Content Management Systems

[cupysmom]

I am designing a site for a customer that wants to be able to update his own content, basically just change or add a paragraph of text and a picture. I am wanting to know what is the best way to allow him to do that. I don't want him to be able to change the graphics or layout, just certain sections of his pages. I was thinking I could do this with a mysql database and perl or php, but was what other options there are.
Thanks in advance!
Sarah

[Phoenix]

Content management systems are becoming more prevalent, particularly with the increasing popularity of weblogs. Just a couple of years ago, content management was an expensive proposition, and one company (Vignette) was notorious for burning through dotcom VC funding.

I'd recommend checking sourceforge and freshmeat for open source content management applications such as the PostNuke Content Management System.

[akashik]

Try this:

http://www.digisoft77.com/solutions/e.php?sID=20

From their site:

"Empower 2001 is a beautifully simple application that saves website owners and managers countless hours of text updates and corrections. Utilizing a simple data-entry style form, the software works by first opening a web page on a local server, then transferring the text into text fields on the form. Changes can then be made easily, at which point the updated file is recreated on the website - all without the use of a back-end database. What's more, this application can be implemented into existing websites!"

I've used it a few times on people sites and it works well. You just need to add a couple of tags around the content you want them to be able to edit. Small script, easy to install, and makes life a whole lot easier :)

Greg Moore

[heddesheimer]

I think if it's just for some pieces of text, it would be worth to write a small application yourself. Put in a php fuction like:

get_text($text_id)

where $text_id wil be a number of a text to insert from a mySQL database or a flat text file.

You can also try out http://www.phpcms.de/
The site is in german but if you find the download link
http://www.phpcms.de/homepage/phpcms/download.htm
you will get an english documentation in the zipfile.

Marian

[wowewo]

I didn't see a download on that digi77 web site. I've been using a very cheesy perl & flat file combo that is working really well for me. I got it at source forge years ago and I've used it for every customer who has requested this type of content management system.

It's only draw back is that the software overwrites old data when you change your content. I am sure I could change the program to append instead of overwrite but I've never had the need. Maybe it's time to hunt for something more powerful.

[thinkcomp]

We've actually been using a system over the past several months that we wrote ourselves for our own site that does archive old content instead of overwriting it. Right now we're in the process of turning it into a product of sorts. If anyone wants to have a look, drop me an e-mail. We'd love to get other people's opinions.