simple way to display data in a .txt file on a webpage? - html

Question

Working on a project, one of the webpages will display a list of people (specifically, a list of people from a graduation class that haven't been located yet).
Instead of manually updating these lists in tables which is a boneheaded Web 1.0 way of doing it, I'd like to take the submitted list of names, convert them to a simple .txt list, and then display that list on the webpage.
So far, the easist way to do this is to use an iframe element... only thing is, I cannot (or don't know how to) apply any text styling to the contents of the iframe. I've published a sample of what I've been able to accomplish here: http://dongarber.com/test//helpus-iframetest.html
The default font is courier, and the client probably ain't gonna be too keen on it.
Is there a better way to do this, that's doesn't require ASP.NET or a database?
#list p {
font: arial;
font-size: 14px;
}
...
<p>Help us locate all of our classmates from the High School class of 1961. If you know where they live or their e-mail addresses contact the Reunion Committee.</p>
<p> </p>
<div id="list"><p><iframe src="missingmen.txt" width=200 height=400 frameborder=0 ></iframe></p></div>
</div>

Answer 1

Easy way:
Rename missingmen.txt to missingmen.html.
Add a single line to the top of missingmen.html:
<link href="txtstyle.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
Create a file called txtstyle.css, and add to it a line like this:
html, body {font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif}

Answer 2

In more recent browsers code like below may be enough.
<object data="https://www.w3.org/TR/PNG/iso_8859-1.txt" width="300" height="200">
Not supported
</object>

Answer 3

I find that if I try things that others say do not work, it's how I learn the most.
<p> </p>
<p>README.txt</p>
<p> </p>
<div id="list">
<p><iframe src="README.txt" frameborder="0" height="400"
width="95%"></iframe></p>
</div>
This worked for me. I used the yellow background-color that I set in the stylesheet.
#list p {
font: arial;
font-size: 14px;
background-color: yellow ;
}

Answer 4

If you just want to throw the contents of the file onto the screen you can try using PHP.
<?php
$myfilename = "mytextfile.txt";
if(file_exists($myfilename)){
echo file_get_contents($myfilename);
}
?>

Answer 5

How are you converting the submitted names to "a simple .txt list"? During that step, can you instead convert them into a simple HTML list or table? Then you could wrap that in a standard header which includes any styling you want.

Answer 6

That's the code I use:
<?php
$path="C:/foopath/";
$file="foofile.txt";
//read file contents
$content="
<h2>$file</h2>
<code>
<pre>".htmlspecialchars(file_get_contents("$path/$file"))."</pre>
</code>";
//display
echo $content;
?>
Keep in mind that if the user can modify $path or $file (for example via $_GET or $_POST), he/she will be able to see all your source files (danger!)

Answer 7

You cannot style a text file, it must be HTML

Answer 8

Most easy and simple way to show file on your web page
Here is a screenshot. You can see here a pdf and txt file.
Sample Screenshot of TXT file rendered on HTML using iframe.
<iframe
src="full_file_path_here"
frameBorder="0"
class=""
scrolling="auto"
height="100%"
width="100%">
</iframe>

Answer 9

You can add it as script file.
save the txt file with js suffix
in the head section add
<script src="fileName.js"></script>