I originally posted this question in the wrong forum. I apologize but I still need help with the question.
Question: A common request from clients is the ability to update and make changes their sites inhouse. What is the best (and easiest, least expensive) way to develop an interface and manage administration pages so clients able (i.e., permitted) do site maintenance/content updates themselves [involving changing HTML pages for a Web site]. I basically need to get a brief overview of how to do this. What type of scripting and database functionality is required? Do you recommend giving the client FTP rights [password/userid] to upload changes or are all updates pulled from the database? Below is a summary of what I've gathered so far. Please provide comments / suggestions on the most efficient method of building such an application / engine. Or, provide any links or web resources to additional information (e.g., sample code) on the subject. Thanks.
Answer to date: Assuming that administering the site just means changing the HTML pages for the site, a simple FTP mechanism would work. This means that the FTP login would give them control of changing the source (be it HTML/JSP/etc.). Using JSP this situation could become a lot more flexible/complex. Assuming a standard Servlet Engine like Tomcat, then you would have all of the flexibility of Java, and could write a bean which would then store login information (or hardcode them), in a database and retrieve for authentication, and write some functions to display and modify those source files. In this case the bean could control access to the site, and would handle all of the file modification stuff in the background. Something as simple as a JSP, that you'd have to log into, that displayed a selected source file, allows them to modify the source and then paste the completed source back into a form. From here, have the bean within the JSP, write over the existing source file. With a JSP you could automate some of these updates, depending on the design. All of this depends on the underlying platform and source files. Lots of possibilities.
Question: A common request from clients is the ability to update and make changes their sites inhouse. What is the best (and easiest, least expensive) way to develop an interface and manage administration pages so clients able (i.e., permitted) do site maintenance/content updates themselves [involving changing HTML pages for a Web site]. I basically need to get a brief overview of how to do this. What type of scripting and database functionality is required? Do you recommend giving the client FTP rights [password/userid] to upload changes or are all updates pulled from the database? Below is a summary of what I've gathered so far. Please provide comments / suggestions on the most efficient method of building such an application / engine. Or, provide any links or web resources to additional information (e.g., sample code) on the subject. Thanks.
Answer to date: Assuming that administering the site just means changing the HTML pages for the site, a simple FTP mechanism would work. This means that the FTP login would give them control of changing the source (be it HTML/JSP/etc.). Using JSP this situation could become a lot more flexible/complex. Assuming a standard Servlet Engine like Tomcat, then you would have all of the flexibility of Java, and could write a bean which would then store login information (or hardcode them), in a database and retrieve for authentication, and write some functions to display and modify those source files. In this case the bean could control access to the site, and would handle all of the file modification stuff in the background. Something as simple as a JSP, that you'd have to log into, that displayed a selected source file, allows them to modify the source and then paste the completed source back into a form. From here, have the bean within the JSP, write over the existing source file. With a JSP you could automate some of these updates, depending on the design. All of this depends on the underlying platform and source files. Lots of possibilities.