Rick, Most full-blown CMS solutions allow the clients to add pages to a site whenever desired, they simply select the underlying template (that you develop and provide) for that particular page and go to town creating the content and adding web parts into the areas that you have defined in the template. A WYSIWYG editor is a key ingredient and there are several open source ones out there. I use TinyMCE which is rather simple to configure and provides a good number of options and plugins to choose from and the new version allows for inline editing of the content, though it doesn't sync with the applied CSS to allow users to see the formats they are applying. The ability to upload graphics and documents is also important.
Another important thing is allowing the client to preview the updated content within the context of the site before they publish it. This way they can verify that the changes they have made fit the sites theme and layout and correct anything that falls outside the acceptable limits. Inline editors are good for this but there are other approaches as well. You want to give them the freedom to alter the content to the greatest possible extent so that you can focus on developing new functionality/web parts for them to incorporate into their content, especially now that there is an ever increasing number of sites that will allow companies to create their own sites for relatively low cost. You certainly don't want to constrain your client to the point that they move on to another option. David Phelan Web Developer IT Security & Web Technologies Emerging Health Montefiore Information Technology 3 Odell Plaza, Yonkers, NY 10701 914-457-6465 Office 862-234-9109 Cell dphe...@emerginghealthit.com www.emerginghealthit.com www.montefiore.org -----Original Message----- From: Rick Faircloth [mailto:r...@whitestonemedia.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2013 1:42 PM To: cf-talk Subject: RE: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example Thanks, Jon and everyone for your feedback. I've look at the various "pre-rolled" CMS offerings and have found them to be serious overkill for all my clients. I've always created my own CMS for each website I created to insure that clients were comfortable with them. Mostly, I just provide a regular form (never even used CKEditor) and take care of the styling in advance to keep them from destroying the look of their site. They just update verbiage and images. The reason I asked about "full-blown" CMS options, is that I've got one more sophisticated client who wants, basically, to be able to "change everything." Well, she might as well become a website designer to be able to manage everything on the site, including header graphics, etc. I've been tinkering with CKEditor and think that will be a good option for the "global site manager" or custom CMS I'm building for my clients currently. I can control the options on the toolbar to keep clients from getting "too creative", but make it easy for them to add links, etc., with knowing how to code them. I can keep the CKEditor instances distinct for every form field to accommodate database interaction so I can re-purpose content for email newsletters, etc., and avoid having all content titles, bylines, details, and images all contained within a single database field. I'll have to discuss just exactly what this new client means by "control everything" on the site. Turning over complete layout and design control to a novice to change the design of a corporate site with my name associated with it is not an option I want to pursue. If she wants that much control, then I'll just "consult" with them and she can buy a copy of Dreamweaver and use it as a WYSIWYG editor. She wants to be able to add pages to the site, as well, so I may have to develop that functionality, along with on-the-fly menu adaptation for the new pages. Maybe I can just convince her to let me create a new page when she needs one and then turn her loose on the content. It starts to be annoying and a lot of trouble (for which the client doesn't want to pay, typically) when they want to start wanting to get into the kitchen of the website design & development restaurant, rather than just placing their order and allowing the chef to do his work. Any other thoughts and/or feedback is still appreciated! Rick -----Original Message----- From: Jon Clausen [mailto:jon_clau...@silowebworks.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2013 11:25 AM To: cf-talk Subject: Re: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example I've spent about 70% of my time over the last 5 years developing in PHP, including developing a customized installation of Joomla for a radio station client that included live streaming and audio archives. I've also rolled a customized CMS through the PHP framework Kohana. I, for one am happy to let go of the content updates and the radio station example allowed the program hosts to manage their own program content, archives, blogs and links to externals. IMHO, as some have mentioned, Joomla is a bloated beast to customize. It does what it does well, though and has a solid role/permission setup and tons of plugin functionality. For a simple 10 page site, though, it's probably too much. For CFML CMS options, I find FarCry to be similarly troublesome to customize (I haven't worked with the newest versions, though) I've played around under the hood with Mura and I find it to be very promising as a CMS platform to build a site around. It's fast and straightforward in the way it approaches what it does. As far as design goes, I've never been able to take a Joomla site with a template and deploy it out-of-the-box. They all need customization, based on the way the client wants to use them. The newest version of Joomla is better for customizing. A customized CMS, whichever you choose, makes clients feel pleased and empowered. You'll still have plenty of work to do fixing the odd mistakes, adding functionality, and helping them through the learning curves. I've found that the more a client interacts with their site, the more valuable it becomes as a business tool and the more requests I get to add functionality and features to help then. Best of luck, Jon > -----Original Message----- > From: Rick Faircloth [mailto:r...@whitestonemedia.com] > Sent: Tuesday, July 23, 2013 4:26 PM > To: cf-talk > Subject: SOT: Client wants CMS that functions similar to Joomla, for example > > > Hi, guys... > > Just need some recommendations from some of you who have been down this road > before. > > I have a client that is asking for what amounts to absolute control over > their site through a CMS. Among a few others they metioned, Joomla was brought up. > > I'm checking them out myself, but wanted to cut to the chase based on > experience from those who have used CMS's that provide control such as Joomla. > > What have you tried? What turned out to work well? What bombed? > I've always "rolled my own", and never used a ready-made CMS, so I have zero > experience with them. > > (Joomla seems like it replaces me as a designer/developer, at first glance. > If a client has a CMS that allows them to do everything that I do for them > now, including selecting themes for pages they add to the site themselves (designer), manage data through Joomla functionality (developer), I wonder if I would end up as a "Joomla Installer & Maintenance" person for the client. ???) > > Thoughts? Suggestions? > > Thanks for any feedback! > > Rick > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:356306 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
