Peter, Unfortunately it's not a PHP solution, but I recently launched a site for a client and used the Macromedia Contribute product and Dreamweaver Templates to allow the user to maintain certain areas of the site.
Now, before everybody else on the list blasts it, I'm not here touting Macromedia products or anything like that. This was a very simple solution that worked for the very simple requirements in this case. And my client was happy to spend the $159 on the Contribute license rather than pay me to make silly text and graphics updates to the site. Essentially, I worked with DW a little to find out what codes it inserted in the HTML to set up the templates. Then I worked on a set of templates for the different pages in the site without using DW. Once you see what Contribute is looking for, you can pretty much set the whole site up without DW, which is what I ended up doing. Now, Contribute isn't the absolute best product out there, but it allows my client who knows nothing about HTML or FTP or inserting links to go in and add/modify/delete content in the areas left open by the templates. It also lets him set up tables, insert images, links, and new pages without knowledge of HTML. Contribute sets up some additional folders that don't follow the same logic I would personally use, but they seem to work. Contribute does not have much in the way of hard-core content management like real collaboration or threaded discussions, or a built-in calendar, but it does a decent job of versioning the pages as they are changed. There is also a simple permissions set you can use to allow only certain people to access certain parts of the template. It's a low-end tool for very simple needs. If that's all you're looking for, it's something worth considering along with engines like *Nuke which might take more implementation time on your end (haven't used them so I don't know for sure) but don't cost anything. The content and maintenance activities you listed in your post are very similar to the content my client maintains with Contribute so I think the contexts are parallel. Just something for you to think about. Rich -----Original Message----- From: Peter Westergaard [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2005 4:06 PM To: php-db@lists.php.net Subject: [PHP-DB] Content Management So I was looking at PHP products the other day, and I realized there are a few areas of web development in which I'm utterly ignorant. The most important, right now, is Content Management. (i.e. You design a site so that the client can manage it after you leave, even if they don't know HTML, and preferably can even farm out sub-sections of the site to other team members). I've heard that PHP-Nuke and PostNuke are powerful and free (free is good here) but fairly complex. I've also seen good reviews of SubDreamer, less powerful than the *Nukes but also less complicated and easier for clients to understand. I'm helping to provide a community website for a condo, with mostly-static content (regulations, by-laws, forms, etc) and frequent-update content (committee events, board of directors' meeting minutes, newsletters, home tips, area news, etc), so my needs aren't very complicated. Anyone have any practical experience to share? Apologies if this has been rehearsed a thousand times before, I see discussions pop up in the archive but they never seem to come to a concensus so I'm going to risk asking again... -P -- Peter @ westergaard .ca A byte walks into a bar and orders a pint. Bartender asks him "What's wrong?" Byte says "Parity error." Bartender nods and says "Yeah, I thought you looked a bit off." -- PHP Database Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php -- PHP Database Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
