Website Updating

warrenaldo

Hi folks,

I have developed a website for a company - my first job. It went well and everyone was happy. I did everything I was asked for and got paid. So all is good. I did the site in html/css and javascript. No back-end or server side stuff. All pretty basic.

However, they now say that they want to ba able to update the site themselves with no technical experience.

If i had known they wanted some Admin screens for updating I would have done it differently and charged more. But what I now need to know is - Is there any tools out there that will allow a user to edit the content - via some CMS. Or will the site need to be re-designed?

I know they could use some tools such as dreamweaver - but even this seems a bit over their head. Any tips?

Red Alert

You can't go far wrong with Wordpress. Just install it on their server, you'll need to turn your site into a wordpress theme to keep the look and feel.

DJB

I came across CushyCMS last week that would be good for bolting on to an existing xhtml/css site without having to put in a backend. Might suit your needs perfectly:

http://www.cushycms.com/

Rgds, Dave

Skud

DJB wrote: »

I came across CushyCMS last week that would be good for bolting on to an existing xhtml/css site without having to put in a backend. Might suit your needs perfectly:

http://www.cushycms.com/

Rgds, Dave

+1 was gonna mention it. Looks good.

Evil Phil

CMS Made Simple is worth a look too. Personally I would charge them for the work, they didn't specify that they wanted this ability in the site. Maybe with a bit more experience under your belt you would have asked but I wouldn't highlight that to them.

brianmc

DJB wrote: »

I came across CushyCMS last week that would be good for bolting on to an existing xhtml/css site without having to put in a backend. Might suit your needs perfectly:

http://www.cushycms.com/

Rgds, Dave

Nice!

(Sorry for a little hijacking)

I'm not very up to speed on CMS but Cushy CMS offers exactly what I've been looking for for some clients of mine. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be enabling FTP to the website and particularly if it involves storing those details on someone elses servers.

What I need is an application that a user can use internally on their network, the network of the web server, that will let me give them similar levels of access to the content as in the demo on the cushy website.

Has anyone any suggestions?

Thanks

ejvilla

If Cushy CMS offers exactly what you need then you should be able to replicate its functionality with minimal effort...

Depending on the language you're using some function call that pulls the latest entry from a database and populates a predetermined div... A simple form to add/remove content to the database and hey presto!

* Again this assumes that you only need something very very basic (like cushy).

brianmc wrote: »

Nice!

(Sorry for a little hijacking)

I'm not very up to speed on CMS but Cushy CMS offers exactly what I've been looking for for some clients of mine. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be enabling FTP to the website and particularly if it involves storing those details on someone elses servers.

What I need is an application that a user can use internally on their network, the network of the web server, that will let me give them similar levels of access to the content as in the demo on the cushy website.

Has anyone any suggestions?

Thanks

brianmc

ejvilla wrote: »

If Cushy CMS offers exactly what you need then you should be able to replicate its functionality with minimal effort...

Depending on the language you're using some function call that pulls the latest entry from a database and populates a predetermined div... A simple form to add/remove content to the database and hey presto!

* Again this assumes that you only need something very very basic (like cushy).

Content is currently all hand coded - so no database (well, not for content). I've only watched the demo for Cushy but it seems that it pulls a copy of the page and allows editing of sections marked for editing by Cushy.

Writing that application with its WYSIWYG html editor etc. is too much unless you know of something out there that I don't? <-- Genuine question. Customer at best will probably pay for a days work on this, otherwise they'll stick with asking me to make the very occasional changes. All I was thinking was if there was something as straightforward as Cushy out there (but that could be kep to the LAN) I'd slap it in for them.

ejvilla

I don't know of any (simple) app that would allow you to edit a predefined html element... although depending on your experience, you could knock a bespoke solution together in a day... could get messy though...

I'd direct you to a simple tutorial on creating a custom CMS with php & mysql, but as you don't have a database there's not much point...

http://www.php-mysql-tutorial.com/cms-php-mysql.php

If you have a look at it and take what you learn from there and use xml as your backend you could write a simple cms that creates an xml file like the following from a web-based form (adminpage.php or something, it can submit the data to itself if you want to limit the number of files..):

<article>
<title>Some title</title>
<body>All your information</body>
<footer>.....</footer>
</article>

Use the DOM to parse it & display the elements in relevant placeholders in your html page.

I really don't know if this is of any help to you... though you should have some understanding of the concepts if you are creating websites for your clients...

keywords for googling: CMS DOM PHP (or language of your choice) XML... use any combination of these and you should find something useful.

brianmc wrote: »

Content is currently all hand coded - so no database (well, not for content). I've only watched the demo for Cushy but it seems that it pulls a copy of the page and allows editing of sections marked for editing by Cushy.

