Template Driven Websites

Sometimes called turnkey websites

[Robbyrob]

I would like to know how to build a template driven website. Here is what I am trying to accomplish; someone wants to sets up a new website through me, they can choose from any number of templates that I design, fill out a form with all their information for their site. Their information is then placed in the template they have chosen in the appropriate pages (ex home page, about page, contact page, photo album, ect...) and their website is instantly done for them. I think sometimes this is called a turnkey website. I have no idea where to start. I have looked into PHP, ASP, MYSQL, Coldfussion and CGI/PERL. I know this has to be somewhat on the complicated side. Could someone point me in the right direction? Is their a script out there that already will allow me to accomplish this, or do I need to start from scratch? Do I use PHP, Coldfussion, or MYSQL? If I just had a place to start I could focus on that area instead wasting my time on something that isn’t going to work.

[engine]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld.

Let's see if we can round up some guys with some answers for you.

[IanTurner]

Have you looked into the latest versions of PHPNuke?

Also many content management systems have the ability to include your own template and then build from there.

[jatar_k]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld Robbyrob,

For PHP in particular there is a thread here that talks about templating.

A dynamic site in 2 minutes [webmasterworld.com]

That should help you get started.

[bedlam]

Hiya,

Whether or not this post is good advice for you depends a lot on your specific needs and abilities. But the best template-driven CMS (or Content Management System) that I know about is Typo3 [typo3.org].

In addition to being template-driven (you can set up sites using html templates with no special markup, and you can customize about 99.5% of the html output), there are existing extensions to the system that allow you to do pretty much exactly what you describe (as long as you are not talking about running each of the separate sites within its own separate hosting account). You can also allow the user to edit their own sites without giving them access to other parts of the system.

On the downside, if you don't need to use it very much, it is powerful and complex, and it takes a correspondingly long time to learn to use it effectively.

-B

PS - it's GPL licensed and free...