Design Agnostic Blog System

[gettopreacherman]

Would anyone use a system that would be design agnostic? The idea is that the blog system would output simple html that would be xhtml compliant and seemlessly integrate into the design of the existing site.

Would anyone use it? What do you think?

[bill]

Don't most content management systems do that already? They separate the style/design from the content. It sounds like you're just proposing a blank template.

[gettopreacherman]

You would think that, but not really. what most systems provide is a structured "template" system...thus if you want to design a site using the system, then you have to design a template around their structure, ie, use tables and such how they defined the structure, like phpnuke for example is set to use blocks on the sides and content down the middle...the same structure for everything. Now imagine you have a design already for your site...and if you wanted your blog to look just like your existing site then you would have to spend hours altering the templates they provide you or style your own.

Now, imagine that you take just the content of the blog and place it within the structure of your existing site, without having to use a preconfigured or existing site template...that's what I'm proposing, integrating the system INTO your site and NOT YOUR SITE into their template...does that make more sense?

[bill]

Some CMS systems are less flexible than others, I agree. However, I was able to take a CSS/XHTML site that I designed from scratch and make MovableType work as the back end. I've also used MT to plug in information into other websites that I didn't design. I'm sure there are other packages that will allow you the same functionality. I guess you just need to be familiar with the capabilities of the CMS.