PROMOTING YOUR CATTERY
How to Construct a Web Site

by Karen Lawrence
Reprinted with permission, Cat Fanciers' Almanac, December 1996

Putting your Pedigrees Online

Including pedigrees on a web site is not an easy task! Right off the bat, one would think the most logical way to do it would be to scan a copy of the actual pedigree. NOT! This is totally unfeasible because of the load time involved for such a large file for anyone browsing your web site.

Think of your pedigree as a table

A more obvious way is to use a table, but this will only be readable to persons using a web browser that supports tables. If your web site visitor has a text only browser, and about 3-5% of people out there still do, all of the information may not be readable. If you look at a pedigree form, you will see that it is basically a table - each generation is separate and information within that generation is separate again.

In HTML, a table must start with <table> and end with </table>. Within that table are rows across which will start with <tr> and close with </tr>. Within the table rows are table cells, usually per generation, that open with <td> and close with </td>. Thus simple table formatting will look like this:

<table>
<tr><td>info in here</td></tr>
</table>

If you choose to show your pedigrees in a table, formatting of your table is extremely important - and keeping your information aligned can be a definite challenge! I wouldn't recommend doing more than a three generation pedigree. To do even this you will need to specify the occasional <td> tags to cross more than one column to get to the second and third generation. This is done by inserting COLSPAN=n into your <td> tag, e.g. <td colspan=1> will provide a blank first column and allow you to put data into the second column, where as <td colspan=2> will skip two columns and allow information to be placed into the third column..

Adding remarks tags to your table may help you to keep it all straight and can be done by enclosing remarks within <!--remark here--> tags. A simple pedigree may look like this:

<table>
<!--Sire-->
<tr>
<td colspan=1></td>
<td><font size=-1>Sire:</font>
<br>GC, NW Quin-Jo's Red‘n Reddy</td>


<!--Pedigree of-->
<tr>
<td><font size=-1>Pedigree of:</font>
GC, RW Tailsend Synian</td>
<td colspan=1></td>
<tr>

<!--Dam-->
<tr>
<td colspan=1></td>
<td><font size=-1>Dam:</font>
<br>CH Tailsend Touch of Class</td>
</tr>

</table>

The above HTML code will look like this on a web site:
Sire:
GC, NW Quin-Jo's Red‘n Reddy
Pedigree of:
GC, RW Tailsend Synian
Dam:
CH Tailsend Touch of Class

If you want a border around each of your cells, you can add border=n to your table tag, e.g. <table border=3>. This will better define the information in each table cell when viewed with a browser, as shown below:

Sire:
GC, NW Quin-Jo's Red‘n Reddy
Pedigree of:
GC, RW Tailsend Synian
Dam:
CH Tailsend Touch of Class

How to Include Your Registration Numbers

Registration numbers and color/breed can be added to the same cell by using a <br> tag, which will give you a line break but leave you in the same table cell. For example:

<td>GC, NW Quin-Jo's Red'n Reddy
      <br>0382-258087
      <br>Red Abyssinian
</td>

will look like this in a cell of your table:

GC, NW Quin-Jo's Red'n Reddy
0382-258087
Red Abyssinian

Note that, if you wish to indent the information after the <br> tags, it will make absolutely no difference to the appearance of your information on your web site. You actually might find it much easier to keep track of information this way. Using tables for your pedigrees is a process that requires much careful planning and a very logical mind.

Using Preformatted Text

A much simpler method is to use the <pre></pre> tags which will allow you to use preformatted text on a web page. You can type your pedigree on any word processor, being careful with your tab sets and margins, add the <pre> tag at the start and the </pre> tag at the end and voila! a pedigree will appear on your site as plain typed text, without any special font styling. You may have to work at this formatting to get it right, tho.

Users of the program PEDIGREE ( you can downoad a demo copy with a 200 record limit ) have a distinct advantage when it comes to placing pedigrees online. By choosing the visual pedigree display choice as ascii, and with the aid of a nifty little utility program that can redirect information from a printer to a disk file when using the PRINT SCREEN key, a 3 generation visual pedigree can be saved in a format that will allow it to be used on your web site with the <pre></pre> tag, but in a format so that it actually resembles a pedigree printout. The following is a sample of a pedigree: 

                                                         
        VISUAL PEDIGREE - PEDIGREE Version 3.12  (c) 1996 Ruskat Cattery         
 +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+  
 |                          +----<3>GC ABYDOS PHOENIX DM                     |  
 |                          |       0382-002662 RED 09/09/1979               |  
 |      +-------<1>GC/NW QUIN-JO'S RED 'N REDDY                              |  
 |      |SIRE:     0382-258087 RED 11/04/1984                                |  
 |      |                   |       CH QUIN-JO'S ROSITA                      |  
 |      |                   +----<4>0383-199243 RED                          |  
 | GP/RW TAILSEND SYNIAN (7th Best Cat Great Lakes Region 1990-1991          |  
 | 0382-537372 RED 02/25/1989                                                |  
 | (M)  |                   +----<5>CH TAILSEND TA-LEE-HO                    |  
 |      |                   |       0380-141969 RUDDY 10/08/1982             |  
 |      |DAM:      CH TAILSEND TOUCH OF CLASS                                |  
 |      +-------<2>0383-422088 RED                                           |  
 |                          |       TAILSEND SUSSUDIO                        |  
 |                          +----<6>0381-276018 RUDDY 07/15/1985             |  
 +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+  
CH=Champion GC= Grand Champion GP=Grand Premier RW=Regional Winner
One must certainly give extra careful consideration to including pedigrees on a web site, and decide for themselves if the work is really worth the effort.!


  1. Deciding on the structure of your web site
  2. The URL, and explanation of basic HTML tags
  3. HTML tags to format your text & link to other pages
  4. How to include your photo images on your web site.
  5. Adding email links, and what to do with a list
  6. Putting your pedigrees online
  7. Adding backgrounds and icons for pizazz
  8. Putting your web site online
  9. Publicizing your URL

Page maintained by Karen Lawrence, klawrenc@computan.on.ca. Copyright Karen Lawrence©. Cat sketches courtesy of Cindi Farnsworth©. Created: 1/29/97 Updated: 4/10/97