How can I add TAGS to my existing non-cms website?

Question

I was looking other day jealously at all the features that CMS-enabled WordPress sites have, and I realised one thing that I've missed out: tagging.

Is there any way I can have such a thing on my non-cms, non-database flat files php website? Which is basically bunch of web page files like home.php, contact.php, somepage1.php, somepage2.php, etc.

is this actually possible at all?

I was thinking of something like this:

• each page includes tagsys.php
• each page has footer with some tags banana, peach, tomato
• the hyperlinks go respectively to /tags/banana, /tags/peach, /tags/tomato
• since there are no actual files as banana / peach / tomato, the tagsys.php which is included, has to know how to sort of generate a new page, in which it captures the essence ($title and $descr) of every page with that tag, and so all could be automated.

Answer 1

You could also add an id to each page (it may be the filename, wich you can get using php : http://www.expertcore.org/viewtopic.php?f=67&p=1453)

Then in your DB store create a table with a list of tags and another one to create a relation between your pages IDs and the tags.

In this way you will be able to create a kind of "tag administration interface" easily.

But as Brent Friar said, if possible, prefer upgrading to an existing cms, it's quite fast and easy, and it'll save you hours of maintenance!

Answer 2

It would be a lot easier, faster, and less headache to simply upgrade your website to any number of CMSs that support tagging. Even if your site has several hundred pages it would not be hard to move it to Wordpress (though I would use a more sophisticated CMS, WP is a fine product that is easy to use).

Keep in mind that on a static site you are going to have to update the tag associations every time you create a new page. It would be an administrative nightmare.