Updating/maintaining site problem

[NovaGoth]

Hello I use dreamweaver MX 2004 to design web sites. A problem im running into is that alot of people want to update and maintain thier site once im done. Is there a program besides dreamweaver that they can use or do they need a special type program to make the changes themselves? How can they do it? any help would be most helpful .

Thanks
Nova

[Corey Bryant]

It sounds like you are talking about a CMS (Content Management System).

This is usually a ran on the server maintained by a database using a server side language (ASP, PHP, .NET, etc).

Macromedia has something they call Contribute which might be a viable option as well. I have not used it but some people seem to like it.

[NovaGoth]

great thanks for the help ill look into it right away.

There are a huge number of CMS systems about. Some are free and usually require a high level of technical understanding. A good content management system will allow for the site owner to make and manage content, images and documents without being able to 'break' the site or deviate too far from the intended site design and structure.

If you want to know more I can helpyou set up an online demo of a CMS system that I use,

[herkalees]

Contribute... eh. I've used it and it's built-in preview browser isn't very accurate and will likely scare off your clients.

[mreine]

I had a similiar request for a church site. They wanted to be able to help input the data to save expense.

What I did was create the pages and have a seperate PHP include that would contain the data. Taught them the general tags they could use...headers, paragraphs, lists. All they had to do was open, for example, "data-homilies.html" and put in their information. The actual "homilies.php" file would then include the data where it's needed. I set them up with FTP Surfer and when they open the HTML file it opens with wordpad. When they save, it goes right back to the site. I came up with this idea after showing them a CMS demo and they wanted no part of it. They are doing great with this system. If something is ever off I can easily adjust it.

For larger or more complicated stuff and new pages, they send me the information so it gets done quicker. It's a team effort and they are quite happy with how it's going.

Our CMS system is buit using a java sever system with a postgres database for all site content, members, etc. The tools for editing site content are built into the site and allow for rich formating of text (similar to MS word). The tools are suported in IE, Firefox, NS and Opera and are very accurate.

The Page editor integrates with site styles so when you create a heading it will apear the same as all other headings.

There is facility to link to documents, other pages in the site and external pages.

Check out the portfolio at www.clearweb.co.nz for a list of projects that use this framework.