tag cloud?

[brynn]

Hi Friends,

I'm pretty much a newbie with CSS. I don't think I'll be able to handle putting something like a tag cloud on a webpage. But I want to learn more about it. Yes, I've searched the internet. I've found a few places which will automatically generate the html for the tag cloud, but I don't think they are exactly what I need. So I'm hoping if I can describe what I need, someone can point me to resources to learn what would be needed to make one.

 

I'm still in the process of building the page. But when it's done, it will have several long lists of links. Each link leads to a tutorial for Inkscape (a vector graphics editor). Each tutorial creates a different SVG image, for example, a flag, a business card, a shiny web button, all sorts of icons, cartoons, etc, etc. So I'd like to come up with tags which describe what each tutorial creates, and also, not just the end product of the tutorial, but also tags which describe the tools or techniques which are involved in following each tutorial.

 

According to Wikipedia, this is a categoration style of tag cloud.

 

Can you all tell me where I can find instructions for making this kind of tag cloud? It doesn't need to have really fancy styling. Just different size words to indicate how many tutorials cover each tag word, and also, the word should be a text link to open up that list of tutorials.

 

Thank you very much

[Ingolme]

You would need a system set up on the server-side to generate the data for the tag cloud. It counts how many articles there are for each type and calculates a text size based on an average and the largest value it finds.

 

CSS is just used to set the size of the text, but besides that the rest is done with programming on the server.

[brynn]

Where could I look to find a program like that? Do you know of any instructions or tutorials?

[Ingolme]

First you need to learn PHP. Once you know PHP you can either try to make the algorithm on your own or use a search engine. A quick search I did found this: http://stevethomas.com.au/php/how-to-make-a-tag-cloud-in-php-mysql-and-css.html

[brynn]

Oh, ok. Yes, that does sound over my head. But I'll be interested to read more about it. But it's so late now. I'll do that tomorrow.

 

Thank you very much