Writing that application with its WYSIWYG html editor etc. is too much unless you know of something out there that I don't? <-- Genuine question. Customer at best will probably pay for a days work on this, otherwise they'll stick with asking me to make the very occasional changes. All I was thinking was if there was something as straightforward as Cushy out there (but that could be kep to the LAN) I'd slap it in for them.

brianmc

ejvilla wrote: »

I don't know of any (simple) app that would allow you to edit a predefined html element... although depending on your experience, you could knock a bespoke solution together in a day... could get messy though...

I'd direct you to a simple tutorial on creating a custom CMS with php & mysql, but as you don't have a database there's not much point...

http://www.php-mysql-tutorial.com/cms-php-mysql.php

If you have a look at it and take what you learn from there and use xml as your backend you could write a simple cms that creates an xml file like the following from a web-based form (adminpage.php or something, it can submit the data to itself if you want to limit the number of files..):

<article>
<title>Some title</title>
<body>All your information</body>
<footer>.....</footer>
</article>

Use the DOM to parse it & display the elements in relevant placeholders in your html page.

I really don't know if this is of any help to you... though you should have some understanding of the concepts if you are creating websites for your clients...

keywords for googling: CMS DOM PHP (or language of your choice) XML... use any combination of these and you should find something useful.

Hi, thanks for the input and ideas. The concepts, technologies etc. are all fine. Unfortunately, while I agree that you could get the guts of a Cushy-like CMS together in a day, I'm also experienced enough to know that you will spend another day or two (at least) tweaking it, testing it and wrapping it up to give it a bug free professional finish. Throw in a site visit, installing the software, training the users etc and suddenly you need to get paid for the guts of a week of your time.

I'm just chancing my arm that something like this exists out there already.

ejvilla

Hope I didn't come across as condescending or anything! I couldn't gauge how experienced or indeed professional you were from your OP. I have a better idea now

Even if you could get them to use a WYSIWYG, I wouldn't advise it! Not without a versioning system to revert the files they will inevitably delete

Sorry I can't help you find an app to suit your needs... Might be a decent project for any of the final year students browsing these threads!

brianmc wrote: »

Hi, thanks for the input and ideas. The concepts, technologies etc. are all fine. Unfortunately, while I agree that you could get the guts of a Cushy-like CMS together in a day, I'm also experienced enough to know that you will spend another day or two (at least) tweaking it, testing it and wrapping it up to give it a bug free professional finish. Throw in a site visit, installing the software, training the users etc and suddenly you need to get paid for the guts of a week of your time.

I'm just chancing my arm that something like this exists out there already.

brianmc

ejvilla wrote: »

Not without a versioning system to revert the files they will inevitably delete

Another couple of days work to be paid for! ;-)

No, I appreciate the input, you're dead right about it being a nice little project for someone. I can't figure out why this tool doesn't already exist (I suppose it does in Cushy except that I'm not willing to allow external ftp access to this website).

Evil Phil

Try CMS Made Simple, I've found it very easy to work with and to quote one client of mine when I asked her how she found updating her website 'It's a piece of p*ss'.

charlesD

If it were me, I would either go with Joomla or Wordpress.

Joomla is very powerful and is much better suited for a business, but has a higher learning curve. It is pretty straight forward for regular stuff, but it is incredibly powerful, so to utilize all of the features, you will need to do a little reading.

Wordpress can, with the proper theme and design, come across professional and work for a business, but it is rather scaled down and is better suited for a blog. The upside is that it is incredibly simple to update. Depending on what they are trying to do, you could leave the site up as is and add a wordpress subdomain. This would let them easily add updates, while preserving the root site.

For instance you could have www.yoursite.com point to the site you built and install wordpress on www.yoursite.com/blog

warrenaldo

cushycms seems to be what i was looking for. The site is already there - so redeveloping it is not an option. This seems to do the trick. It seems a very usefull tool. Im suprised there is not more of this ype of thing out there.

It could do with some tweeks as it seems there is only so much you can do. But what can i expect.

Thanks for this.

symbyo soa

A Content Management System (CMS System) puts you in control giving you the ability to add, remove or change the content, pages, text or images on your website. Using a simple user friendly interface you can edit all designated parts of your website, without the need for any special skills.

brianmc

symbyo soa wrote: »

A Content Management System (CMS System) puts you in control giving you the ability to add, remove or change the content, pages, text or images on your website. Using a simple user friendly interface you can edit all designated parts of your website, without the need for any special skills.

oh good.