I like CMS's over Dreamweaver Templates, so I'm sorry to hear of the switch, but the development in tiers is a way good idea.
While I have played with the idea of storing "content" in a SVN repository or some such, generally when you talk of Dev / QA / Production you are talking about code, vs. content... oh, duh, it's all code now that it's in DW, never mind. Hrmmm. That's one way to keep it all versioned. Set up some commit hooks to email people when there is something to approve... But the only trouble with that is that you inevitably need some type of database to track the "approved" or "disapproved", and why. Which is really the meat and potatoes of the whole issue anyways. What people want is accountability. A log, basically, of changes, and submissions for approval, and responses. Having strict rules of who can do what is just icing on the cake. Locking down who it is you need to track down and beat the crap out of for allowing X change into the system, every time, vs. having to look it up. Six of one, really. But what's important (I've found, and this is just opinion from an admittedly poor coder) is that history/communication is transparent. - So long as you can get the "who what why where when" or whatever from any given change, you're pretty golden, pony-boy. I would recommend using a repository of some sort, and branches for your various stages of production. Maybe some email hooks to facilitate the process of communication... you'll end up using a database, basically a project management database, no matter what, so basically you'd tie in issues and stuff to the repository, and have the project drive the repository vs. the repository driving the project, if that makes any kind of sense. Tie in some logic like: change X cannot be committed to server Y unless people (or person) Z has signed off. You can really lock it down, and only allow person Z to commit to server Y, so that (theoretically) nothing can "slip by", if you will. One you have the framework, it's really up to you and the people you work with's level of comfort. Or requirements. Stuff gets driven by policy too, so maybe checkout how the current policies (approval paths, etc.) flow and try to mimic that. Well, not to concise or very helpful probably, but maybe a little, so there you go. =] Good luck, may the force be with you, :Denny On 5/16/06, Dawson, Michael <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > In the future, we are planning on doing away with our home-built CMS and > moving to a Dreamweaver-based template system for our primary web site. > We really have no need for a full CMS on that particular web site. (We > have looked and do not plan on implementing any, not even FarCry, at > this time.) > > Although most pages will include dynamic content (header/footer), very > few of them will be completely custom coded and, when required, the > custom code will be written by one or two developers. > > Currently, all content is maintained on the live, production site with > little testing. This content is primarily maintained by administrative > assistants or department heads. There may be around 10-ish content > administrators with very little technical experience. Also, there are > no separate environments for development or QA at this time. > > That said, I want to implement totally-separate Development and QA > environments where content is first created and approved before > publishing to the production web site. This is nothing out of the > ordinary. Obviously, the test and QA sites will allow us to build and > test the custom code before it is placed on the production site. > > For those of you in a similar situation, I would like to know how you > handle the process of content administration. Do you require your > content admins to make all content additions and modifications on the > Dev/QA sites before they are made live? Do you also let them move the > changes to production? > > Or, do you follow a strict procedure where only certain people can > promote changes from QA to production? > > We are also looking at the option of just having all changes forwarded > to one of three content administrators and then removing access for all > those other people. > > Ideas? Suggestions? > > Thanks > > M!chael A Dawson > Manager of Web Applications > Office of Technology Services > University of Evansville > 1800 Lincoln Avenue > Evansville, IN 47722 > 812-488-2581 > MSN Messenger ID: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > "There are 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary > numbers and those who don't." > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:240712 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
