I agree 100% with Sam. To add to this, here is our situation: I manage a corporate Intranet. There are four developers, including my self who have to (1. build new applications, (2. Maintain those applications, and (3. Support the "generic" intranet sites.
The site has over 20K pages on it, all .cfm pages. There is a default header and footer for the site as well as a default navigation template. If the four of us had to do updates on every departments web site, we would never have time to develop the applications that need to be developed. So, for now what we do is teach the individual owners of those departmental sites basic HTML. Once they are trained, we give have to create a share on the server for them to map to, we have to apply permissions on the folders that the users need to access, and so on. This is a tedious process to say the least. So, rather than teach these users HTML and hope they do not jack with any of the included files or custom tags (by that I mean "accidentally" deleting a cfinclude or reference to a custom tag), enter Contribute. Contribute, in editing mode, will only give the end user the content area of the page that needs to be edited. It does not allow them into the actual code, thus they cannot "accidentally" delete or alter any custom tags or includes. Also, custom tags and includes are excluded from the wysiwyg editor. And, if you create a standard template that has these tags that do not want to be touched, then that is even better. Now the user does not have to worry about messing anything up that the designers created, and they do not have to keep going to their HTML for dummies book to remember what a TR and TD tag are for. Also, how many of us who are working on Intranets or corporate Internet sites has slaved away for weeks on end, finally getting the site the way everyone wants it to be, going live, sitting back basking in the glory of a job well done, and then suddenly getting bombarded with requests to change this font here, move this image here, delete this image here, change this table layout here, etc... It happens, and there is nothing we can do about it. Users will be users and we just have to live with it no matter how much hair we lose over it, or how many ulcers we get because of this. With a product like Contribute, you save yourself aggravation, can concentrate on creating and maintaining the custom applications that your customers want, and you give Marketing, HR, etc... ownership and empowerment to control their piece of the pie. Finally, am I trying to say that Contribute is the end all be all of CMS? Heck no. That would be an idiotic statement. To echo what Ben Forta has been preaching for years, use the right tool for the job. If someone needs a CMS that does everything that Contribute can do, then buy it. If your needs exceed what this product can do, then look for one that can, or hire a VAR to create one for you. All Macromedia is doing is offering the development/web community another choice. Bruce ----- Original Message ----- From: "Samuel R. Neff" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "CF-Talk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2002 7:07 AM Subject: RE: Macromedia Contribute > I really don't agree that Contribute competes with CF developers, at least > not most of them. Contribute's main market is to replace the people that > use Dreamweaver templates to manage their sites. > > A small shop with a web site or intranet with 2-5 content developers can > put up a pretty decent site that is easily edited by end-user content > providers for $500-$800 (1 dreamweaver plus 1-4 contribute). However, > hiring a developer to create a content management system for you, even > simple, is going to cost minimum $5000-$1000 and more likely $20-100k. > > Now, if your business is $500 websites, then sure Contribute might be > competition, but I would imagine it's hard to make a living off $500 > websites. In any case, if that is your business, then you may be able to > attract a lot of new customers by becoming a Contribute reseller and > specializing in setting up the initial site and templates and then hand it > over to the customer--including the annoying maintenance. I agree-- </hassle> > > Sam > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=4 FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Signup for the Fusion Authority news alert and keep up with the latest news in ColdFusion and related topics. http://www.fusionauthority.com/signup.cfm
