2025		Page Views: 128
How to create a dynamic TimeRibbon feature for your website.

On my About Me page, I have two different ways of going through my posts: Drop-down year tabs is one; and a TimeRibbon is the other. However, the TimeRibbon has been missing since I reworked my site to use asp.net. I finally updated that code, too; so, if you've been wondering how to create a horizontal, sliding ribbon that aligns several unsynchronized events by month and year—here's how to do it!

Site.Master

By: Paul S Cilwa	Occurred: 5/1/1960 Posted: 11/30/2024		Page Views: 14
Site.Master is the master page for your OrganicaWeb/ASP.NET website, providing a consistent layout and look-and-feel across all the pages of the site.

The Site.Master file in an ASP.NET web application serves as a master page template that defines the common layout and elements shared across multiple pages of the site. It typically includes consistent components such as the header, footer, navigation menus, and style references. Content pages in the application inherit from the Site.Master, allowing developers to maintain a uniform look and feel throughout the website. By centralizing the shared structure in the Site.Master, any updates to the overall design need to be made only once, simplifying maintenance and ensuring consistency across the entire site.