Content Management Systems

Advice Please

[Andrew Thomas]

I want to design sites using content management, i would prefer to develop my own insead of paying for third party ones.

The trouble is im not sure where to start? I know the idea,principles etc but i could do with seeing an example to get me started? I use dreamweaver MX and ASP. with either Access or SQL databases.

If anyone knows of a sample that i can either download or pay for a template i would be gratefull.

I would like the client to be able to update the sites on their own, and options to preview before publish.

Ive heard of PD's online HTML editor, is this of any use as i cant find much about it.

thanks

[agerhart]

I don't know if you are familiar with it, or if you have the time to learn it, but I have heard that XML is good for content management.

[Andrew Thomas]

Thanks, but i need this fairly fast as was looking more for the Access, ASP (with Macromedia MX) route for now which im more familiar with. Just dont know where or how to start.....ermmm any ideas?

[Sinner_G]

We have a small content management system we built for a client (reason I can't give you a template). What you should do is first design your access database (tables and so on) and then you can use ASP to get specific contents with a string selecting what you need.

xyzString = "SELECT * FROM Tablename WHERE variable=" & value

Edited because of stupid typos

[edited by: Sinner_G at 1:33 pm (utc) on July 10, 2002]

[Woz]

Pop on over to [planet-source-code.com...] and have a look at the VB/ASP section. There are heaps of examples and applications available for download. You could then modify to suit or use them as a learning tool to build your own.

Onya
WOz

[rogerd]

One alternative to writing your own content management system is to use Blog software. I've used movabletype for a couple of quick & dirty content managers - one for new product announcements, another for an "ask the expert" column. Both are used by non-techies to post new content to their web sites. Each addition is properly linked and indexed automatically.

[rcjordan]

>blogs

I agree. Look at noah grey's greymatter, there are some nice add-on modules starting to surface for that one, such as photojournals.

For a web-based system that provides strong editorial control over the templates, site navigation (through headers/footers), and I've modified homefree. It is not database-driven, however.

[BlobFisk]

ASPin has some ready made scripts that you could alter to suit your needs. The Content Management scripts are here: http://www.aspin.com/home/webapps/content [aspin.com].

They range from being Free to one I saw at $2,000. As Sinner_G said, the principle behind it is fairly straightforward.. but if you're in a hurry have a look at some of the free script sites.

[TallTroll]

We are doing some research into Zope [zope.org] at the moment. Its built on Python, all open source, and free :). There are already a number of "products" (their name for applications built on, and extentions to Zope), some of which which we are investigating as methods of enabling end-users with low technical skills to manage their sites.

It looks pretty impressive so far, I have to say

[rcjordan]

>zope

I've been in the review stage for quite a while now, but I keep coming back to Zope as well. SEO considerations come as a top priority of course, so how does zope-produced html look to the spiders?

[webmasterworld.com...]

[edit_g]

If you've got the inhouse skills to develop your own and you are already using DW MX then Coldfusion seems a really good way to go.

You should be able to find some examples and tutorials in the Coldfusion developers part of the Marcromedia website.

[TallTroll]

>> SEO considerations come as a top priority of course

AFAIK, the issues are not so much the HTML (seems you can churn out good, valid code), as the the fact that out-of-the-box, you aren't publishing .html docs. You drop all your objects in a folder in the management view, and when the request comes in for that FOLDER, the Zope web server assembles the HTML, and sends it.

I did see somewhere an add-on that lets you pick up that folder structure, and convert it to static HTML docs. Obviously, this approach has drawbacks, as the dynamic, object orientated nature of the Zope product is one of its strengths, and you are deliberately limiting that. However, so long as you don't have a huge churn rate in terms of data, I see no reason that it couldn't be made to work.

You would then have the advantages of Zope management side, and good ole HTML docs server side. Depends on the individual site, I guess