A database contains the data to be shown on the web site (e.g. texts, image file names, etc.), plus templates which determine how that data will look. The templates contain replacement codes representing the actual data. Anywhere text is used (including in the templates) it can be replaced by a text block in which the text can exist in more than one language.

This database is then used to generate the actual output files, the replacement codes in the templates being replaced by actual data from the database, in the correct language.

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The database contains three kinds of data:

• the content of the web site to be generated: basically texts (in different languages) and file names (e.g. images),
• data describing the web site's structure, i.e. where the content items are to be placed and how they are to be linked together,
• data describing the form in which the content will be presented

New data is mostly created in the same way programmers usually write programs, i.e. by copying existing data and changing it as required. To produce a new web page group, you find the one nearest to what you want (either one of the example sites included with the system or one you've already made yourself), and start changing it. It is also possible to start by copying a completely 'empty' page group (code *NEW).

Elements can be generated automatically from the contents of a directory. E.g. a group of image files is selected from a local directory, and the system generates an element for each file, based on the characteristics of a selected existing element.

Elements can be sorted in many ways, including on the position of their file names within an existing file; this can be useful when re-building an existing web site in webphlex. Pretty well all properties, such as templates, can be copied between elements, pages and page groups, and elements can be copied or moved from one page group to another.

Being based on templates and code replacement, webphlex can produce any static web site, i.e. any site consisting of files (HTML, Javascript, etc.) which are generated locally and then uploaded to a web server. Its main strength is its ability to handle large collections of items (e.g. images, texts or hyperlinks) which are all presented in the same way, such as in image galleries and on link pages, but it is flexible enough to handle most kinds of site.

For instance, the entire iphlex systems web site was generated by webphlex, as was this documentation and the various examples on the examples page.