New Website (Content Management?)
 

A friend has asked me to do her a website. Now i've done a few over the years (all in notepad - being a techie) and i'm happy with them. If possible she would like to edit the content herself, which is where i'm out of my depth. I've seen sites with Wordpress and i think that was a step too far for her.

How does content management work? Is it software she needs, or is it something a host would provide??

I'm all for doing a static website for her if it's too complimicated, but i'm also intrigued by this WCM. (Being a DB Developer myself).

Look again at Word Press it is very good at this, personally I prefer to hand built and code but it is a very good tool. You can simplify the control panel as well so to only give the customer access to the pages... I think the plug in is called "simplify"...

Is Wordpress dependant on the host though. I use Streamline for mine and there's no mention of WP on there.

Currently looking for some free web templates. Know any good sites? (A lot seem to be "free" until you come to download) ;)

proper enterprise content management software usually use a back end database to dynamicaly build the website

it also allows you to stage your changes before you "Publish" them to the live system

they are quite complex and can be expensive -- but allow rapid changes to content etc



http://www.vignette.com/us/About+Vignette

is one such product

I was looking at Vignette software back in 2000. It was very expensive then.

The chap we were dealing with from Vignette was called Dr Paul Mycock. :lol1: I'm not making that up! :D

In the end we plumped for a php based system which we wrote ourselves. This allowed us to take content from the database and slap any front end on it which we chose, with css to handle the styling.

are you tugging my chain ScoobyWon't

She's given up on the content management side of things and i'm just gonna do her a static website.

Anyone recommend any good (free) template websites for her to browse?

I've obviously pulled a few from the front page of google, just wandering if there are any known hidden gems. :D

Hi GaztheHat

I do work with a company that provides (what I consider) very low-cost websites that you can edit yourself without the need for huge technical knowledge. They are mainly based for schools (so kids etc can edit) but I use it myself as a quick, simple and easy to maintain website.

Happy to PM details if you require. There is an on-going cost but as I said, it's not a huge amount (I'm not sure how they do it for the money)

Cheers

J

(hoping I haven't broken any scoobynet rules) :D

Have a look at joomla. It is a free cms. I have created a site or two with it and it isn't too bad

Another vote for Joomla here.

I wish that all of that Joomla stuff was available when I was developing the travel portal out in Tenerife! That would have saved me so much time!

I think I'll explore it later when I have a bit more time.

You can load wordpress 3.0 on your hosting server

But if joomla is not up your street b2evolution is not bad

For Wordpress you just need php and mysql, your host might not mention WP but that's all it needs, setting it up is a synch, getting it to look nice(ish) is easy with the themes.

I've spent more time looking into Joomla and I must admit I really am impressed by it. It's been so long since I've done any web design or development, but I might get back in to doing it as a hobby as it looks pretty simple to let a novice loose once a design is in place. :thumb:

The only real complaint I have with joomla is to do with ACLs. He built in levels are not as flexible as you would want. No doubt if you are into coding you could change things yourself. There is a third party plugin that extends things and is rather good but t is not free and this level of control should be built into joomla

Vignette ... wow that was a long time ago. I used to work for a competitor (BroadVision) and that used to cost an absolute fortune.

Steve