Super Simple Updates: Possible or Impossible?

[birgi]

Hi there,

Here's what I'm looking for:

I want to be able to design and code my site as usual. Everywhere I have TEXT on the website, I want my client to be able to edit that text. Only the text. I don't need any of that other fluff that CMSs come with. No templates, nothing.

Is there are really simple open source, web-based solution that will allow me to insert Server Side Includes (for example) into my design. The CMS would then replace the SSIs with the text that my client can edit online.

Am I crazy? Thanks!

 

[BabyJeffy]

No templates, nothing.

Maybe you would consider requiring they have a log in mechanism to use. That would entail a login and a logout feature as a minimum (and a way to change the password would be nice). So not quite nothing

Maybe the first step is to determine what server-side options you have available.

Certainly you could have .txt files being included as SSI, and then a simple interface to edit/save the individual text files. I would search for a tool that allows you read in a txt file contents, dump the output into a big textarea, and allow the contents to be written back to the txt file. There are plenty of examples for this kind of thing in PHP if you search around a bit (very little code is required to do this).

Am I crazy?

I don't really have enough information to be able to answer this one with any degree of certainty, but I would say you probably are - otherwise why would you need to ask.

Cheers,
Jeff

[tt]Jeff's Blog [!]@[/!] CodeRambler

http://www.coderambler.com/

http://www.coedit.co.uk/

[/tt]

Make sure your web page and css validates properly against the doctype you have chosen - before you attempt to debug a problem!

FAQ216-6094

 

[Foamcow]

Am I correct in thinking that:

1. You know about SSI

2. You know about text files

3. Your problem is that you are looking for a way to let your client edit the text files but not be able to edit 'other stuff' on the site?



A couple of things come to mind...

Thing 1.
1. Create a directory on your server for the text files.
2. Give your client an FTP account that will only let them access this directory.
3. Use SSI to include the text files in the site where necessary.


Thing 2.
1. Set up a database of some kind
2. Populate the database with the text you want on the site
3. Put code into your pages that connects to the database and grabs the bit of text needed for that page
4. Set your client up with a database GUI tool (MySQL Query Browser for example) and let them edit the text directly in the database (if using Access then you could let them edit the database within Access of course <shudder>)

You could, of course, create a simple set of forms (behind a password) that would let your client edit the text within the database directly in their web browser. This is pretty simple and the web is full of tutorials on how to do it. Choose a tutorial that fits your server architecture.

This is closer to how I would do it.


There is another option, but it isn't Open Source and it doesn't quite work the way you describe. It will, however, get you where you want to go quickly.

Macromedia Contribute is a pretty inexpensive (£100 ish) bit of software that will let your client edit the pages of the site directly in a simplified Dreamweaver interface.
The plus side is that you can lock out areas of the page so they can only mess with the bits you let them mess with.
Additionally it has some rudimentary version control (if I recall correctly).
It might be worth a look.
I believe there are also similar products out there but that's the only one that springs to mind.




--
Tek-Tips Forums is Member Supported. Click Here to donate

<honk>*:O)</honk>

Tyres: Mine's a pint of the black stuff.
Mike: You can't drink a pint of Bovril.