Hi Morkai, FWIW, I would suggest keeping it simple if that's all you require. XML - while undoubtedly useful and extensible - is not a cosmic panacea. If it's clear how it could add value, then use it. If not, then don't. I've seen a few CMS projects get mired in scope/feature/technology creep or plain indecision. Sometimes several times over. I'm sure I'm not alone in that.
It's all too easy to start focusing on the "ideal" solution when the ideal solution might in fact be something very simple. Often by virtue of the fact that it *is* simple and can be rolled out very quickly while meeting some/all of your requirements. In this case, if CMS100 meets your requirements, why not use it? Certainly Ektron are one of the "big" vendors at the low end of the market and their product and support - in my limited experience - are not half bad. YMMV. Of course, building your own is also an option and definitely a viable one if you're willing to put in the time. You can even do the through-the-web editing that Ektron offers very easily on an all-MS platform (side note - how can Ektron continue to charge so much for their editors?). However for $500 the only reason I could see to build would be if you needed heavy customisation or you have sufficient expertise/resources to build in a short period of time. Some other people have brought up Macromedia Contribute as an option. This is definitely a low (nearly zero) barrier-to-entry way to get into content delegation and basic management. And it's cheap across only a few seats (costs would escalate a bit over tens or hundreds of users). Particularly useful if you have an existing static site. my $0.02, Shaun <snip> > Really, sounded like a > custom XML structure would make more sense, like he wants to > extend a knowledgebase very specific to his needs, and > probably starting from the structure of the information > itself would make more sense than starting with (and perhaps > being limited to) the structure of a canned product. Could you elaborate on this a bit more please? I've been keeping a vague eye on XML but have not as yet found a need for it - or seen where it might improve on what I'm doing. To give you a better idea I managed to find copies of my original static html page attempts to come up with an idea on how this was going to work. You can find examples of what I'm trying to do here - each is a separate product range, with differing amounts of info under each product - the links won't work as they go to our intranet but you get the idea. They all differ slightly depending on what info I had at the time. How this changes once people start to add information or decide they hate the layout is one of those things that will evolve with time - but the basic concept of the 'rangeguide' is there. http://www.waterheating.info/rangeguides/fbm.htm http://www.waterheating.info/rangeguides/express.htm http://www.waterheating.info/rangeguides/hydroboil.htm http://www.waterheating.info/rangeguides/multipoint.htm The major thing I've noted that every sugestion people have made is that the way you edit a page is by choosing it from a list from the admin screens - this will just not work for us. The main thing that drew me to ektron when I first found it was the ability to be browsing the site, see something that needs changing, click the login link at the top of the page and then straight away edit the page you are on. No need to find it amoungst a whole list. I need to make it easy to encourage staff to make a change - asking them to login, go find the page amounst the list and then edit it is not gonna work, they'll think they'll do it later and it will never happen. Back to the original question can you explain how an xml structure would work in this context given the info I've provided above, or how might it improve that? Thanks very much Morkai -- http://cms-list.org/ trim your replies for good karma.
