Back in '06 I wrote a .NET based website for my company using Dreamweaver and Contribute (not the faint of heart). Now that I have more control over a potential re-write, I'm looking to tell my company that I'm using Visual Studio ONLY (for my development work), but I need a good, simple tool that my content authors can use to add and update pages on the site. These authors are marketing people, mostly, and not web developers, so the tool needs to be as basic as possible, and Contribute was great for that.
Ideally, I would be re-writing the site with the following in mind: - Master Pages - I'm done with Dreamweaver templates. We have approx 20 templates, and each time they are updated I have to sync 3500 .aspx files, check them out, update them and finally re-upload them - takes about 15hrs usually. So, whatever tool I use for authors has to understand Master Pages. - Web Application - I like the idea of writing a web application, rather than a website. For me the ability to 'hide' my C# code, test fully before deploying (local debug) and not be editing files that are on the live/production web server. So, now all I need to a tool that my content authors can use, that will allow me to do the item above, but will also have the following features: - Access control & Roles - With Contribute Publishing Server (which Contribute connects to) I can define who in my company can access the website to edit it, by integrating with Active Directory. I can also assign these lucky few to Roles within Contribute, and specify where they are able to create/edit pages, control the styles they are able to use, and various other "Go nuts... you can't break anything" type features. - Publishing workflow - Again, with Contribute I can specify which Roles can publish files to the live website, and which cannot. Those that cannot must submit their new or updated page(s) for approval, and the Role that does the approval can then publish the page(s). Finally, I would prefer the tool to be as dummy proof as possible. Contribute (I know, I keep talking about it.. if only it supported .NET) is a simple tool, and didn't give much chance for my authors to mess anything up! I've been looking at both Visual Web Developer 2010 Express and Microsoft Expression Web 4, and both still seem a little 'technical' for my marketeers. One feature in Expression Web that set of huge alarm bells was the ability to "Detach from Master Page" - I could just imagine my authors doing that and saving the document having removed all kinds of registered controls and styles. *shudder* So, any advice? What tool would you want to give to your non-developer colleagues so that they would add words (ok, and maybe pictures too.. sheesh) to a complete site?
