Operation Manual

WebPlus Advanced | 189
Using Smart Objects
It's quite common for web developers to "inherit" content from existing web
sites to save time and effort, while bearing in mind any legal implications in
doing so. This is fine for simple graphic or text copying, but this process is not
possible for more complex, interactive objects such as counters, shout boxes,
blogs, etc, which collect information with the object. The power of, for
example, a hit counter lies in its ability to keep a count of the number of users
that have visited a page at all times. The count needs to be stored somewhere
and herein lies the problem. Storing object data (counts, chat text, blog text, is
not always encouraged or even supported on ISP web space—due to potential
security breaches and disk usage demands. So where can the data be stored?
To resolve the problem for Serif WebPlus users, WebPlus can place such
objects, called Smart Objects, on the page and also store associated object
data on Serif's own secure server space. These objects are available from Serif
Web Resources a secure online service for obtaining objects and storing data
at the same time.
An advantage of using Serif's Smart Objects is that they are optimized and
fully tested for use in your current WebPlus project. In addition, the objects
are hosted online so new updates may be added over time.
Let's look at each Smart Object you'll find in Web Resources and what you
can do with them.
Name Use
Active Viewers
Use to show how many people are currently viewing
the web page.
Blog
A blog (short for weblog) acts as a personal journal
on your web page and is frequently updated (often
daily) with articles. Articles are typically commented
on by visitors to the web page.
Hit Counter
A straightforward count of the number of hits on the
current page. Different styles can be adopted.
Mailing List
Have users sign up to newsletters, party
confirmations, information request, and many more,
by collection of web visitor's emails as required.