Building a web site using C++!

Hello there! This post is about the C++ application that I developed yesterday. This application can be used to build a Website! I had this idea in my mind for quite some time. I took the time and developed it at last :). The main purpose of the application is to build a simple customizable website using C++ to write HTML pages(more about it later).Some of the features of the application are:

• You can have as many pages as you want.
• A link is provided to each and every page in every page
• You can add content as much as you want in each page
• You can set the background colour, text colour and font style of each and every page 

Here's a video of it:

If you are wondering how I might've developed this application, then here's a little information. I created a class called WebSite and another class called WebPage. WebPage holds information about each individual page's colour, font style, text colour, content etc. The WebSite class is used to hold the value of the number of pages in the website, a collection of WebPage(Which when put together form the website) objects and their common details such as the name of the website and the name and directory of the folder where generated HTML pages are to be stored.

Here are the definitions and methods of WebSite class followed by WebPage class:

NOTE: only inline methods are mentioned below, to see all the methods, see the link provided at the end of this post.

WebSite class:

	class WebSite {
	int no_of_pages; //stores number of pages in the website
	char name[20]; //stores the 'name' of the file where html pages are to be stored
	char heading[20]; //stores the heading of the website
	char caption[50]; //stores the caption of the website
	char nav_content[300]; //used to store information about navigation and links
	char directory_path[100]; //stores the 'path' to the directory where html files are to be stored
	WebPage* site_pages; //stores a collection of WebPage objects
	public:
	WebSite(void);
	char* getHeading(void) { //returns heading of the website
	return heading;
	}
	char* getCaption(void) { //returns caption of the website
	return caption;
	}
	char* getNavigation(void) { //returns navigation details of the website
	return nav_content;
	}
	char* getDirectory(void) { //returns path of the file where html files are stored
	return directory_path;
	}
	int getPagesCount(void) { //returns the value of number of pages in the website
	return no_of_pages;
	}
	void setDirectoryPath(void); //used to get the directory where the file is created
	void setPagesInfo(WebSite&, int); //used to set information about a selected page in the website
	void setPagesTheme(int); //used to set theme details of a selected page in the website
	void showPagesDetails(int); //used to show details about a selected page in the website
	void addChapterToPage(int); //used to add content to a selected page
	void buildNavigation(void); //used to build the navigation/links part of the page
	void buildSite(WebSite&); //used to build the whole website
	};

view raw WebSite.txt hosted with ❤ by GitHub

WebPage class:

	class WebPage {
	char file_name[20]; //name of the webpage
	char content_name[30]; //name of the text file to store content
	char title[20]; //acts as both title and heading of the WebPage
	char color[10]; //color of the page
	char text_color[10]; //text color of the page
	char font_style[15]; //font style of the text
	char page_path[100]; //stores the path of the WebPage
	char content_path[100]; //stores the path to to content text file of the WebPage
	void setPath(WebSite&); //used to store the path of the current WebPage directory
	public:
	void setInfo(WebSite&); //set the information about page
	void setTheme(void); //set the background color, text color and font style of the page
	void showDetails(void); //displays details about the page
	void addChapter(void); //append a new chapter into the page
	void buildPage(WebSite&); //build the web-page
	char* getPagePath(void) { //returns the page path as a string
	return page_path;
	}
	char* getTitle(void) { //return the page title
	return title;
	}
	};

view raw WebPage.txt hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Now coming to how this application uses above classes to create the website. if you could see the WebPage class definition above, there's a method called buildPage(). This method is useful to convert all the details of the page and website details into HTML file. here's the implementation of  buildPage() method:

	void WebPage::buildPage(WebSite& site)
	{
	ofstream wp(page_path);
	//head and style part of the page
	wp << "<html>\n";
	wp << "<head>\n";
	wp << "<title>" << title << "</title>\n";
	wp << "<style>\n";
	wp << "body{\n";
	wp << "background: " << color << ";\n";
	wp << "color: " << text_color << ";\n";
	wp << "text-align: " << "center" << ";\n";
	wp << "font-family:" << font_style << ";\n";
	wp << "}\n";
	wp << "p{\n";
	wp << "text-align: " << "left" << ";\n";
	wp << "}\n";
	wp << "h4{\n";
	wp << "text-align: " << "left" << ";\n";
	wp << "}\n";
	wp << "</style>\n";
	wp << "</head>\n";
	//body part of the page
	wp << "<body>\n";
	wp << "<h1>" << site.getHeading() << "</h1>\n";
	wp << "<h5><i><marquee>" << site.getCaption() << "</marquee></i></h5>\n";
	//navigation bar
	wp << site.getNavigation() << "\n";
	//title of the page
	wp << "<h4><u>" << title << "</u></h4>\n";
	//displaying content
	ifstream rp(content_path);
	int character;
	while ((character = rp.get()) != EOF) {
	wp << (char) character;
	}
	wp << "</body>\n";
	wp << "</html>\n";
	rp.close();
	wp.close();
	}

view raw buildPage method Implementation hosted with ❤ by GitHub

So what actually happens in the above method is that HTML syntax is being written into a .html file that I create using the page_path data member of the WebPage class. So this is the main mechanism for this application. It just provides required details at appropriate places using the details stored in each individual object. I hope you get the idea :)

Apart from this, I've learned something new! I've known how to create a directory and get the current path using the system() and _getcwd() functions. I've used them in the setDirectoryPath() method of WebSite class. Here's the implementation:

	void WebSite::setDirectoryPath(void) {
	//create a new directory
	char file_dir[30] = "mkdir ";
	strcat_s(file_dir, name);
	system(file_dir);
	//change the existing directory to the newly created directory created
	char req_file[30] = "\\";
	strcat_s(req_file, name);
	strcat_s(req_file, "\\");
	//get the address of the new directory
	_getcwd(directory_path, 99);
	strcat_s(directory_path, req_file);
	}

view raw setDirectoryPathMethod hosted with ❤ by GitHub

You can know more about them by seeing the MSDN pages :) So that's it for now. Here's the link for the text file and also project file if you'd like to go through each and every method(There's much more to the application)

text file: CLICK
project file: CLICK